Update: Click the image for photos from the Rilo Kiley show.
It was a wonderful evening at The Grove of Anaheim: lady lead singers with incredible voices and endless musical talents – backed by the boys who love them. Grand Ole Party jolted the evening forward with cutie pie, Kristen Gundred owning the shit out of her drum set and with a killer Karen O-esque voice to boot! Later she would play percussion flawlessly alongside Rilo Kiley for a couple of songs.
The Bird and the Bee created a musical fairytale, complete with a bubble making machine, dissolving to the haunting melody of Inara George’s sensual voice and Greg Kurstin’s magical keyboardin’ fingers. One minute lamenting over the agony of a very, very, very broken heart – then shifting to a straight forward question of, “would you ever be my fucking boyfriend?” With such a charming and loungey sweetness it might take you by surprise (perhaps) to hear the word “fucking” embedded so breathlessly within. Inara was charming between songs, apologizing for being so “slow” but blamed it on the fact that she was in Vegas the night before. The throngs of underage indie kids tilted their heads indifferently to one side in bewilderment and maybe Inara realized this when all of her “big kid jokes” fell flat. “I can hear the dust in the wind…” she giggled.
Sigh.
And Rilo Kiley? I’m still in the recovery process! The onstage chemistry of Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett was more than apparent. Cowbells, giant balloons filled with confetti – and um – Dolly Parton?Amazing performers who dazzled everyone with songs from their fourth album, Under the Blacklight, along with a handful of their classics. Yes sir, Rilo Kiley is enough to make even the indiest of indie kids shift slightly with a feeling of powerful emotion!
“They were like, you know, amazing or whatever.”
“Totally.”
“But like, who is Dolly Parton?”
“I don’t know, man.”
Double sigh…
