Friday night at the Black Cat, fans were treated to three excellent female-fronted bands that carried echoes of the past but remained uniquely their own thing. It felt like taking a trip back in time to the punk-tinged female acts of the past like Sleater-Kinney or the lo-fi honesty of Liz Phair. This is a sound that has been missing for quite a few years, and to hear it resurface now is certainly welcome.
Cayetana, a three-piece band from Philadelphia, took the stage first. They came out with a handful of speedy garage-punk pop songs to get the audience ready, and in a lot of ways stole the show for the lucky folks who decided to show up early. Featuring some tight playing and one of the best bassists I’ve seen in quite some time, they proved to be an early highlight.
Columbus, Ohio’s All Dogs came next, and they were a great addition to the bill and seemed to fit well with the stylings of the other acts. For a relatively new band, they have a surprising number of great catchy songs. Singer and guitarist Maryn Jones was particularly impressive throughout their set.
Katie Crutchfield came on around 11:30, followed by the rest of Waxahatchee after a trio of stellar solo songs. Had the entire show been similar to her heart-on-sleeve opening, I would deem the whole show an unfailing success, but a few problems reared their head when the full band came out. I find myself returning to these early moments of their set where she opened herself up totally in front of the audience; it was essentially the highlight of the entire night.
I just found that Crutchfield’s voice disappeared and was overtaken by the band, and then we lose a bit of what makes Waxahatchee so special. Cerulean Salt was one of the strongest releases of 2013, and a large part of that has to do with Katie’s intense and personal lyrics, so to lose those to the overwhelming sounds of the band is a bit of a shame. It’s quite possible that this could be due in part to my close proximity to the stage, but the vocals just seemed rather lost in the mix when she wasn’t by herself. I don’t really attribute this to any failing of the band, but perhaps more a fault of the mix or the venue.
That being said, one thing the louder and faster pace of the live performance brought was more of a sense of fun and excitement that you probably wouldn’t normally associate with the album, and despite the aforementioned sound issues, the set was quite enjoyable. Many of the stripped-down elements of the album gave way to a more boisterous garage rock sound that the audience responded to rather well.
Waxahatchee closed the set with a gorgeous version of “Bathtub” that all by itself could make the trip out worth the time. It’s the perfect song to close the show and shows off everything Katie does best: showing us the best and worst of our relationships and doing it in a way that lets us know we’re not alone in all of our blunders, and despite it all, we’re somehow better for it.
ALL DOGS
CAYETANA
