By Ella Mastroianni, Staff Writer
This past October, Katie Gavin—one-third of the pop band, MUNA—released her debut solo album What A Relief. The record is acoustic and folk-y, and on December 14th, she brought the album to Brighton Music Hall. It was the loveliest thing to be able to catch her on the road, especially because Katie Gavin crafted a new experience for people who know the album back to front and back again.
A Bold Beginning
In Bostonian fashion, I arrived slightly late to Katie Gavin’s show—kudos to the green line—and the venue’s line wrapped around the street corner—kudos to the sold-out show. Upon entering the venue, the opener—Amsterdam-based Nana Adjoa—already had the audience’s full attention. The crowd’s energy was loose under her soothing vocals and accompanied by her guitar playing; for them, Nana’s sound was addictive. She even had Katie come onstage early to perform a song with her, but thankfully, that wasn’t the last the audience saw of Nana, as she joined Katie onstage for the whole show—playing guitar, keys, and she sang some more too.
The stage decoration made the space especially peaceful, with a Himalayan salt lamp on a table on the right side of the stage, and a cluster of fake candles on the left. The room was dark, save for pink lighting around the instruments, and the smell of incense carried through the space, as the show started.
Blast We’re Havin’ with Katie Gavin
Katie walked onto the stage to the song of champions—which everyone knows is “Christmas Eve/ Sarajevo” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. She carried a ceramic strawberry teapot, and she filled up two matching strawberry mugs with (what she later revealed to be) throat coat, while the dramatic instrumentals played over the speakers. “ Thank you for coming tonight,” Katie said. It's gonna be cutie.” And cutie it was.
She began the night with “Today,” but before she started singing she laughed at the amount of photographers in front of the stage. She said there were ten times the usual amount, and the photographers and audience chuckled along. Laughter was a theme of the night, because in between songs, there was a constant conversation between Katie and the crowd. Katie encouraged the audience to literally “heckle” her, with the space being so small and intimate. Also, due to her brain being a “tumbleweed rolling by,” as she stated, so she needed prompts for things to talk about. At this show, people could yell out questions or comments. “It's nice because this tour, I'm able to like, hear everybody really easily, and you know, just talk to people.”
So, in between playing all of the songs off of her debut album (yes, all of them!), the room chatted it up. The audience sang every song too, but Katie threw a new one on the setlist. In addition to the twelve tracks from her album, she played an unreleased song called “She Gives Me Feelings,” which the audience adored (and it seemed promising that it would be released at some point). Additionally, even the familiar tracks had a new spin live. For instance, “Casual Drug Use” was played slightly slower than on the album, and for “As Good As it Gets,” Nana beautifully sang the parts sung by Mitski on the record.
During the heckling portion of the night, one person asked if her guitars had names. When Katie revealed that they didn’t, the crowd got to pick a name, and the first one Katie heard was Fiona. “She's giving Fiona,” Katie declared, and from then on, that joke was revisited throughout the night.
Flying Baby Lizards
While onstage, Katie received a heartfelt gift—a plastic baby lizard—before playing “Inconsolable.” It was flung onto the stage and Katie decided to leave it where it landed. She said that artistically, it felt like something that would be in an exhibit that would go unnoticed, but when it was seen it would seem “so authentic.” So, the baby lizard was an audience member for the night, while the audience passionately sang about lizards: “but I've seen baby lizards running in the river when they open their eyes, even though no one taught them how or why.”
There wasn’t a dull moment, because in addition to all the laughter and general buzz of the crowd, Katie and Nana were all over the stage, switching instruments and swapping seats. For “Sanitized,” Katie sat to play the keyboard, and her quip for that song was that it was inspired by the comp-het of it all. “This is for the girlies that struggle with that,” Katie said. “Wishing you strength and sanity.” Later, before “The Baton,” Katie whipped out a violin (or fiddle, depending on who you ask), and she got to work tuning it. As she tuned, everyone cheered and shouted words of encouragement. She said it was hilarious how supportive the crowd was for her when she was just tuning. The audience got a good laugh out of that moment, and when “The Baton,” officially began, they clapped along.
Katie expressed her gratitude multiple times throughout the night, saying how lucky she was to get to play these songs for everyone. There was a bit of sentimentality when she said that these arrangements wouldn’t be played again, but the room lifted up when she revealed why. “I need to write the MUNA record,” Katie said. “This has been amazing, but I have to lock in.” So of course, she had the room in laughter, as she often did.
While this was technically Katie’s second time playing at Brighton Music Hall, this was her first time playing there solo. From “Sparrow," to “Sweet Abby Girl,” to “Sketches,” the crowd was (in Katie’s terms) “locked in.” There was no doubting that this show was a once in a lifetime experience, and it came with one hell of an “Aftertaste.”
