Real Music Alternatives
Nominated for four awards at this year’s Grammys (including best new artist), Yola is continuing to support her dazzling debut with lots of roadwork. It’s been a year since the Dan Auerbach-produced Walk Through Fire was released, and the force of nature born Yolanda Quartey shows no sign of slowing down. MAGNET photographer Wes Orshoski caught up with Bristol, England’s latest rising star at the Music Hall Of Williamsburg. Read our review of Yola’s Philly show three nights later.
Yola’s dynamic stage presence, lithe voice and the way she seemed to confide in listeners with every song introduction put her firmly in control of the packed World Cafe Live.
She and her perfectly in-step band seemed more like seasoned vets than a still-gelling unit pushing a debut record as they made their way through the soulful songs of Walk Through Fire (especially “I Don’t Wanna Lie,” “Shady Grove” and the title track) and several well-curated covers (most notably, Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and a mash-up of “Big Yellow Taxi” and “The Letter”).
Amythyst Kiah opened with a wonderful mix of blues, roots, folk and rock, including solo work (“Wildebeest”), songs from her great side project Our Native Daughters (“Black Myself,” “Polly Ann’s Hammer”) and a couple of stone-cold classics that sounded fresh in her hands (“Jolene,” “Darling Corey”). She moved fluidly between acoustic guitar and banjo, and though she pitched her voice down a step—at times calling to mind a prophet or a preacher—it sounded like the most natural thing in the world.
—M.J. Fine; photos by Chris Sikich
Courtney Barnett rocked Wilmington, Del.’s The Queen in solo form, diving through her catalog one transcendent chord at a time. She also dipped into covers of Hank Williams and the Lemonheads along the way. One of our great musicians, Barnett is an international treasure, glowing brighter on each passage around the sun.
—words and photos by Chris Sikich
Limbs whipping, hair flipping, Pip Blom sped through a dozen twisty, slippery and chunky indie-rock tunes at Philly’s Kung Fu Necktie that made me believe they grew up in Amsterdam, where Magnapop is rock royalty. (And if that’s not true, I don’t want to know.) Locals Lightninging opened.
—M.J. Fine; photos by Chris Sikich
OK, millennials, that’s not Joaquin Phoenix or Heath Ledger. That’s Keith “Monkey” Warren, frontman of British punk band the Adicts. Forming 45 years ago, Monkey and his fellow droogs have outlasted almost all the competition. The Adicts end their 2020 U.S. tour tonight at the Garden Grove Amphitheater in Garden Grove, Calif.; MAGNET photographer Wes Orshoski caught their fun-filled horror show at the Gramercy Theatre in NYC.
