Kristeen Young

  Seriously, what is going on with Elbo Room. I was thinking, hmmm, its Kristeen. She will pack them in. I was thinking it can sell out. Elbo Room is such a weird venue. Each time I've been there, very few turn up. Its like a rip in time/space, a warp bubble that can only hold so many peoples awareness. I knew I was entering this warp bubble as I got closer to the venue, it just feels isolated. It's a very under used venue, a hidden spot in the open on Lincoln Ave which is normally so fucking busy. Chloe Day I saw once on a Wednesday 26th December. A handful of people saw her. Pezzettino, the same. Only about five or six. And now the same for Kristeen Young, hmm about ten. I was thinking wow! Seriously?! Before her set even starts I rip down a poster for her to sign later. This turned out to be one of those intimate shows you don't see coming. It just feels wrong for Kristeen Young to have that few a crowd. I anticipated more for this. All of us there recognized the rare moment for what it was and took out their camera/phones. I....just had a camera. I think everyone in there bought merch from KY.                    

  She has the open passion of an Argentine tango musician. Plays with that same frenzied pace. She is a rock opera star. Intense as her pictures can barely contain. Her hands land so heavy and fast on the keyboard, like she's blaming them. She does not slow down for you to catch your breath. Tori Amos might slow down for you, like in Choir Girl Hotel , but not Ms Kristeen.  You need to keep up, learn your steps or you just fucked up the audition. Crashed and locked into memory are theatrical and vivid rock expressions. They do not bore. They incite.  I recall her going on back and forth with her drummer, as if waiting for him. These brief fun, genuine exchanges are part of the slowly warping German Expressionist memory of seeing Kristeen Young live a second time, still iconic. And now I have new music to explore.  By now I've had some time to do that.  When I saw her at Empty Bottle I bought the one CD Music For Strippers, Hookers, And The Odd On-Looker. Every song in there steals the stage from next. Each song hits like its the only fucking one, only its all of them. The headliner was Aleks And The Drummer.  After this Elbo Room show I bought what I could. V The Volcanic, and The Knife Shift, but I wanted one of everything. I wanted a shirt.  If I had 100, I would have blown 100.
     For a long time that CD was all that I had and I dared not look beyond it.  Yet it was exactly what I like to hear, a full blown crash of piano rock, intense and smart like a piano driven Miranda Sex Garden.  Slowing down does not mean less intense. It means a longer burn with that branding iron.

  I just could not obsess over one more girl and her keyboard. But Strippers is just too awesome, and I have more than a few CDs of Tori Amos any fucking way.  A lot of what I listen to starts as exactly that and from there they evolve away from each other until they appear as different animals. And with Kristeen there is much to obsess about, or at least read about. There is a lot to inspire an underdog narrative. Once you are a fan, you kind of take her side. I did not look beyond Strippers, for a while. But I did hear it a lot. I just knew and trusted there was something beyond, before, and after. Strippers was just to hold as a reference. More music to obsessively follow. In terms of seeing a live show it was just one time, iconic. The chance comes to see her again, and I jump at it. The urgency at times allowed me to think Elbo Room would sell out. It did not, to my surprise. So, happily now I listen and explore The Knife Shift and V The Volcanic.  Just the names of the songs invite a listen. Jealous of Loved Children, Pictures of Sasha Grey. Everything is Mine Because I'm Poor, Fantastic Failure, these are all great names. And lets not pretend we don't know who Sasha Grey is. Y'all know. Zig.