Its the rarest thing for me to catch KY on tour. I cannot believe my good fortune for seeing her twice in one year, touring for her latest and The Knife Shift that has the controversial Pearl Of A Girl. Apparently, the track has pissed off more than a few bloody Christians that get mad at the wrong thing. They miss the whole fucking point. Instead of being angry at the one that oppresses, they get made at the oppressed who points it out. The track just brilliantly goes on about how oppressive the major religions especially Christianity are. The video for it has her walking around her decaying St. Louis with other women and a little girl. Its power driven piano rock. Barely now am I reading lyrics. I let the music take its time to arrange itself in my head. This time she toured with Fea. I am less familiar with them. Well....I know them by way of Girl In A Coma. Some from Fea are from that other band. This was my first time seeing them and I came home a fan as well, and I feel grateful to them for bringing Ms Kristeen with them. And for a while that reassured me that KY would see a larger audience as a result. The churning mosh pit engine that is Fea brought with them KY, a good disciplined balance to their punk abrasion. I was in the pit and I was hopeful I was going to see these faces later.....the fans of Fea....well, truth be told, for a while I was under the mistaken impression that Ms Kristeen had already performed. That kinda hurt and then I see her near the merch table, and I finally buy the shirt from her. I can hear Fea since the stairs. At that moment I assumed her set was over. There was no anticipation that I could read on her face in those few seconds in seeing her as I buy this fucking shirt with her name on it. And then I withdrew and followed the storm that was Fea.
It was my first time seeing them and they were great. I mean they had guys and girls bouncing around in this mosh pit. And it struck me how awesome Fea is for invoking that urge equally between men and women. How many fans of both bands were there. How many of these people for Fea going to stay for Kristeen Young as the headliner. They are so vastly different animals. Fea is a band I fiercely support, I mean on the social crit.....I'm a fan of Fea from all angles, yet I am far more familiar with Ms Kristeen.
So, for a good chunk of that time I was assuming that I had missed KY and having let that go, made it easier to enjoy and bounce around to Fea. Took me back to seeing spanish rock bands in the 90's in some ways, like Tijuana No. Social criticism, like Tijuana No, and Fea's fierce, volatile delivery, has people deliberately crash into each other. Along the way I met someone that also came to see Ms KY. I was glad to have that! It was clear that crowd went to see Fea and I was hopeful that from here there will be another fan of Kristeen Young. And I found one. There were indeed a few people, but it was the same story as with Elbo Room, only The Fizz is bigger. When I found out he told me that Kristeen Young was next it was like taking a wooden roller coaster from down here to up there again.
It was hot up in that stage and you can just see it on both performers. It just seemed suffocating. And right through that they are brilliant and I want to see Fea again. And they drew a huge crowd, enthusiastic, and I wished they stayed to see Ms Kristeen. This crowd that was bouncing around crashing into one another. Most disappeared...and it left me and this new friend in awe of Kristeen Young. The stage was hot and in between songs that is what I recall her comments. You can see the sweat on her face, exhaust and effort. She soldiered on and mostly played from her newest work. This show took its toll on her and she still performed great. She took a chance on Chicago and again the crowd was small. But these are not small shows for me. These are extremely significant. I'll barely recall that this is the year of the Blackhawks. They won the Stanley Cup. That's background noise for me. I got to see Kristeen Young both times she played Chicago in 2015, so I cannot allow for them to fade from memory. Writing about it just relieves me from wanting to talk about them all the time. Thank you Kristeen Young for coming back.
Zig
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