Live Music Review // Ian Schlein / Lady Queen Paradise / The Knife Kickers @ Little Lost Records, Stafford Springs, CT, July 6th, 2024
When The Knife Kickers posted flyers for their upcoming shows on Instagram and I saw this show listed with Lady Queen Paradise I was surprised I hadn't heard about it before then. The fact that Lady Queen Paradise was coming from Seattle to Connecticut felt like a big deal and one of these "people" who constantly send me emails about shows in my "area"- such as Spotify, Eventbrite, Songkick, etc- should've been all over this.
The only thing I know about Stafford Springs is that it's fairly close to the MA border. Quentin and I made the drive up there and everything about the downtown area just felt so wholesome. We found a parking lot to park in but there's also street parking and many people would just park for long enough to get some ice cream from the local ice cream shop, then they'd be back on their way.
Little Lost Records is the type of space you should check out even if you aren't going there for a show. They have a lot of records, many marked down in price, and also a selection of CDs, cassettes and even books! I was surprised by how many cassettes they had for sale and how they were displayed, but then I also saw Neonach and knew this was the type of place I'd like to browse for music.
While the store has bins on the sides they also have these pieces in the middle which hold items for sale, but they roll out of the way so that the space becomes more open for when there is a show. This is such a nice set up because I thought people would be leaning around shelves and the such to try and see who was playing music, but the chairs came out and the space was transformed.
The Knife Kickers were up first but it was a solo acoustic set, as was the theme of the night, so I was joking that it was really The Knife Kicker. This was a good way to start the show off and as The Knife Kickers are generally an electric band with more members, this was a good chance to experience them in a different way if you'd seen them live before. I've actually never seen The Knife Kickers live before, so this will likely be a nice way to evolve from that softer acoustic sound to the louder, full band.
Lady Queen Paradise was up second and I feel like lately- for the past year or so- I've really been on this kick where I listen to music which is heavily influenced by the vocals. This is apparent in both artists I feel are connected- Abigail Lapell and Camp Saint Helene- and it is also shown in Lady Queen Paradise. After the first song it was decided that a microphone was not needed and that just goes to show how powerful a voice can be.
When you strip down music to an acoustic guitar- which was what everyone had on this night- much of it can come out sounding similar. I know that the guitar itself makes a difference and there are things such as tuning, but everyone is still sort of playing the same instrument and so it's going to be your voice that really carries you. I'd imagine people walking by outside would be lured in by the voice of Lady Queen Paradise because there is just that way about the entire sound.
Ian Schlein, who has been making music since the 1980's, was the headliner. From Musical Chairs to The Aspersion, Ian Schlein played songs that had that pop rock n roll feel to them, somewhat like Buddy Holly but somewhat also like The Posies. Songs like "Can't Ever" had that Daniel Johnston way about them, as the title is in the chorus and is a lot of basis for the song.
One thing that Ian Schlein did that no one else did on this night was play an instrumental song, which was actually a lot of fun. I thought a lot about (and typed about it in here) how the vocals were the big focus of this show, but to play an instrumental song that just took that all to a different level. Everyone brought something different to their set, but everyone is the type of artist you would go out of your way to see on a different show, so this definitely felt like such a special night.
Comments
Post a Comment