I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: April 13, 2018] Adult Mom

Adult Mom is a band created by Stephanie Knipe.

I had heard of them, but wasn’t too familiar with them.  I knew that they had released a number of “bedroom recordings” which is unfairly dismissive.

Nevertheless, I wasn’t expecting them to rock out as much as they did.

Because Lucy Dacus was offering two shows this evening, it meant that the opening bands (and Lucy herself) was somewhat truncated for the first show.  So Adult Mom only played for about 20 minutes. 

Knipe’s lyrics were personal and political.  She played an acoustic guitar which occasionally got lost amid the rest of the band.  But they often pulled back enough so that her playing was a constant.

I was pretty surprised at just how almost stomping their songs sounded.  Bassist Bruce Hamilton kept things moving.

But I was really impressed by drummer Liv Battell.   For songs that were not overly complicated, Battell didn’t play a simple bass/tom, 4/4 pattern.  Her kit wasn’t large at all, but she made great use of especially the floor tom, always keeping things interesting (especially from the balcony where I could see what was going on (and wondered all night what her shirt meant)).

The songs were really catchy with undeniable choruses.

For this particular tour they had And the Kids front woman Hannah Mohan playing some great leads to accompany the rocking songs.

I had never watched a show from the Johnny Brenda’s balcony before.  I enjoyed the sound quite a bit and I couldn’t ask for  a better view.  But I didn’t quite feel as engaged as I normally do close to the band on the floor.

I didn’t know that Knipe was genderqueer and it made no difference to anything.  But after seeing Mal Blum I have been pretty pleased with just how many trans, genderqueer and other non-cis performers I’ve been seeing.

Despite the offensiveness of the world and this administration, there is still tolerance in music.  And the future looks promising.