[ATTENDED: December 14, 2018] Small Mess
I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to this show. I was a little burnt out and it was a Friday night. But I do love going to shows in Bethlehem and I was supposed to have seen Slingshot Dakota back in 2016, so I decided to go.
And I am so glad I did! I only wish I had brought my daughter with me because this night’s event was a benefit for Lehigh Valley Girl Rock.
Lehigh Valley Girls Rock is dedicated to empowering girls and women + trans and nonbinary folks through music and art
We build self-confidence and foster a sense of belonging.
We nurture an inclusive, supportive environment.
We connect people who then develop meaningful friendships.
We inspire community involvement.
We teach acceptance.
Becca the singer and guitarist for Small Mess is a major advocate of LVGR and is (if I remember correctly) a former student in the program.
Small Mess is a trio of Becca, Jordan (drums) & Mitch (guitar). They play smart alternapop–Mitch and Becca both play guitar, with Mitch playing wonderfully complicated guitar patterns that work really well with Becca’s main chord patterns, like on “Out the Window.”
There’s no special solo sections in the songs, but many of the songs have sections where one of the guitarists played a kind of solo while Becca is still singing. This keeps all of their songs short (most are around 2 minutes long). I also liked that some of the songs included a heavy rocking section.
Becca’s lyrics are pointed and thoughtful and her voice is mostly subdued, but she does wail from time to time which adds a nice touch.
Also nice was that the band had a lot of local support both from the LVGR community and from everyone there.
Small Mess have about ten songs on their bandcamp site. I’m sure they played all of them, and maybe a few new ones as well. By the end of their set I was hooked and grabbed a copy of their cassette.
Becca was super friendly and certainly inspiring to the girls in attendance.
Becca said she has a second band as well, although I can’t remember what they were called (and since she doesn’t give her last name, that makes it hard to look her up).
Small Mess are a great indie band and I look forward to more music from them.
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