[ATTENDED: March 3, 2023] Sidney Gish
As soon as The Beths announced they were playing Union Transfer, I bought myself a ticket. And then a little while later I bought S. one because I thought she would really enjoy a night out for rocking good natured fun.
I didn’t know the opening bands. There were originally two: Hans Pucket dropped out of the tour. The Beths posted the rather cryptic
Sad news is that @hanspucket unfortunately won’t be joining us this time, we’re gutted about that. But we promise to drag them over another time. So it’ll just be us and the genius Sidney Gish.
I’ve been listening to the Hans Pucket album and it’s really good. Hope they make it over here some time.
Sidney Gish is a singer I’d never heard of, although clearly everyone else in the room had.
She has released two albums (the second one in 2017) and now is about to release a third. What’s she been doing for the last few years? Graduating from Northeastern apparently.
Anyway, it seems that her first two albums were viral sensations (especially her second album No Dogs Allowed). Because everyone was singing along to all of the songs (except the new one).
I really enjoyed her lyrics which were literate and clever. A couple of good lines:
Rat of the City:
I would let solipsists Plug me in the matrix Rest in it, happy to think Not cut out for anything
I Eat Salads Now:
Bitch, I’m wasted, just kidding, I’m high
We’re gonna go to a show, and then come home and probably die
And the whole mispronouncement of words and named of Persephone was a real treat to listen to.
The first thing she played when she came out (and I’m giving no context for this, she explained) was a STRFKR cover. I actually don’t know them either, although I have heard of them. I’d kind of assumed they were a much heavier band, but this song “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second” was super fun and catchy and I liked it and her immediately.
I also absolutely loved that she generated all of her songs by looping her guitar parts and playing some kind of drum machine to keep her going. I enjoyed that she could build a song from loops and then she could sing without having to play anything–unless she wanted to, of course. But this also meant she could add in some really heavy chords and rock out for a few measures when she wasn’t also singing.
Before one of the songs, “Not But for You, Bunny,” I think, she said that the song took about two minutes to build from scratch. So she was going to do her thing for the next two minutes and we were invited to check our phones or talk quietly to our neighbors and she’d be back in two minutes. And, indeed, she spent two minutes adding in all of these intricate guitar parts as the song fleshed out. It was really cool to watch. Part of me thought it would have been very funny if the song itself was only like 30 seconds after all of that, but it was a proper song.
She also played some seriously good guitar solos. She wasn’t shredding or anything, but the solos were really enjoyable.
It’s not often that I’m so captivated by an opening act. But I found her really fun and enjoyable. As well as super talented (even if she did say she was 25 and shouted out to everyone who was 25, which was like half the audience).
I’m going to have to check out her albums too.
- Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second (STRFKR cover)
- Where The Sidewalk Ends ⊗
- Rat of the City ⊗
- I Eat Salads Now ⊗
- Sin Triangle ⊗
- Persephone ⊗
- Filming School §
- Presumably Dead Arm Λ
- Not But For You, Bunny ⊗
§ Filming School (2023)
⊗ No Dogs Allowed (2017)
Λ Ed Buys Houses (2016)
Leave a Reply