[ATTENDED: April 23, 2024] Juana Molina / Madison Cunningham
I have wanted to see Juana Molina for a few years (I was supposed to see her in 2020 but her show was cancelled due to COVID). I’d rather have seen her as a headliner, but this collaborative night sounded like a lot of fun.
And holy cow was it ever.
Madison Cunningham (who is 27) is labelled an Americana singer, but that’s a limiting description. Primarily because, as she told us, she listened to Juana Molina before she listened to The Beatles (and Juana is cooler than all four of them). I didn’t know her music that well, but I love her song “Hospital,” which I think is just fantastic.
Juana Molina’s music is not exactly outrageous, but it is often unexpected. And that has clearly impacted Madison Cunningham’s songwriting, because her songs are anything but verse-chorus-verse folk songs.
The two singers came out on stage and played a 20 minute improv. Juana played a basic intro on the guitar which she then looped. She added drums and keyboard sounds. All the while, Madison was playing guitar solos–nothing fancy and showoffy, just notes here and there, some pretty, some noisy.
They jammed and jammed and just when you thought it was winding down, Juana would shift gears and take it in a different direction. It wound up pretty noisy and harsh.
Enough so that when Madison left the stage for Juana to play her solo songs, Juana felt the need to calm everyone down saying that normally their improvs are more mellow and they lead into the next song very well.
Juana’s first song is from her second album (recently reissued on vinyl), The song is a soft guitar ballad that progresses in different ways–with some quiet synths and then after a brief spoken interlude: “If you see someone else winning, leave them alone” the song built into a mild rocker. It segued into the final song off of Molina’s Wed 21. It’s a quiet song that loops on itself and turned into a trippy psychedelic song by the end with all of the fun synthy sounds Juana threw into it.
Her third song was from the only album I know (Halo). “Estalacticas” is a cool song with a deep guitar riff and then a wild synth melody (thrown over the top). She looped more and more sounds onto it until it filled the room.
Then Madison came out and Juana left. I was blown away by Madison’s guitar playing. She pulled out a small acoustic guitar and played “Broken Harvest,” a song with a massively detailed and complicated guitar melody, with interesting chords and main melody lines. Her voice was also really pretty and impressive.
She was also really funny. When she commented on how quiet the crowd was, someone replied, “we’re in awe.” And Madison was super quick with “My mom say the nicest things.”
She segued into “Pin It Down.” After an improved and jazzy opening, she started playing the complex and almost funky acoustic guitar riff of this song. The song sounded a bit like an Edie Brickell song, but far cooler and much more interesting.
Finally she played “Subtitles,” a simpler song which really showed off how gorgeous her voice is.
It had been about an hour and Madison said t hey were going to take a fifteen minute break.
Then Juana came back out. She played the final song off of Halo, a quiet meditative song that is really pretty. Juana’s voice is also lovely but in a different way–it’s whispery and delicate. That’s even more evident on “Dar (qué difícil)” which has a rocking guitar riff but which she whsipers the words over. She sings almost everything in Spanish. This song jammed out for a while with all of the looping.
Juana left and Madison came back out playing the awesome “Your Hate Could Power a Train,” another song with a really interesting and complicated guitar riff. She was playing a different acoustic guitar for this song. She ended her solo section with the genuinely beautiful “Life According To Raechel.”
Then Juana came back out and they played together for the final few songs.
Up first was Juana’s song Sin dones, a fun weird song from Halo. Madison provided the lead guitar and backing vocals (they sounded great together on the oooh ahhs). Madison doesn’t seem to sing in Spanish. She said she was learning with duolingo and Juana (who was very funny) said “eh…it’s embarrassing actually). In her life before being a musician Juana is in her 60s) she was a famous Argentinian comedian with her own TV show!
They followed it up with Madison’s “All I’ve Ever Known,” another catchy song with a complicated guitar melody. Juana sang along (her English is excellent) and they sounded terrific together.
As they both tuned, Juana started singing the “muted tuning song” and they improved some great lines “we are professional.”
This led to what is probably Juana’s coolest song “Eras” a simple but cool deep guitar riff with some trippy keyboard sounds sprinkled on top. Juana told us that her keyboard died recently and she had to use all of her old sounds–she didn’t always know what was going to come out. It sounded great with the two of them playing together. They rocked the end really hard and Madison broke a string (the first time that’s happened live to her). Juana: “you’re a rock star now.” Madison gave the string to a fan in the front.
They finished up with one more Juana song (and Madison switched to her first acoustic guitar). “Sin guía, no” sounded fantastic, especially at the end, when Madison sang along (in Spanish, I assume).
They left for an encore break and Juana asked for a number and three words. The number was for the sound bank on her keyboard–I don’t know what number she chose, but it sounded cool. The three words were “sugar, door, blue.” Juana started a great sounding marching bassline on the keys and then said she needed Madison to start and finish the loop. It was really funny, especially when Juana told her to press the button “with exactitude.”
Then Juana made up a song about her bus never showing up and she managed to use the words. She had a part about making sugar without tea and she hates that. She looped a fun part where she sang “never never never never picked me up” which became a fun refrain.
The whole show ran to two and a half hours and was just tons of fun. It was clear that the two women respected each other and enjoyed each other’s company. And I have a greater respect for both performers. I would absolutely see Madison Cunningham again (and I’m not even bummed that she didn’t play “Hospital” because the rest of the set was so good.
SETLIST
- 20 minute improv (Juana and Madison)
- Martín Fierro (Juana solo) ≠
- Lo decidí yo (Juana solo) ϖ
- Estalacticas (Juana solo) ∞
- Broken Harvest (Madison solo) ⊗
- Pin It Down (Madison solo) €
- Subtitles (Madison solo) ®
Intermission - Al oeste (Juana solo) ∞
- Dar (qué difícil) (Juana solo) δ
- Your Hate Could Power a Train (Madison solo) ®
- Life According To Raechel (Madison solo) ®
- Sin dones (duet–Juana song) ∞
- All I’ve Ever Known (duet–Madison song) ®
- Muted tuning improv (duet)
- Eras (duet–Juana song) ϖ
- Sin guía, no (duet–Juana song) ϖ
Encore - Improvisation (Juana and Madison) (Juana asked for audience help: audience suggested the words: sugar, door, blue)
JUANA MOLINA-Segundo (2000) ≠
JUANA MOLINA-Un Dia (2008) δ
JUANA MOLINA-Wed 21 (2013) ϖ
JUANA MOLINA-Halo (2017) ∞
MADISON CUNNINGHAM-Who Are You Now (2019) €
MADISON CUNNINGHAM-Wednesday EP (2020) ⊗
MADISON CUNNINGHAM-Revealer ® (2022)
Leave a comment