My mom likes to tell me that she took me to Lollapalooza when I was in the womb. Unfortunately, I don’t believe her because according to the Internet, there was no Lollapalooza in 2002. However, it’s confirmed that she took me to see Lenny Kravitz when I was an infant.

Lenny Kravitz on tour, 2002. Image via Flickr.

I don’t think I realized that I was surrounded by the influence of rock legends as I was growing up. I don’t even remember my parents ever playing music in front of me. But I remember talk of names I didn’t recognize when I was a child, Prince, Freddie Mercury, Slash, Eddie Vedder…

Even if they didn’t play music, in the grocery store, a restaurant, or a coffee shop, my mom would burst out singing when she heard Guns N’ Roses or ACDC, throwing her hands in the air and dancing just enough to make me embarrassed and beg her to stop.

But I can already feel myself becoming that way. And now I love it when she does that. So when I do think about it, maybe rock music was there for me before I even realized it.

Entering elementary school, I thought that music my mom would sing and dance to was too loud. A little angry for my six-year-old taste. All I wanted to do was sit in the backseat of my babysitter’s gray Mazda and listen to Y100, the local pop and top hits radio station. I would run my fingers back and forth on the cloth that lined the car, let the feeling of the car baking in the sun all day warm my skin, and I would secretly kick my feet to the beat and memorize the lyrics in my head. That’s when I began to know I loved music.

Then I happened upon a precious object that fueled the love that was born through the car radio. An iPod. An iPod nano second generation to be exact. An electric blue color. My older sister’s passed down to me. This is where the ear damage began, playing Britney Spears’s Blackout and Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad at full volume through my pink earbuds. I downloaded my own additions (High School Musical Soundtrack) using my iTunes giftcard.

However, there were a few songs of my sister’s on the iPod that unnerved me and I always skipped them on shuffle. They were …different than what I was used to. I had a distaste for the bass riffs of the Plain White T’s and the grimy vocals of the Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. But something began to make me stop and listen. Perhaps it was Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi” that was the turning point.

Heart’s *Little Queen* album. Image via Wikipedia.

I got older. About 9. I was still on my pop music wave, though I liked to watch my sister play on Guitar Hero on the weekends. Like my mom’s music, it hurt my hears sometimes. As she hit every note on expert mode, I began to be hypnotized by the shreds of a genre of songs I had ignored until that point. Even when she put down the Wii remote and stopped playing, Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar and Barracuda by Heart rang in my head, and I sang along (the guitar solos too).

Today, I turned out the way you would imagine the child of an 80’s hard rock mom would turn out. I wear all black (and often leather) just like her. I wear tall shoes just like her. I scream to my favorite songs just like her. I play electric guitar like she probably wanted to.

And I always feel proud when one of her favorite songs comes on and I sing all the lyrics and she remarks “how do you know this?? I loved this song when I was your age.” And then we’ll dance to No More Tears together.

Featured image via Vogue.

I think we all know, or have heard, the wonderfully perfect tune that is Kilby Girl by the Utah-originating band, the Backseat Lovers, whether it was from TikTok or from simply frequenting the indie/alternative rock genre. From their 2019 release When We Were Friends, this song is by far their most streamed, totaling in over 189 million streams to date.

I hate to be that person, but I have been listening to the Backseat Lovers since before the release of this album, and Kilby Girl (among others, of course) quickly became one of my most played in 2019 once the album dropped. So, when my friend told me they were playing the Riviera, I immediately said yes. Similar to my experience when Noah Kahan the week before, I wasn’t quite familiar with their new music– I was mostly going for the encore songs, amongst which Pool House, Maple Syrup, and of course, Kilby Girl, were promised. Unlike Kahan, however, I was not super impressed with their latest release from October of this year, Waiting to Spill. The album does have some gems, like Close Your Eyes, Growing/Dying, and Slowing Down; however, it struck me as one of those releases where all the songs kind of blend together, which starkly contrasts my impressions of their previous releases. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it made it hard for me to really get to know the songs individually by just shuffling the album.

The opener of the concert was the band Bendigo Fletcher. I had never heard of them prior, but I was pleasantly surprised both with how much I enjoyed their set (although we did only catch the last couple of songs), and their personalities; they put on a good show, that’s for sure. My favorite from their set was definitely Wonderfully Bizarre, and I will say they have successfully convinced me to give them more of a listen in the future.

The headliner setlist consisted of a full performance of Waiting to Spill in order (which is unique for a concert of this size, but a structure that I really enjoyed), followed by some of their more popular songs from both When We Were Friends and previous works.

SETLIST:
1. Silhouette 2. Close Your Eyes
3. Morning in the Aves 4. Growing/Dying
5. Words I Used 6. Snowbank Blues
7. Follow the Sound 8. Slowing Down
9. Know Your Name 10. Viciously Lonely
The Hits:
11. Pool House 12. Kilby Girl
13. Maple Syrup 14. Still A Friend
Encore:
15. Out of Tune 16. Sinking Ship

One thing that struck immediately was the set– it was extremely simple, the use of lighting the primary method to implement variety throughout the set. During the opening number, Silhouette, there were large floral decals decorating the stage, its delicacy contrasted by harsh red and orange lighting. Throughout the set, the lighting varied from warm reds to cool blues, depending on the song that was being played; between songs they went dark, which really heightened the dramatics of the lighting.

Aside from the set design, the performers themselves, in their long, shaggy-haired glory, were also excellent. Whenever I go to a concert without knowing the setlist beginning to end, I am so much more aware of a performer’s ability to capture me in their performance. There was something about not being able to understand anything that they said (we were quite far from the stage, and also they had thick-ish accents and tended to mumble) and the way that they engaged with us and each other throughout the performance was very endearing.

This was the first concert of this genre that I have been to– I typically frequent indie or pop concerts, despite listening to other genres on my own just as frequently. One thing that I learned was that alternative rock concerts have the most fashion-forward attendees. I was giving out so many fit compliments, and looking around to see all of the fabulous styling just made the concert that much more enjoyable. I highly recommend.

Overall, I do not regret attending this concert– I went with some of my favorite people, so that definitely contributed to the enjoyment, but the performers and overall atmosphere were also excellent. If you like any sort of rock music, I highly recommend the Backseat Lovers (and Bendigo Fletcher for that matter, although their sound is softer)– and definitely worth the ticket the next time they come into town.