Emmy the Great
Barboza, Seattle WA
03.02.16
I walked into what I thought was Barboza, but was redirected to a bar next door and told to go downstairs, like a secret club. Orchestral-pop duo Gracie and Rachel were the opening act. “We’re going to sing a bunch of songs about death and anxiety,” said Gracie. And so they did.
Emmy The Great – née Emma-Lee Moss – then took to the small, starlit stage stating “my keyboard just turned itself off.” Before the music, Barboza felt like a bunker but as soon as Moss began, it turned into a fluid wave of inspiration moving around the room. After a few technical difficulties were sorted out, the show began, and Moss and her two backing band members played off of one another. Emmy The Great’s newer tracks surpass her previous work in edginess, mixing deeply motivational song lyrics with an ‘I dare you to…’ undertone, and beautiful guitar riffs that are just as melodic as Moss’s voice.
“Did anyone mean to go to the gig upstairs and end up here instead? Or worse, did anyone accidentally go upstairs on their way here?” Moss giggled. The Mike Strut crowd was quite a bit different from her fleet of mellow groovers. The crowd – made up of snuggling couples and single guys dancing – bobbed with excitement and swayed with freedom. Moss admitted at the beginning of the set that there was a “secret” show filled with older music after the main set to dust off her beginnings.
With three previous albums full of dreamy folk songs and diverse sonic vocabulary, Moss was excited to play her old music. Her third full-length album Second Love is due out March 11.
Photos and Review by Kari Taylor
Emmy the Great
