Photo courtesy of Natalie Kulak ’21
BY SABRYNA COPPOLA ’22
Lady Lamb started her tour last Friday night, Nov. 1, at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke. The tour is promoting her latest album, “Even in the Tremor,” which was released on April 5.
Aly Spaltro, better known to her fans as Lady Lamb, is a queer artist based in Brooklyn, New York. According to Spotify, her music is, “a beguiling and imaginative fusion of folk, pop and indie rock.” She is known for her queer love songs and emotionally vulnerable lyrics.
Gateway City Arts is a cultural center that hosts events and concerts by local indie artists, especially those residing in western Massachusetts. The space is relatively small, with a bar and food in the back. The venue offered mostly standing room, but was big enough to comfortably fit a few hundred people.
Gillian Knox ’21 said that she had seen “[Lady Lamb] play at Gateway City Arts last year and fell in love.” She came back to see the artist again, pointing out that Gateway Arts is the perfect space; “not too big or too small.”
Another Brooklyn-based musician, Tōth, opened for Lady Lamb. Tōth’s debut album, “Practice Magic and Seek Professional Help When Necessary,” is about getting over heartbreak. In a velvet turtleneck and fluorescent overalls, Tōth charmed the audience with his endearing awkwardness. His tender falsetto complemented whimsical lyrics, and his emotional presence onstage overshadowed the fact that he performed alone.
Knox said: “[Tōth is] so good — [he] compliments Lady Lamb really well, but seems to dive a little deeper into experimental music.”
Tōth’s biggest surprise for the audience was when he let his guitar hang around his neck to seamlessly transition to a soulful trumpet solo. His classical trumpet training lent his eclectic and melancholy songs a bolder sound. “Song to Make You Fall in Love With Me,” a tender ballad about winning someone’s heart, was very popular with the audience. “Copilot” was the song best known by the audience. The achingly sad song deftly captures the feeling of an amicable breakup with Tōth singing, “I thought you were my copilot/… Now I know that you were just taking me for a ride/ And that’s alright, it was a beautiful ride.”
The album is inspired by his “conscious uncoupling” with his bandmate from Rubblebucket, according to Spotify. Tōth’s set was hypnotizing and touching, and prepared the audience for Lady Lamb’s powerful and emotional performance.
Lady Lamb strode onstage after her bandmates, sporting a leather jacket and unwavering confidence. Opening strong with “Even in the Tremor,” the upbeat titular song of her new album, she was met with dancing and clapping from the audience. Lady Lamb introduced her new bandmates and disclosed with a laugh that this was their first performance together. The performance continued with a mixture of songs from her new album and favorites from some of her older albums.
Lady Lamb kept her performance highly engaging by giving each song its own special features. “Spat Out Spit” from her second album was one of her more intense tunes. The audience pressed against the barriers, shouting along with her and dancing. The song “Little Brother” provided an emotional interlude in the show, illuminating a different side of her music. Her voice wavered with emotion at the heavy lyrics, singing about the pain of protecting the ones you love from the darkness of the world. At one point, Tōth returned to the stage to play a trumpet solo on one of her songs.
For another song, Lady Lamb hopped off the stage and walked into the middle of the audience, swaying along with the crowd. She was emotionally engaged with her fans the whole time, dancing and moving around with her bandmates.
The climax of the show was her song “Deep Love” from her newest album. Before playing it, she told a story about visiting her friend in Midtown Manhattan and seeing everyone looking miserably at their phones. She admitted that this gave her the idea for the song and laughed as she mentioned the lyric where she suggests that we let the Earth swallow us up because she’s not “convinced we should exist at all.”
She said that, focusing on the nihilism she felt at that moment, she knew that she had to turn those feelings around and focus on the love in the world. In “Deep Love,” she sings about a tender moment she witnessed between her neighbors, the love she feels for her girlfriend and the “deep, deep love” she can find in the world when she really looks for it. She closed the concert with a song about her girlfriend, laughing and saying, “this song is dedicated to the merch girl!” Lady Lamb and the accompanying band was met with overwhelming applause and cheers and even more excitement when they came back for an encore.
The concert was a glorious celebration of modern love, exploration of self and the pursuit of beauty.
Tōth and Lady Lamb both delivered stunning performances.
“Last time I saw her, she was doing a solo show, accompanied only by her guitar,” Knox said. Seeing her with a full band really elevated her sound to another level — having such a solid backup really allowed her to shine.”
The concert was a hit with the audience and was a clear expression of Spaltro’s passion and confidence.
The rest of their tour around the East Coast is sure to be successful, even with the brand new band. Tōth’s tender, unique sound compliments Lady Lamb’s bold one perfectly and their joint performances showcase some of the best indie rock has to offer.