k.
tuesday, october 22, 2002 • the crocodile cafe, seattle wa
• review by janice • pictures by mike


review: For anyone who doesn't already know, K. is Karla from Ida, now joined by Ruth and Matt of The Malarkies. And I am just a huge Karla fan! The songs she contributes to Ida albums are usually my favorites, and her solo stuff has just blown my mind. So I was totally excited for this show.

Sadly, there was hardly anyone at the club that night. In fact, I think it was the emptiest I had ever seen the Crocodile! : ( Well, the opening act (don't remember their name) had a bunch of the bass player's co-workers around to support them, but as soon as they were done, everyone left. How sad!

But Karla was great! Admittedly, I was kinda off-put by Matt and Ruth. I was hoping to just see Karla perform all by herself. But they actually ended up winning me over! They're both excellent musicians! Matt was playing steel pedal guitar in the most interesting way, not in the traditional plucky-Hee-Haw kinda way, but almost like a keyboard, just letting it make tones supporting Karla. Really pretty and neat. And Ruth had a glockenspiel, too, which was very cool! And then later in the set, she amazingly played drums and harmonica at the same time! Both Mike and I agree, this is probably the first time we've seen a drummer do that! So, they totally won us over.

And Karla! Wow Wow Wow, I love this girl! First off, I never really noticed before how she totally kicks-ass at the bass! Like, she was kinda doing this wild slapping/thumping thing at one point, and doing intricate plucking later. Really amazing! And her voice is just stellar!!! She did "Complete" which was first released as a Beekeeper song, and then re-released on the latest K. CD (review forthcoming, I promise!). And for the opening verse, she stood away from her mic, belting it out a capella. Did I mention, WOW?

It was kinda awkward at the end of her songs, because it was hard to tell if the song was over, or just pausing. I couldn't help but notice (ahem!) that I think the audience was watching me and Mike for cues when to applaud!!! Sadly, she didn't play any of the songs I wanted to hear (the acoustic "Telegram" and the rambling-piano tune "Game Over"), but that's okay. She was still awesome, and when we talked to her later, just as sweet as could be! Mike and I told her how excited we were that she was playing the West Coast, and she seemed almost surprised! I just hope her other shows didn't have such a poor turn-out as Seattle had this night. :(

related links


• check out more awesome pics of the show at photophonic.com!