Review by Camille Germain | Photos by Marissa Bowen
First, let's just start off by saying that I spent the entire fucking show dancing. And not just some simple head-bobbing, but that whole-body-moving-to-each-beat type of dance. The Seattle venue was packed wall-to-wall, making each patron move with the music in order to get around the room during KOLARS' vinyl release show. Sunset Tavern brought a large concert and jammed it into a small(ish) room filled almost to its capacity. This show was more than just an album release for Kolars, it was a real fucking party.
Starting the night off was Alex Lilly, who is a concert just by herself. Just off her own album 2% Milk, Lilly is a mixed bag of great talent and nonchalant anecdotes. At the start of her performance a green spotlight went straight through the singer, outlining her face and body with soft blue light. The disco ball brought a classy feel, especially when Vikram joined the stage with his trombone and skilled whistling.
The entire first set held its own with resonance and complexity. This LA artist has incredible vocals that are both sultry and sarcastic. She has that down-to-earth, low key attitude mixed with skill and charisma. During her performance, Lilly would feed into that attitude by saying things like “This song is dedicated to my therapist.” and “I’m playing a short set. I’m playing a short set so I can talk and” - leans over with guitar and takes a sip out of a plastic cup, “to drink muh drank”.
Lilly opened up a psychedelic atmosphere, lined with fog and a video game space-like world for KOLARS to come on. The two sets definitely complimented each other, and watching both was worth every minute.
Lilly opened up a psychedelic atmosphere, lined with fog and a video game space-like world for KOLARS to come on. The two sets definitely complimented each other, and watching both was worth every minute.
Lilly opened up a psychedelic atmosphere, lined with fog and a video game space-like world for KOLARS to come on. The two sets definitely complimented each other, and watching both was worth every minute.
Over halfway through their set, Brown purposely fell between both drums after one of their songs, looking exhausted in an extravagant way, with a smile running straight across her face while she held onto both drums and looked into the crowd with nothing but appreciation.
The singer and guitarist, Rob Kolar delivers both an energetic and sincere experience. He moved quickly across the stage and never stopped smiling. He has power behind his voice, which you can feel crawl over your skin, shaking every pore wide awake.
Halfway through the show, everyone starts clapping in unison with the drums creating nothing but a thunderous sound encapsulating the entire room. KOLARS is very interactive. Very passionate. These are two people with kind eyes that can rock you to the bone.
Towards the end of the set Kolar spoke to the audience and said “You guys are a lot kinder than Los Angeles, they'd be all on their phones taking selfies and you guys just ask us to count slower! We love you Seattle!” everyone uproars until he says “that's it!”. He then made everyone count “one, two, three, and four” even louder after pointing out the one guy in the crowd for being loud and on tempo (he was right next to me).
During this show, everyone became so comfortable with one another and danced with arms around each other while singing. It was a union of human beings. This was one of my favorite concert experiences in a long time and I am happy to say that KOLARS is very energetic, authentic, and full of moves that match their songs.
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