Many Chords

On Friday, I went to The Drake Underground for 2 artists from Montréal. First up was Ada Lea. Her emotional music and prose-like lyrics reminded me of the latest crop of singers like Soccer Mommy and Mitski. I much preferred her on the acoustic guitar where she played with more variety whereas it was mostly strumming on the electric.

The headliner was Emily Kahn (once known as Emily & Ogden). She had plenty of family in Toronto so a whole seated section was set aside for them. The rest of us stood milling near the stage. But standing was a bonus as Kahn's latest album had some rocking tunes. The first part of her set, perhaps atmospherically absorbing some of Montreal's current synth vibe, with her full band on synth, slow bass, and triggered drum samples reminded me of Milk & Bone. But during the solo interlude, Kahn that demonstrated she only needed her trusty harp (i.e., Ogden) to entranced the crowd with songs like Ten Thousand and What Happened. Her looping techniques were also unusual and included singing echo-y harmonies into her harp body. Her band finished off the night showing that they can also do anthemic numbers that got heads rocking with Kahn leaving her harp to do some dancing too. As an aside, I noticed that she required neither a stage nor an in-ear monitor.