Kara Jackson's First Headlining Tour
Gloomy tunes to match the gloomy weather
Event Details:
Date: May 15, 2024
Venue: Public Records (Brooklyn)
Ticket Price: $24.32
Artists: Kara Jackson w/ Mei Semones
After the last few shows being on the heavier side, it was time to balance things out with some American folk and J-pop inspired indie rock. Public Records is a nice venue about a 20 minute walk from my apartment and I figured arriving 30 minutes before the first act was scheduled to go on would still allow me to get a good spot, but when I arrived I was practically the only person in the venue. Needless to say I got a good spot but awkwardly stood around for about 20 minutes before the place eventually started to fill in.
The opener was an artist named Mei Semones and they had a pretty unique style. They said they usually perform with a full band but they were solo tonight and played a half acoustic and half electric guitar set. The other cool thing that they mixed in was singing half Japanese and half English lyrics. I love some J-pop and Mei was incredibly talented on the guitar, so it was almost like J-pop mixed with Math rock. Really cool stuff and to top it off they had a lovely voice.
The crowd was respectful and you could hear a pen drop, or even a body drop, which happened about midway through the set. I’m guessing the lady locked her knees and fainted, which is obviously jarring but she was fine. Of course, another lady tries to come to the rescue and says, “Do we need to call an ambulance?!” To which the friend replied, “We don’t need an ambulance.” At the same time the lady who fainted comes to her senses and blurted out “Oh, I’m good!” No lady, you are clearly not good but I couldn’t help but start laughing to myself about the whole sequence of events. Mei played it off well with a coy, “Should.. I.. keep going??”
Eventful opening set and hopefully I will get to see the full band sometime in the future.
Kara Jackson is a folk singer-songwriter from Chicago who really digs into the roots of rhythm and blues. She has a deep, relaxing voice that is slightly reminiscent of Nina Simone but plays guitar instead of piano. An interesting fact about Kara is she was a U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate and you can tell by the way she constructs her songs and her esoteric lyrics.
She had one of the most laid back demeanors on stage but a really great sarcastic sense of humor and was able to connect with the sold out crowd of fans and close friends. Her music is mostly slow and melancholy but I find it enjoyable in certain settings and it seemed to fit the kind of gloomy weather we had today. She played about an hour set and even read a few lines of poetry by one of her favorite poets. My favorite song was probably a bluesy track called “dickhead blues”.
The sold out crowd of stragglers showed both artists a ton of love and both artists delivered stellar performances.
Cheers and keep rocking!