On September 25th, the relatively new band called Frankie Cosmos played at Zanzabar in Louisville Kentucky to a packed house. An amazing feat for any music group on a Monday night, much less a band that until recently only had a presence on bandcamp that was limited to low-fi bedroom recordings.
The band Frankie Cosmos grew out of the solo work of 23 year old Greta Kline who began uploading songs she had written and recorded in her bedroom at the age of 15. In under 10 years Kline has released over 50 albums (all but 2 being digital only releases), first under the name Ingrid Superstar (her dogˈs name) and later as Frankie Cosmos; a nickname given to her by her boyfriend Aaron Maine.
Klineˈs earliest efforts resembled that of an audio diary accompanied by simple guitar riffs or chords from a childrenˈs keyboard. Her nearly unprecedented amount of work in such a short amount of time gained her a loyal bandcamp fanbase that watched a young Klineˈs life unfold. For those of us who kept track of her work over the years, we listened as Kline the musician evolved from simple rhythms to her first attempts at guitar solos, into fully layered and structured songs. As a person we listened as she moved into adulthood through her deeply personal unfiltered songwriting. Her earliest songs revolved around issues that tweens deal with; nervousness about sexual identity and societal pressures, getting high, farts. Slowly she moved into the confusing world of adult problems... We listened as her world opened up, as she experimented with drugs and sex, we listened to her fall deeply in love, and we also listened helplessly as her young heart was broken, and we stayed with her as she picked up the pieces.
I first came across her music by sheer accident about 4 years ago or so. I was working as a librarian in Appalachia, which, isn't as glamorous as it sounds; mostly just sitting at a desk in an office type setting which is just the worst kind of way to spend your days. So I mostly bounced around the online music platforms and came across a playlist that someone had made about New York which included the Frankie Cosmos song NYC is Cold from the superb 8 song 'im sorry im hi lets go' album and was instantly hooked.
In 2014 Kline moved from the singer/songwriter role into a full band aided by her boyfriend Aaron Maine for her first physical release Zentropy. It was at that time that she began using her real name Greta Kline and used the name Frankie Cosmos as the bandˈs name. This was a big step for someone who had chosen to stay anonymous and built a following on her talent and dedication instead of trading on the family name (she is the daughter of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates).
Last year Frankie Cosmos released Next Thing to wide acclaim solidifying their status as a serious band with serious talent, and not just a novelty.
 |
| Ian Sweet (Jilian Medford) |
On Monday night Frankie Cosmos the band took the stage at 9:45, After a exemplary set by Kline protege Ian Sweet (AKA Jilian Medford), with a selection of songs from Next Thing (which is a collection of full band renditions of earlier Cosmos work) such as On The Lips, Floated In, Sinister, and Fool. Kline, in full-on 'confidently awkward' form introduced the entire band as well as herself as Greta (thus solidifying the recent choice to separate herself from character in her songs) and making the mistake of asking how to pronounce Louisville as the crowd offered a million answers all at once, while taking off her baggy sweater and looked down at herself and said "um, yes, I am wearing a child's shirt. I wish I had left my sweater on. That's ok, be your best self" before diving into more tracks from Next Thing (What If and the dream pop ear candy Outside With the Cuties).
 |
| Frankie Cosmos merch table |
Despite having 50+ albums to choose from, the band stuck mostly to tracks from the 2 physical releases, such as My I Love You and I Do Too from Zentropy, and some of the more popular tracks from Next Thing like Sappho and Is It Possible/Sleep Song as the cheering crowd excitedly sang the last line "I guess I just make myself the victim like you said, that's why when you treat me shitty you get mad. It all makes sense now, thanks so much. Goodbye forever, what the fuck!"
There were a few exceptions at the end of the performance, including a new song introduced as 'this is a brand new song, so please don't record it." (so I did not record it), and an extremely fast paced version of Being Alive from 2014's Affirms Glinting (This song I did record). Right before they played the song Greta announced to the band and to her friends in the opening act, Nice Try, that she always meant to ask them to sing the chorus but always forgot and asked if they could try it despite never practicing it, and to the crowd's and Greta's delight bandmates Lauren Martin and Luke Pyensonn obliged, as well as Madeline Robinson, from Nice Try, who ran up from the crowd for her turn at the chorus, making a perfect ending to a perfect monday night show.
 |
| Frankie Cosmos: Greta Kline (Left), David Maine (Center), Luke Pyensonn (Right) and Lauren Martin (not pictured) |
No comments:
Post a Comment