Concert Review: This Is The Kit Shows Life Is A Journey At Bowery

The future is unknown, but yet every move we make in life, oddly, molds it. With this notion, at Bowery Ballroom, This Is The Kit played to the steps you take down the path you have to build the path you have yet to know.

With string-led melodies, This Is The Kit (i.e. Kate Stables) has a casting quality to her voice. It is as if her vocal notes are fish-nets being tossed over a lifeboat and catching anyone swimming around her. It is a distinct analogy, but it explains the silvery, netted quality of her vocals and how she makes you feel caught by her poesy. Similar to Courtney Barnett, This Is The Kit is a very special and wonderful songwriter. She goes for the details of a “move”; analyzing every aspect of your being and your space to create the worlds/stories behind your actions. Her sparkling, amiable personality only amps intelligence; proving that wisdom comes when a smart mind begins to understand and accept its sensitive heart. Yet, despite her lyrics, I oddly favored her for another reason: she sounds British when she sings.

I know that is a strange thing to like, but many foreign artists, even if British, try to sound American when they sing. Yet, as you hear her accent glide through tracks “Easy On The Thieves”, “Empty No Teeth”, and “Solid Grease,” you feel like you are in England’s countryside, and you find comfort in knowing someone out there is as scared and excited as you to not know. Yes, I said “scared and excited to not know,” but those are the dynamics of This Is The Kit’s verses. She goes for the emotional highs and lows of feeling so wonderfully present and curious to this world we have to meet, but also crashing into the woes of knowing not everyone/ every path you cross will be lovely. Hence, her folkish nature is not only derived by the stepped pacing of her arrangements as much as her ability to transcribe life is a journey. For More Information On This Is The Kit Click Here.