SUNDAY, JUNE 8, CHA CHA LOUNGE - At times whimsical, at times weary, but always smiling, Kaylee Cole celebrated two births tonight at the Cha Cha Lounge. The first was her own. “Thank you all for coming out tonight,” the Spokane performer said to a crowd of 50 standing, sitting and squatting around her and her ruby red Nord keyboard on the Cha Cha’s makeshift stage. “I’m so happy to be here, especially since it’s. My. Birthday!” Cheers from the crowd. “I’m 22 today. I’ve been playing music now for 2 years.”
If the songwriter’s unabashed giddiness confirmed her youth and inexperience, the beauty of her craft and ease in front of a discerning and unfamiliar crowd bellied it. Excitedly preempting every song with a brief bit of context–”This is a fun song,” “This is a Christmas song,” “This is a depressing song”–Cole spent the evening regaling the audience with a breadth of simple-but-imaginative songwriting, all based around the bright-eyed pianist’s comfortably loose waltzes, three of which can be found on the evening’s second object of celebration, Cole’s latest EP and first for Seattle-based Aviation Records.
“This is a song about a recurring dream I would have as a child,” Cole said well into her set, having already quieted the room. “This big water would come and take me away and I would drown. That’s all. Sometimes I stop short.” Then she played “Living Lost,” a plaintive ballad off the new EP that finds Cole almost slurring her usually sharp vocal lines, dragging the words out, as if to sea, while her fingers slowly tiptoed town the keyboard. “Last night I thought that I could find you here, as I closed my eyes tight,” she sang. “Last night I thought I could get you back.” By the time she reached the final line, singing “All I’ve ever been was a sinking ship, far away from my harbor,” it was clear that this music, inspired by childhood, was anything but childish. It’s an aesthetic that Cole plays with often, especially on her latest material, pairing a wide-eyed naivete with existential dread. On “The Hills” (not named for the television series, she assured the audience) she sings, “If I head for the hills, will I forget my pills? If I run to the sea, will my death follow me?” Like most great pop musicians, Cole knows that the tension created from contradiction is musical manna. Even if she loses her newcomer’s charm, this skill will serve Cole and her future audience well.
Still, the juxtaposition of Cole’s ebullient on-stage persona and her music’s emotional depth is incredibly energizing, never allowing the audience to settle into any comfort zone. “This song is called ‘Baby’s Blood,’” she said, introducing a song that will be included on her debut full-length, due in September. “That’s the best name I could come up with, but if you’ve got another one that is better, please tell me. If not, though, I’m just gonna do it. Yep. That’s what I do.” She smiled a grand goofy smile and then tilted her head, her twin blond braids swinging slightly, as she entered into a mother’s lament that, for three minutes, sucked the air out of the room. “What do I have/ What do I have/ That you don’t already have on me?” she sang to muted admiration. Then she lifted her hands from her keyboard, beamed and hid slightly behind her microphone as the room erupted.
Kaylee Cole performs Saturday, June 14 at the Georgetown Music Festival. For more information on the festival, go here. To listen to Kaylee Cole, go here.
PHOTO: Kaylee Cole, courtesy of KayleeSpace