Scenographia

CWs: food, alcohol, family health mention, fictional suicide mention

σκηνογραφία, ἡ, “scene-painting”

We saw Amythyst Kiah, one of my favorite artists, last night. She put on a really lovely, cozy show at a venue I don’t normally love, but I think it’s been upgraded since we were last there. There were a couple of openers, one of whom I really enjoyed, Katya Grasso (Both were good, but I really liked Katya’s music and want to seek out more). All around it was a very chill, down-to-earth, folksy show, and we very much enjoyed the evening.

Let me back up a bit. This upcoming week, we both took the week off from work, so we have a lot of free time to relax a bit and recharge from work. My parents aren’t coming after all, which is fine. I am a little bummed since I wanted to see them, but I would like my dad to feel better ideally so he has a better time when he does visit. So it was a Friday concert at the end of a busy week, but it worked out great. It was a hot day, but we ended up getting dinner before the show at a local brewery. Tasty food and tasty beers all around! After that, it was just about time to go to the venue; “doors” at 7pm and the show started at 8pm. We staked out a couple of seats along the wall, which worked out great. I feel old and creaky these days and would rather not stand up for a GA show, y’know?

The first opener was pretty good. I can’t entirely remember his name now but he was fun. And the second opener, Katya Grasso, was really great. As I mentioned, I want to hear more of her music. I found an album on Bandcamp that I definitely want to check out. I was really quite pleased with the show and venue in general, everyone seemed very friendly and respectful, no one was clamoring for seats or anything, everyone was just very chill. And that was the general vibe of the show too.

So a little bit about Amythyst Kiah. I first got into her music probably 5 years ago; I am looking at file dates and I see 2020. There was a site called “Black Bandcamp” back in the day which highlighted Black artists on Bandcamp (pretty much WYSIWYG), and I remember looking around on there and I stumbled across her music. Once I listened to some, I really loved it, and I’ve been listening to her music ever since. I recommended her to my spouse a couple of years ago (I think when Wary + Strange came out), and they really loved it as well. Her music has been played on the radio a bunch around here too for the past few years, so that is also a plus. So Amythyst Kiah does folk music, Americana, roots music, &c.; there are a number of ways you could categorize her stuff. She is from Tennessee and really leaned into Appalachian folk music, and I think her stuff is fantastic. We had a chance to see her in Denver maybe a year ago, but she was the opener, not the headliner like this show, and I didn’t really want to see the headliner at that particular show. So I was thrilled when she came back to do a show much closer to us! My spouse told me about the show and I pretty much immediately bought tickets.

It was lovely that the show was just a woman with a guitar and a banjo, alternating here and there, on a stage. And she told the story of basically every song between the songs, which is also really fun. On her most recent album, Still + Bright, she did a banjo cover of Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra”; I had no idea it was a cover, and loved hearing the story. “Gods under the Mountain,” according to her, was her take on cosmic horror, inspired also by the podcast Old Gods of Appalachia, which I’d kinda love to check out sometime, but worry it is ad-ridden (it’s on Acast, ugh). She mentioned Lovecraft and how his universe was very cool but also that he is horribly racist, which I think a lot of Lovecraft fans don’t always acknowledge. (Personally I used to be a huge Lovecraft fan, but I have entirely cut his works out of my life). Again, loved hearing the stories behind the songs. We saw a Gasoline Lollipops concert a couple of years ago where they did the same thing, played a bunch of songs and told stories about all of them, and it was so fun. She was very personable and it was really cool to hear all of her stories at the show, and I also loved that she seems to be a huge nerd in many ways (one song, “Silk and Petals,” was inspired by the Netflix show The Haunting of Bly Manor, too).

As for the title of this post, though, as we watched the show last night I thought a lot about stagecraft and presence and the stage itself. A stage is an empty canvas: add ingredients (musicians, actors, &c.), and it comes alive. The stage is such an interesting space, an engine of nigh-endless possibility. Without the performers it is nothing but a vacant space. I thought back to Greek tragedy, with a very limited cast of actors playing multiple roles, and the Chorus helping narrate the action or play background characters. So much can be done on the stage. I think back to a book I read about how the suicide scene in Sophokles’ Ajax may have been staged; with Greek tragedy, we have the play texts, of course, but there are very few, if any, stage directions that survived (aside from obvious deictics within the text, like “this here,” &c.), therefore leaving modern productions a lot of leeway. Again, we have a woman on a stage with a microphone and instruments, creating magic in that space. And the audience reacting, like a feedback loop. A theatre is such an interesting space in general: an audience attends, listens, and the performer performs, and they react to one another accordingly.

I thought about writing this ever since last night but a lot of the thoughts either leaked out or were not entirely formed, but that’s OK. We had a really nice time at the show, and it let out early enough that we were able to get on the bus and back to the park & ride, then drive home. Xya of course begged for her wet food, and I obliged, then we decompressed for a bit and then crashed. It was a long day, but we had a great time overall and I am so glad we got to see the show. I ended up buying a t-shirt too and my spouse bought a patch! Happy about getting some merch!!

Anyways, thanks for reading, friends! <3