My goal this year was to get out of my comfort zone when it comes to live music. Unfortunately, due to the sheer amount of amazing tours coming through, I feel like I’ve fallen back into my normal scene. That’s why I was so excited, yet a little intimated, to go to the Kari Faux show on Wednesday night at The 7th Street Entry. I knew it wasn’t going to be my normal pop-punk, rock or metal which had me excited but I also knew that I was going to feel a little out of place which had me feeling a bit anxious. Thankfully, that anxious energy fell to the wayside as soon as the show started.
Ivy Sole was the first of three acts to take the intimate stage on Wednesday night. They came off as a bit shy and timid as they took the microphone with nothing more than a small table holding a sample pad beside them. I have to be honest, the way they took the stage, I wasn’t super optimistic or excited but then they started to perform. Throughout the performance, I felt like Ivy tried to bury their voice into the tracks which seemed silly to me purely due to the amount of talent I was getting. They had this way of transitioning between a beautiful and heady pop-styled voice to a more dangerous rap vibe in the blink of an eye. It was honestly a bit dizzying but in all of the right ways.
Sure, theMIND’s music was great and I particularly liked his song titled “Regina George” which, as you may have assumed, had lyrics about one of the greatest movies of our generation- Mean Girls- but it was his comments to the audience that really made him an instant favorite of mine. He spoke about being genuine to you. Being your authentic self. Doing that silly little dance even if people are watching because, when it comes down to it, who the heck cares? These are all words that are spoken so frequently at shows but there was something about the way theMIND did it that truly had me convinced. Maybe it was the way he lived his words and danced his way through his set as if nobody was watching or maybe it was just the way his positive attitude seemed to radiate through his smile and all the way to the back of the club. Regardless, that energy gave him a pass for thanking “Minneanapolis” (apparently Minneapolis is a hard word for some to say and they always try to add an extra letter in there– I always judge when that happens).
Don’t worry if you’ve never heard Kari Faux’s name before. As mentioned, I hadn’t either but I would worry if you don’t take the time to check out her music. Kari has such a cool flow about her music. Sure, it’s rap and hip-hop based music but the way her raps turn more into conversation, even spoken word at times, is truly something to be heard. Topic-wise, her music is all over the place yet it was all real and I felt like I was seeing my world mix with hers as she rapped through situations that she has been in and ones that I remember being in. Much like theMind, Kari came off as super personable and genuine which was just the cherry on top to her set.
An example of her being genuine was when she stopped after her first song. The audience would not stop clapping and cheering which obviously caught Kari off guard. She tried to wait it out and let the audience almost tire themselves out but that never happened and she eventually had to ask the audience to calm down ever so slightly. She seemed completely caught off guard, confused, and beyond surprised by the response which had me confused. I’m not sure what her crowds are like elsewhere but I find it hard to believe she doesn’t have this kind of reception everywhere. The beauty of her and her music is absolutely stunning and she absolutely deserved every second of praise she got from the crowd on Wednesday night.
