And Now For a Show You Can’t Go See
By my math, Charleston’s Little Stranger has played in Greenville three times, which means I have seen them live three times and, also, written about them three times. In the last piece I even went so far as to say that I would continue to write about them “every single time they perform in Greenville” which means I am morally obligated to tell you about their show at Quest Brewing Company this Saturday night.
There is one little problem, though – the show has been sold out for weeks.
Initially it felt odd to use this time and space to tell you about a sold out show as the goal here is usually to encourage people to get out and see a particular band or artist. At the same time, it felt disingenuous to publicly commit to writing about a band every time they visit, only to turn around and ignore the show on their very next visit. That second thought naturally led to me wonder how arrogant I would have to be to seriously think anyone would remember a pledge I made in December of 2019, three months before the world came to a screeching halt. However, only one person needs to remember that pledge – me – and ultimately I decided that talking about the shows that genuinely interest me the most is the whole reason I do this every week.
So, without further ado, Little Stranger is a two piece Charleston act comprised of John Shields and Kevin Shields who are oddly enough not related. John sings, plays guitar, and weaves in the beats and sound effects while Kevin drops rhymes like nobody’s business and is one of the best MCs I have ever seen live. Together, these talents combine for an amazingly unique and trippy marriage of indie rock and hip-hop that is incredibly satisfying to the ear. I am totally content leaving either of their EPs on repeat for hours on end but the real magic happens when they take the stage. Their dynamic and energy they bring to the stage is intoxicating and it is easy to see why they are selling out venues on only their fourth visit to the Upstate.
If you are one of the folks lucky enough to have tickets to Saturday’s show, know that you are in for one hell of a treat. For the rest of you, I would recommend purchasing digital editions of their EP’s Techniques and Styles & Dynamics and listening to them back to back as if they are one full length album. This is not to discount their debut album Buddha the Beast, of course, but just my opinion of where to start. If you are looking to sample a single track first, “Sing it High” sold me on Little Stranger well before I had listened to the entire song but I suspect tracks like “Bag Full of Money,” “Me & You,” or “Agustina” would have had exactly the same effect.
Great Outdoor Show Coming Up at Quest Brewing
Finally, I would be remiss not to mention that this is the first of a series of shows presented in partnership with Quest and Hey Look Entertainment. Joe Hertler & the Rainbow Seekers will follow on Wednesday, April 28, Flipturn and Adam Melchor will take a turn in May, and Stop Light Observations are scheduled for late June. All of these shows will be ticketed events with limited capacity so get your tickets sooner rather than later as I suspect I will be at least mentioning several more sold out shows in the months ahead.