Show Review: Rainbow Kitten Suprise

One of my favorite music discovery games I like to play by myself is called "Stalk the Spotify Sidebar." I’ll scroll down to see what my friends are listening to, and if something new catches my eye, I’ll queue it. This is exactly how I discovered Rainbow Kitten Surprise a few years ago. With a name that ridiculous, I had to give them a listen. Rainbow Kitten Suprise (RKS) is a southern indie rock band from Boone, North Carolina, who have a very typical gritty rock sound. But they also add a little extra magic, (which would be expected from a band with a name that sounds like something straight out of some kind of fairy-unicorn-land), that makes them sound distinctly different from something like Kings of Leon, a paragon of that southern-indie flavor. Being a small-scale indie band from the south, the majority of their shows thus far have taken place on the east coast and in the south. They actually, quite unusually, played my hometown of Savannah, Georgia at the Savannah Stopover Festival. The tiny show at a small church in Savannah received glistening reviews, which got me stoked for their west coast tour announcement.

The first track by RKS I heard was “Devil Like Me,” a song that I’d describe as a little Alt-J, and a little rock and roll. I played it in my dorm room, improv dancing all over the place to the chill indie vibes. In some sort of telepathic way, once the band began playing “Devil Like Me” as the third song in the setlist, they too, busted out in their finest improv moves. And this is when I discovered what the real surprise was…

In the words of the bassist, “if you haven’t noticed, we dance A LOT.” RKS brought The Roxy’s house down with their consistently sick moves and high energy. Joined by their audience packed equally with super fans and casual fans, the band threw their first (sold out!) With each old song, you could hear the crowd amplifying the already loud band, and you could feel the intimacy of the crowd. Dedications were made for several of their songs, including one for a girl in the front row, and another for “all of you who pre-gamed tonight.” I’ve seen my share of shows where the band doesn’t interact with anyone offstage, but for RKS, it was the opposite. It almost felt like the band had trouble staying on stage; they had broken the fourth wall practically the minute they had started to play the first song. 

HANNAH KOVENSKY, DJ
MYSTERY TIME, FRIDAYS 12-1 P.M.