Kelley Stoltz

Spaceland - April 13, 2007

Live Review and Photograph by Alexis Roberts

Spaceland in itself is already an interesting experience. It's a relatively small, socially subterranean bar/ venue smack in the middle of every hipster's favorite escape from the mainstream world: Silverlake. To have Kelley Stoltz rocking the pants off of Spaceland just enhances the picturesque Los Angeles vibe that a place like Spaceland encompasses.

In a venue like Spaceland, it's almost taboo to stand up too close to the stage; therefore during the first two bands of the night—an unmemorable opening act with four guitar players, followed by a painfully long set by The Essex Green—most everyone made sure not to be within a five mile radius of the stage. Although you are in Silverlake and everyone is trying to be cooler than everyone else, you certainly aren't at The Echo where the whole night is basically a standoff between the different cliques of girls with canvas tote bags and their boyfriends who are stumbling about in their too-small pants. Everyone at Spaceland seemed more genuine and friendly, and really just happy to be there away from the typical thrift store fashion parade that is almost unavoidable anywhere else these days.

When Stoltz began setting up, everyone dragged themselves away from their torn-up vinyl bar stools, and started actually crowding around the stage. Considering the size of the venue and the time he played (he finally started around midnight) there was a good sized group of people of all ages, shapes and sizes there to see him. It was an interesting melting pot of trendy kids, jocks, guys in their business suits and a few bald old dudes who looked a little out of place.

Stoltz and his band opened up the show with three brand new never-been-heard-live songs in a row and proceeded to tell the crowd that he planned on playing a lot of new songs and hoped that nobody would mind. Of course that only got cheering and hollering from the crowd. During the unveilings of his new tunes, most everyone was just listening attentively and trying to get a feel for what the new material was all about. I saw a few people covertly dancing in place, but the real party started when Stoltz busted out the bubble machine, gave a late night infomercial pitch about it and reminded us to "Just set it and forget it !"  which lead to an ongoing inside joke between him and the audience. Right after the introduction to the bubble-matic he started playing songs off of Below the Branches, his most recent release—which hit shelves about a year ago courtesy of Sub Pop records.

It was easy to fall in love with the songs on Below the Branches, as they could permeate the thickest skin and overdose you with feelings of happiness, and sunshine and candy and fluffy things and all other things good and sweet. When he got the bubble machine going full force, and started playing “Memory Collector,” that is when the cartoonish dance moves spread through the place like wildfire. It's so funny how one minute you're trying to look cool and then all of a sudden you get the urge to dance and then it really doesn't matter what you're looking like to other people because there's music going, and alcohol flowing and you're dancing no matter what!

Stoltz brought with him an intense, positive energy that I haven't seen at a live show since, well, ever. The room took on a life of its own with the combination of dancing drunks, the bubbles flying all over the place, Stoltz's voice and his band happily backing him up. That equation made for a superior show that was nothing but good vibes and it was the best damn show, and I personally am convinced that the bubble machine has some sort of magic power. Stoltz was mentioning something about marijuana bubbles, though, so maybe that's where the magic was coming from...eek !