Indie-Rock Reverence with Mali Velasquez
Article by Ciara Rose Belfiore
Sunday night was the final show of this year’s Tomorrow Never Knows fest. A Chicago winter music festival spanning from January 17th to the 21st. It focuses on local venues and highlights up-and-coming artists. Schubas Tavern was the perfect location for the night, it created an intimate atmosphere that lent its way to the folk roots of Minor Moon, Sluice, and Mali Velasquez.
Minor Moon’s Sam Cantor kicked the night off with a blend of songs from his 2021 album ‘Tethers’ and recently released singles “Miriam Underwater” and “Ice Fishing”. A performance full of twangy steel guitar and Cantor’s soft-spoken vocals which transport you into the distinct world his songs live in, one that’s just as tied to nature as it is over worldly. Towards the end of his set, he explained the backstory of an unreleased song: the concept of the last rock concert in the world. Which prompted him to joke, “Hopefully this isn’t the last rock concert in the world!”
Sluice, a North Carolina band fronted by Justin Morris, followed. They delivered a captivating performance full of amazing fiddle-work by Libby Rodenbough and Morris’ vocals which convey a sincerity captured by few. Morris’ songs are deeply tied to the natural world and evoke a nostalgia for things long lost. They’re sweeping, fluctuating between quiet recollections on childhood and riffs that hit you right where it hurts. They finished their set with the closing track “New Leicester” of “Radial Gate”, Sluice’s most recent album. The lyrics describe a night out with friends, punctuated by love and the acknowledgement of getting older.
In a day and age where concert etiquette has become a hot topic, it was clear from the moment she took the stage that Mali Velasquez is the type of artist that elicits a sense of reverence. The songs on her latest record ‘I’m Green’ are emotional and at times gutpunching. When paired with her transcendent vocals and soaring guitar riffs, Velasquez makes difficult concepts easy to dance to. Velasquez is incredibly appreciative of her audience, something she commented on several times throughout the night and was evident in her interactions with fans afterwards. She ended the night with her song Medicine, a track that wrestles with grief and love lost, feelings that stick with the listener long after the song is finished. Though Sam Cantor was joking when he talked about the “last rock concert in the world”, if it was Mali Velasquez’s Sunday night show at Schubas I don’t think I’d mind.
You can check out Sluice here!
You can check out Minor Moon here!
You can check out Mali Velasquez here and on Spotify below!