Photos By: Melissa Murray
By: Summer Luu
It’s been 3 years since Lady Lamb cruised through the streets of San Diego and last Tuesday was her first proper show at Soda Bar. The room quietly filled up by the night Lady Lamb (Aly Spaltro) and her supporting drummer and bass player took the stage. Lady was incredibly tiny in height but don’t let that fool you into thinking her voice was of the same stature. Her lungs boasted a range from an incredulous cranky soreness resembling Courtney Barnett to a soft bird sitting on the shoulders on the likes of a female Bon Iver.
Her sounds had a way of pulling you in quietly, softly, for a while and then surprising you with a nonchalant burst of emotion in the midst of it all. Her voice resembled the likes of Charity Rose Thielen of The Head and The Heart and Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir of Of Monsters and Men with a dash of trumpets and acoustics. Her melody resembled those of slam poetry leaders, speaking too fast but always slowing down at all the important parts.
At the end of the her set, she excused the rest of the band to play an acoustic set of “Crane Your Neck”, a beautiful and intrinsic song where Lady impresses the crowd, playing chords with a twang. The 25-year-old beamed raw lyrics, screaming “cause if you’re dreaming about dying, then you’re not really living, darling / You’ve gotta be starving, you’ve gotta be starving for it”. Deep, huh? It was refreshing to see a young musician spilling herself out on a stage in front of complete strangers. Good thing she did since they all ran to her, wanting her autograph near the merchandise table after the set. A job well done, Lady.
Check out her latest album, After, dropped March 3, 2015.