We Are Superfans

After the COVID shutdown, live music is back in full swing again this year, and news outlets intensely reported on the overwhelming success of superstar tours. From many sides, you could hear that the awesomeness of the artist, the exorbitant show arrangement (fireworks!), and the communal experience are totally worth fantasy ticket prices and intercontinental travel costs.

We have no objections here: live music with an artist you adore can make an unforgettable moment. We just believe you don’t need to break the bank and can have an even more intense connection with the artist when you leave the trodden path.

That is why Elke and I decided to pour some super-fandom love on a musician we both like very much: Fenne Lily, who played each of her three albums on separate evenings in small venues in Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn-via-Bristol singer/songwriter released her first album On Hold in 2018 at 21, although she wrote some of the songs years earlier. “I never play these songs anymore,” she told the audience, yet she played all of them on the Monday show at The Broadway. That did not only require serious rehearsal but also dealing with material she has outgrown. After the show, she told us that she still liked the songs – a sign of an artist who grows organically rather than jumping to the next cool thing.

For the Tuesday show at Purgatory, she played her 2020 record, Breach. That was when we discovered her, curiously, with one of the songs she deemed not good enough for the album. On stage, she added a violin, which makes it sound immediately “more important,” as she noted.

Yesterday, she appeared again with a different band on the stage of a packed Union Pool to play her 2023 album Big Picture, which she wrote in Bristol during the COVID lockdown. At this time, the ambitious effort of those three shows became clear: Fenne did not only have to rehearse some 32 tracks but also find musicians who could play them with her.

All venues have tiny stages and certainly no room for fireworks - although Purgatory had (and used) a smoke generator. Fenne made up for it with a lovely arch of illuminated roses, balloons, and her incomparable stage banter that makes you laugh and sometimes gasp. And then there is the brilliance of her songs, of course.

Fenne lives now in Brooklyn, and she told us several times how happy she is about her move from England in September 2022. We are superfans now and hope for more extraordinary events from Fenne Lily in our local venues.

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Song Pick of the Day

Listen to/watch all seven songs on YouTube. Follow our daily updated playlists on YouTube and Spotify for the 50 latest Song Picks of the Day. Thank you for following us and sharing the excitement.

The London quartet Human Interest makes delicious psychedelic indie rock. “Slacker’s Paradise” is taken from their just released 6-song EP Empathy Lives in Outer Space, which was born from an unusual inspiration: “The name of the EP came from an image of the world’s first untethered freefall in outer space,” the band explains.

Kuoko creates music in Hamburg, Germany. Her new song, “Crisis Queen,” is about how you make your way in the music industry: by being a “DIY machine.” She also released her second full-length record, Troubleshooter, a beautiful piece of relatable pop music.

Sometimes, things are straightforward. “On the day I had met my wife I knew I would never let her go,” says Michael Montesano, singer of Philly three-piece band Love Me My Alien. The song that came out of this, “Feel I Found a Friend,” enhances the heartwarming sentiment with a good dose of classic rock nostalgia.

From here, we make a hard turn to the power pop of singer/producer MC Hentz, aka dalloway. Simply named “Too,” her new song empowers you not to be afraid to go for what you want, even if others think you are “too much too loud.” The track is catchy and upbeat and comes with a sing-along chorus, so if you need a pick-me-up for some holiday blues, here it is.

LA-via-Toronto artist LØLØ is usually on the loud side, but for her new track “*snow in berlin*,” she mellowed down a few notches. The titular experience inspired her to go all acoustic for a song that fits into holiday playlists. “I wanted to write a song to remember that moment, of feeling something so special for the first time in a while,” she says.

Californian indie musician Chelsea Wolfe announced her seventh album, She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She. The third single, “Tunnel Lights,” leads you into the dark to show you the light: “‘Tunnel Lights’ is about actually living instead of just ‘getting by,” she says.

The London-via-Melbourne band HighSchool reveals a not-so-secret fact about song titles: the name spontaneously given to the first computer files sometimes sticks. You may guess why this song is named “August 19.” Besides that, the track is a highly catchy indie rock gem you may not get enough of.

Nine Photos from the Three Day Fennestival

The last three evenings, each spent with Fenne Lily performing live one of her three brilliant albums, felt like a mini-festival. When we mentioned this after her show, she told us that her friends had dubbed it the ‘Fennestival,’ hence we’re thrilled to use that term too.

PS For all fans in London, enjoy the shows. You’ll be in for a treat!