I remember accidentally discovering Rainbow Kitten Surprise about 5 years ago while looking up how to make “Devil like masks” on Youtube and I pretty much fell in love with them forever. Whenever I meet a fellow music lover and find myself in a conversation about new music, I always ask “Have you ever heard of Rainbow Kitten Surprise?” It’s as if they are my formal benchmark for great music. Tuesday night in Ithaca would be my second time seeing this band, my first being last September in Buffalo New York. Unfortunately, last year for one reason or another they didn’t end up playing an encore and even though I KNOW bands aren’t required to, I hoped beyond hope this night would be different.
The evening began with the surprisingly hard-hitting sounds of Illiterate Light, a band hailing from Virginia and for just being two guys they certain packed a punch sonically. They fired up the crowd fast and didn’t seem to slow down the entire set. I guess they could best be described as Alternative Indie Rock with almost a Folksy vibe mixed in. Their debut album will be available everywhere October 11th and it’s definitely one you are gonna wanna check out.
Rainbow Kitten Surprise began the night with the song “Matchbox” and from that point on the entire floor seemed to bounce. The band would achieve three things I had never seen before at a concert. The first was playing every single song I wanted to hear. I know this sounds like a trivial detail but I have personally never attended a show where a band played all of my favorites. They even ended the show with “Run” which was just the icing on the cake for me. The second thing that stood out was the fact that Sam and the rest of the guys actually took the time to thank the road crews by name. Everyone from sound techs to stagehands was given props for their hard work, which I really think speaks to the character of the band. You don’t often see the behind the scenes workers getting praised for what they do. Finally, and I am not sure if I don’t notice it as much in other shows but they had more guitar changes than any other band I have ever seen. I feel certain that after almost every song, someone would run to the stage and hand off a brand new guitar for the next song. I also thought this was pretty badass. The show overall was absolutely amazing and I feel pretty certain that every single fan left satisfied. It’s great to see how far this truly talented band has come in such a short amount of time. The future is extremely bright for Rainbow Kitten Surprise.
SETLIST
Matchbox
It’s called: Free Fall
Shameful Company
Goodnight Chicago
Hide
All that and More (Sailboat)
First Class
Seven
Our Song
Devil Like Me
Cocaine Jesus
Wasted
When It Lands
Heart
No Vacancy
All’s well that ends
Holy War
Painkillers
Fever Pitch
That’s My Shit
Encore:
Possum Queen
Recktify
Run
Photos and review by Derek Jones
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