by Adam McGrath
Lady Lamb. All photos by Adam McGrath
Hopefully Aly Spaltro doesn’t mind if I call her a rocker chick. The diminutive musician known as Lady Lamb more than earned the moniker upstairs at World Café Live Wednesday night. Playing to a large, youthful crowd, Spaltro and the two men who make up her rhythm section ripped right into the energizing new material from Lady Lamb’s sophomore album, After, released in March on Mom+Pop.
After has quickly become one of my favorite albums of the year, and it was exciting to hear dynamic songs like “Billions of Eyes” and “Spat Out Spit” in person. Spaltro’s music hits the mark on almost every level—the creative arrangements, the soft-loud dynamics, the personal but universal lyrics all come together in a passionate delivery. Though she looks more like a farm girl than a rock star, Lady Lamb nonetheless delivers a full-sized punch when the distortion pedal kicks in. Scrunching her face up with each new line, Spaltro takes command of the stage and brought to mind comparisons to Courtney Barnett.
Lady Lamb’s set started off super strong, delivering the highs described above. But a shift to solo softer songs came too early, and the dismissed band members proved to be a distraction in the bar area during these quieter moments. Once together again, the group did recapture some momentum, but a similar situation at the end of the set left me a bit dissatisfied. If Lady Lamb can maximize the impact of her set list and reign in her bandmates a bit, she will continue to conquer larger and larger stages.
