Live Review: Maria Kelly at The Bowery

The hull of the Bowery, draped in its layers of twinkling Christmas lights, is still murmuring with the chatter of gig-goers as Maria Kelly stands on the bow of the stage-ship. She seems a little shy, but that doesn’t mean she’s has trouble getting everyone’s attention once the music starts. It’s the launch of her new EP, The Things I Should, so the sounds she’s playing are new to the world entirely.
Something about her music seems to fit into the glittering cavernous space in the Bowery. Despite the melancholy melodies she’s playing, there’s an enchanting quality to the music, not the soundtrack to a heartbreaking loneliness, but more for lonely days curled up on the couch with a book away from the rain. The waltzing guitars that ground “Pretend” would fall into rhythm with rain against a windowpane, building with backup vocals into an elegant crescendo.
Even the devastating doomed love story of “Stitches” still sounds like a lullaby at times in Kelly’s voice, despite the lyrics “I don't know what to say to you/My darling/Killing me and I'm killing you/I wish that we weren't true”. It’s the lilting quality of her vocals over the acoustic guitar that makes the music so seductive, though the lyrics hold a painful message that may hit too close to home for some.
For what she calls a “very new song”, Kelly’s band disperses and she’s left alone on the stage. The new song is “Hollow,” and despite a stumble at the beginning as she stands alone on the stage, her vocals don’t waver. Bringing the band back onstage, they fearlessly pull off a slow-motion cover of “Don’t You Forget About Me” (yeah, the Simple Minds song of 80s renown) which then builds into an unexpectedly thundering finale.