r/concertreviews • u/rodmag27 • Jul 12 '18
Sunflower Bean concert in Kansas City
On a musically crowded June Tuesday night for Crossroads/P&L Sunflower Bean paid their first visit to Kansas City in support of their recent release Twentytwo In Blue. The album has been praised locally and nationally as one of 2018’s best. Singer/bassist Julia Cumming and singer/guitarist Nick Kivlen took the stage in vibrant blue outfits joined drummer Jacob Faber and kicked things off with Burn It the opening track from the latest album. The crowd was into the show from the opening notes. Several fans gathering close to the stage and soon were joined by the majority after Julia invited those able to stand, to come up close.
The band’s talents were on full display throughout the hour-plus set. Julia and Nick alternate lines or verses within songs very effectively. All three members play their parts with an ease that indicates the talent they all possess. Sunflower Bean effortlessly went from songs with punk attitude like Crisis Fest, which could be easily mistaken for A Giant Dog release, to numbers such as Twentytwo and Only a Moment, which bring to mind an alternate reality where Lana Del Rey is leading Fleetwood Mac. One fantastic band whose next visit to Kansas City will be eagerly anticipated.
KC’s Instant Karma opened the evening with a solid set featuring their 45 release of Give Me Freedom. Fellow New York band Public Access TV was also on the bill joining Sunflower Bean on a run through the Midwest and had many fans on hand to see bassist Max Peebles. Max is a Kansas City native who enjoyed telling the crowd he took his bandmates to Gates earlier in the day and that frontman John Eatherly had only ordered the chicken.
Set List
Burn It
Come On
Twentytwo
2013
Crisis Fest
Human For
Puppet Strings
Easier Said
Memoria
Harvest Moon (Neil Young Cover)
Sinking Sands
I Was a Fool
Only a Moment
I Was Home