Frankie Cosmos @ AfterHours

Frankie Cosmos
January 26th @ Afterhours

By: Caroline Smith

AfterHours is every Northeastern student’s favorite venue. It’s free, on-campus, and even includes a Starbucks. Just kidding… it’s truly an awkward venue, and just about every band I’ve ever seen at AfterHours has commented on the fact that they’re literally performing in a Starbucks. But hey, it’s free and on-campus, still two good things. Last Thursday, these two good things were combined with two other very good things: Frankie Cosmos and opener And The Kids.

I’d never listened to Northampton band And The Kids before, but I ended up enjoying their set a lot. I remember that they mentioned one of their band members being deported, and I thought it was a Donald Trump joke. However, information I gathered from their website shows they genuinely had a member from Canada who was sent back for five years. Highlights from their set included an electric ukulele performance (which I didn’t realize existed), Rebecca Lasaponaro’s intense drumming, and a moment where bassist Taliana Katz and frontwoman Hannah Mohan laid on the ground and made a bicycle with their legs during the last song. Overall, their performance was solid, making AfterHours feel a little less like you’re, you know, in a Starbucks.

After And The Kids, Frankie Cosmos took the stage to much cheering. When I first saw the event for this show on Facebook, I thanked Council for University Programs with all my heart (thanks again, y’all). Greta Kline, lead singer of the band, had been operating her own merch booth until she went on stage, adding a charm and precursing the down-to-earth nature of the set. Kline’s on-stage presence was laidback, so watching the show felt less like watching a pretentious star and more like watching a close friend. The dynamic Kline had with her band was great as well, as the members executed choreographed dances together during certain songs. Most of the songs she played were from her latest 2016 album, Next Thing. Eventually,

This was the first portion of the concert, before a medical emergency occurred in the audience and NUPD showed up–delaying things for about twenty minutes or so. This incident caught Kline a bit off her guard for the next few songs before the end of the concert, as she mentioned that it was harder to get back in the performance mindset after being interrupted. Understandable, given that this could have been both her first time having the cops show up at a concert, but Kline and the rest of Frankie Cosmos handled the ordeal professionally. The second, shorter portion of the concert included the songs “Fool” and “O Dreaded C Town”, as well as a song from their upcoming album. Kline closed the show with “Embody,” which is, conveniently, one of my favorite Frankie Cosmos songs, so that definitely sweetened the night for me. Overall, it was a fantastic show–despite a minor bump in the road–and I look forward to seeing Frankie Cosmos in Boston again on May 5th at the Royale.