Katie Todd Sheds Her Band for an Intimate Show

Katie Todd played a heartfelt, solo concert to a sparse audience this past Thursday in the Fire Place Lounge. Katie, noting the lack of enthusiasm for her appearance, joked about competing with Thirsty Thursday but didn’t let the small showing hamper her performance.Katie plays keyboard in a four-piece Chicago-based band bearing her name. She’s very connected to her instrument, commanding progressive, textured melodies to support her dissonant, ethereal vocals. One could detect a hint of Tori Amos in some songs, with sturdy bass lines and a loose, almost fluttering right hand. Her style failed to fit one particular genre-gentle yet thick, with soulful vocals and poetic lyrics. She draws on classical roots for some of her more complicated schemes, changing key mid song and timing with an expert’s rhythm. She flirted with the audience, shuffling her feet and making faces while she played, drawing on her awkward sense of humor to relate stories in the space between songs. In one adventure, she nearly blacked out from ingesting too much Nyquil. In another, she talked about flat roads in the Midwest, and how she could turn on the cruise and sleep on longer drives. At times the show seemed to be a bit threadbare. Despite her talent and charm, she was clearly more acclimated to playing with a full band. It’s hard to imagine how some of her sprightly, graceful songs would sound with the backdrop of two guitars and percussion. Visit KatieTodd.com for samples of the band and tour dates. This show gets a score of 6 out of 10.