Live Recap: Sunflower Bean and Jackie Hayes at Bottom Lounge
Brooklyn-based Sunflower Bean took to the stage of Bottom Lounge on a rainy Friday night in Chicago to present new tracks from their newly released third full-length Headful of Sugar. Playing in Chicago for the first time since 2019’s Taste of Chicago set (where they opened for none other than Courtney Barnett) the trio led off with the dreamy title track followed by album cut “In Flight” before wading into some of the back catalogue with “Twentytwo” from their second full length, 2018’s Twentytwo in Blue. Leading into this track, vocalist, bassist and front-women Julia Cumming dryly remarked, “Here’s a song called Twentytwo. It’s a Taylor Swift cover.”
The rest of the night was dominated mostly by cuts from their new record. These songs were accompanied by a palpable excitement crackling on stage as you saw a band work in unison to really sink into the skin of the new material. Bearing witness to that sense of discovery is always a treat, as is an act that projects the confidence to play mostly new material across the evening.
Cumming, guitarist Nick Kivlen and drummer Olive Faber took command of the stage quickly featuring a high dexterity of stage mobility with Cumming often stepping onto the barricade to engage with excited fans as well as regularly entangling with Kivlen, guitar to bass regularly meeting face-to-face. As the night went on, the audience became increasingly more buoyant as dreamy sways gave way to enthusiastic, individual dances. By the end of the set (which included “Easier Said” from their debut LP Human Ceremony) the Bottom Lounge was buzzing figuratively and literally with energy, as the distortion feedback loop from Nick Kivlen’s guitar lingered in the room after both the main set and the encore, with fans excitedly trying to talk over it about what they had just witnessed.
Sunflower Bean was supported by local alt-rocker Jackie Hayes who played songs off their latest EP, “There’s Always Going to be Something” released in 2021. The audience was left pulsating after Hayes’ highly-mobile stage-craft saw her careening and jumping about the stage, bouncing between and around both guitarist Savanna Dickhut and drummer Tony Mest, both staples of Chicago’s DIY scene.
Check out photos of the evening below, and see where you can catch the rest of the tour here.
