Brigitte Calls Me Baby continued their path to stardom at recordBar

1 hour ago

Jason Colvin,

Brigitte Calls Me Baby. // photo by Jason Colvin

Chicago-based Brigitte Calls Me Baby continued their irreversible path to stardom on Saturday, April 19, at recordBar in downtown KCMO. The doors to the venue opened at 7:00 p.m., but fans were lined down the street, eager to get in to see the band as they moved through North America on their headline tour with supporting act SKORTS.

By 8:00 p.m. recordBar was near full when New York-based SKORTS hit the stage.

The up-and-coming indie band is made up of lead singer and guitarist Alli Walls, lead guitarist Char Smith, Emma Welch on bass, and drummer Max Berdik. In the fall of last year, the band released their debut album Incompletment to the delight of those who had been following them since they began to take New York City stages by storm. The band kicked off their set with a pair of songs from that album, “Dizzy” and “R4DR4M”, the latter’s title an acronym for “Run For Days, Run For Miles.” The audience was immediately treated to a sonic blast of high-energy rock music. The band’s sound can best be described as an epic mix of indie rock, post-psych, post-punk with a twist of dark wave disco. Echoey vocals, fuzzy hypnotic guitars, along with meaty basslines, all backed by heavy drum beats, perfectly mold into a sound ready for stadiums and arenas.

SKORTS. // photo by Jason Colvin

On this night, the band departed from their usual set list to play the 2023 single “Make a Mess,” calling out that the rare performance of the song was due to a fan in attendance who had seen them several times in recent months. The band continued the set with a few more songs from their debut album, but finished off with the unreleased track, “Obey.”

As mentioned in the liner notes of the album, “Incompletement is a word we made up. To us, it means allowing oneself to live and create in an ever-changing state of impermanence.” From this night forward, I, as well as current fans and new fans alike, will all be looking forward to the sounds SKORTS will be creating in the future. It is a future that will see the band return to Kansas City, as guitarist Smith ensured while we visited after their set.

“Kansas City was awesome. It was our second time here. We walked around the city today, and it’s beautiful. [recordBar] was an awesome spot…the show was really cool…we’re going to be coming back. So if you didn’t see it tonight, well you missed out, but we’ll be back,” Smith said.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby. // photo by Jason Colvin

After a relatively quick set change, the night’s headliner, Brigitte Calls Me Baby (BCMB), took the stage. Formed and based in Chicago not long after vocalist Wes Leavins left his home of Texas to play Elvis Presley in the Chicago production of Million Dollar Quartet, Leavins’ performance caught the attention of film director Baz Luhrmann, who initially called on him to be the voice of Presley for his 2022 biopic Elvis.

Although actor Austin Butler was able to emulate Elvis’s voice, and so Leavins’ voice was not needed, he continued to help through pre-production by playing acoustic guitar. It was through this opportunity that Leavins had the chance to meet nine-time Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb. Cobb helped Leavins produce a full-length solo album in 2021, and with the album in hand, he linked up with some Chicago native musicians, and Brigitte Calls Me Baby was formed.

Cobb also recorded the band’s 2023 debut EP, This House Is Made of Corners, and some of the tracks for their 2024 full-length debut album, The Future Is Our Way. After a few lineup changes, the current band is made up of Leavins on vocals, Jack Fluegel on guitars, Devin Wessels on bass and keyboards, and drummer Jeremy Benshish.

With style, the band kicked off the night’s set with the second single, “I Danced with Another Love in My Dream,” from their second LP, Irreversible. That album, released this past March, sees the band continuing to develop their sound while Leavins’ lyrics grow deeper as he emotionally opens up more.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby. // photo by Jason Colvin

What is their sound, you ask? Well, many have already compared their ‘80s New Romanticism soundscape to bands like The Smiths, The Strokes, and The Cars. Leavins’ crooning voice is likened to artists like Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, and Morrissey. And yes, those and many other influences are there; however, their sound is also intriguing and thrillingly new in the current landscape of alternative rock. I was immediately sucked into the energy, intrigue, and emotion of their live show.

Even on the small stage of recordBar, their sound was grand. At one moment, while watching them with the venue’s red curtain behind them, I couldn’t help but think of some of the songs perfectly in line with a dreamy set played at The Roadhouse from David Lynch’s television show, Twin Peaks.

Lynch is a clear influence on their sound as well. When the band played “Slumber Party,” you will catch the reference to him with the lyrics, “I bought Blue Velvet on a DVD, I brought it to the slumber party.”

Leavins plays it cool, dressed in style and wearing dark sunglasses while delivering his vocals. Guitarist Fluegel also looks stylish, playing with subtle jangly strumming, then suddenly ripping out power chords or dropping an energizing solo. Wessels’ awesome hair is a band member all its own as he commands the mesmerizing, modern, new-age synth sounds. Playing through the set with that cool swagger is clearly a part of their signature style, but the band still took a few moments to engage with the crowd. At one point, Leavins asked for questions from the fans and then agreed to a request to continue on the show without his sunglasses.

He also took time to recall the last time they played in Kansas City at Knuckleheads and could hear the nearby trains.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby. // photo by Jason Colvin

The show was a mix of fourteen songs from both full-length albums as well as embracing the comparisons by nailing a cover of The Strokes’ “Is This It.” Before leaving the stage, they ended the set with “Impressively Average” from the early EP This House is Made of Corners. A song that highlights that from the band’s start, they are definitely impressive and clearly not average. The song was over, and they left the stage; however, the fans made it clear they were not leaving without at least one more song.

The band returned to the stage to energetic applause and cheers. They did indeed have one more song for the night as Leavins put back on his sunglasses, and they played the title track to their first LP, “The Future Is Our Way Out.” It was clear from the embrace of energy and emotion throughout the performance that this band has a bright, bigger future, as they are destined for stardom. I was left with the feeling that in the future, I will be saying about BCMB, “I remember when.”

All photos by Jason Colvin

Brigitte Calls Me Baby

Brigitte Calls Me Baby setlist
I Danced With Another Love in My Dream
Pink Palace
I Wanna Die in the Suburbs
These Acts of Which We’re Designed
Too Easy
There Always
Palm of Your Hand
Fine Dining
The Pit
Is This It (The Strokes cover)
Truth is Stranger Than Fiction
I Can Take the Sun Out of the Sky
We Were Never Alive
Slumber Party
Impressively Average
—
The Future Is Our Way Out