Review: Your Friend @ Baby’s All Right (6/11)
It’s Wednesday night in the back room at Baby’s All Right, and the crowd is at ease.
Kansas-based singer-songwriter Taryn Miller, who plays under the alias Your Friend, takes the stage with her band. Sporting her classic look of thick-rimmed glasses, a button down, and boy-cut hair, she stands at the mike in perfect comfort. From the few moments of pre-show tune-ups, it’s obvious that Miller and her guitar know each other well. But when the set begins, it is her voice that welcomes me to join her in a dreamy world of enigmatic sound.
While her eyes remain fixated on the floor, chilling vocals come off the stage creating sound almost too big for the small room. Raw lyrics flood out the side of her mouth captivating the room in ethereal beauty as she takes us through a wave of vocals that breaks with atmospheric instrumentals.
Right when it feels like she’s all voice, Miller takes off with her guitar, transporting the crowd to an entirely new planet (a damn good one, too.) Miller may be loosely classified as a folk artist, but with a four-piece band, she can be more adequately described as an eloquent head banger. A self-described “problem child,” she’s definitely flirting with a style all her own.
Major indie label, Domino Records (home to the likes of Arctic Monkeys and Animal Collective) picked up on the buzz Your Friend was creating in 2013 and subsequently signed Miller for the release of her six-song EP Jekyll/Hyde.
With a full tour ahead of her, Your Friend is just getting started. Known and loved in Lawrence, Kansas, it is time for Miller to take her talents to the rest of the country.
“This is my first time playing in New York,” says Miller, finally peering up from the mike to look at her admiring crowd.
I highly doubt it will be her last.