When you see a rainbow on the horizon, it’s breathtaking. But what if every bit of space around you was covered in rainbows? You’d go insane. Too much of a good thing.
My ears dealt with a similar sensory overload at the Iron Horse in Northampton Tuesday night. I was excitedly attending a show by KING, a trio of keyboardist Paris Strother, vocalist Amber Strother (her twin sister) and vocalist Anita Bias — but after a few songs, I was having a hard time processing the trio’s complex and ever-spiraling R&B wonderland.
I love jazzy, soulful chords, thick with harmony and angularity (think Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell), but somehow KING’s always-in-motion voices and constantly shifting colors of the keyboards added up to something overwhelming, an impressively rich sound that never let up. I began suffering from aural vertigo. I couldn’t get my bearings.
My anchor was watching keyboardist Paris at work. For me, she was the quiet star, deftly playing four keyboards arrayed around her (with a laptop nearby), yet still able to throw the crowd a warm smile or two while her hands flitted from one instrument to another.
I kept craning my neck to see what she was doing — she played burbly synthesizer bass lines on the board to her left, and used the smaller one on the right for all the sparkly bright bits. There was a Nord Stage piano directly in front of her, and her fingers danced across the keys with casual brilliance. Her job in the group is not an easy one, but she made it look like it is.
Paris also handles all the production for their recordings, including their long-in-the-works debut full-length album that came out in February, “We Are KING.”
Everything the trio performed at the concert (except for a set-ending Stevie Wonder cover, “All Day Sucker”) was from that record, and a post-show listen was an interesting contrast — the Iron Horse live versions of the songs often felt to me like a disorienting swirl, but the recorded versions are soothing and inviting, and while there’s definitely a lot going on, it’s all thoughtfully arranged and doesn’t leave my head spinning.
Maybe the concert sound was the culprit — mixed by the band’s own engineer, it was surprisingly loud, as if meant for a bigger room, or a bigger crowd (about 50 people were in attendance).
KING played for an hour, an 11-song set that included one dedicated to Muhammad Ali (“The Greatest”) and some standouts, like “Red Eye,” whose chorus had more immediate hooks than many of their other originals.
I was enjoying the song, but ironically a couple in front of me paid their bill early (the show wasn’t yet at its halfway point) and made their way toward the door as Anita and Amber happened to be singing the lyric, “I really want to go / get up and go.”
The group, which has Minneapolis roots, is currently based in Los Angeles, though Paris and Anita had met briefly at the Berklee School of Music in Boston years ago. Paris told the crowd how happy they were to be in Massachusetts again. “It feels like a homecoming,” she said. It was the one time in the show when they stopped the flow of music to take a collective breather and really connect with the audience. It was a nice moment.
“Play some Sade,” a guy interjected with a shout from the back of the room, which made for an awkward vibe.
“Well,” Paris replied kindly, with a smile, “We’re going to play some KING tonight, but you can listen to some Sade later.”
“Hey” was another highlight of the show, a more intimate song based around a single keyboard with vocals; it was a refreshing and necessary breather.
The penultimate number of the night, “Oh, Please!,” had a catchy song-ending refrain of “Running and running around.” Ten or so dancers had gathered by the entranceway to shimmy — a tall mom twirling with her young son, couples gyrating happily while watching the band.
When the song was over, a beaming Amber addressed the group of hip-shakers: “Thanks y’all for partying with us!”
Ken Maiuri can be reached at clublandcolumn@gmail.com.