Genevieve Stokes Brings Witching Hours To The Troubadour
los angeles, california - november 7th, 2024
Photo via Genevieve Stokes.
Although Halloween is over, witching hours had only just begun as Genevieve Stokes stepped onto The Troubadour stage in Los Angeles last Thursday. It wasn’t the first time the Maine-based artist made a pit stop in LA, having opened for Briston Maroney two years ago for his SUNFLOWER WORLD TOUR. With the recent release of her debut album With a Lightning Strike, Stokes finally got to perform the already beloved tracks for her own headline tour. The West Hollywood venue’s interior felt like the perfect home for bringing Stokes’ hauntingly charming project to life, its dark wood and warm lighting channeling a cabin-like ambiance– a sliver of autumn in New England.
Wasting no time getting into the thick of it, Stokes floated onto the stage and kicked off the evening with the deeply piercing “Life of a Woman.” Accompanied by her friends Fiona on the drums and Pete on the synths, the trio’s instrumental chemistry swirled with a cinematic sweetness that set the tone for the evening. The distinctly eerie keys of the album’s namesake “With a Lightning Strike” quickly followed suit, accompanied by Stokes’ opening words that set the scene for the story about to unfold. “It started with a lightning strike / Tallest tree in the forest burned bright” she hummed into the mic under a flood of blue lighting, locking in the audience’s undivided attention.
The slow, prowling tempo turned into a swift chase with the transition into “Desert Eagle,” a track that immediately invited the audience into a playful frenzy. Singing about a predator in the sky looking for victims, Stokes moved across the piano with ease despite the complex speed. In an interview we did with Stokes a few months ago, she touched on what feelings she aimed to portray in the song: “I wanted it to feel like I'm unraveling and panicking, and just angry, but in a way that's kind of fun.”
Photo via Miranda Carmen.
After expressing gratitude for her debut album, Stokes also paid homage to the earlier gems in her discography. “I also wanted to play some of my older stuff because I still love it” she proudly announced, and you could tell she continues to hold a special space for her older songs to live and breathe. “Running Away” and “You and Me” sparked hollers and claps from the audience, with the tracks almost acting as asides– quick detours from the journey that still enhanced the overall story.
The middle of the set unlocked a deeper layer of said witching hours, with a new song called “Dead Girl Walking”: “This was supposed to be on the album, but then I got scared. I think it’ll go on the deluxe or something if we do that. And it’s about killing someone. Yeah, we’ve all done it,” she joked. The pitter-patter of the drums crept behind Stokes’ vocals which stood behind a layer of grainy muffle, a mic effect that enhanced the evocative storytelling. “When Your Heart Opens” presented grand harmonies and slippery synths that added the finishing touch to the spine-chilling segment. “I lived in New Orleans, and I only wrote spooky music for like, a year, which is not super relatable. I’m sorry about that” Stokes mentioned after.
Her first single from the album rollout “Dreamer” carried the room into another layer of Stokes’ sonic versatility, its lush instrumentals immortalizing the feeling of Maine summers into a glass jar that seemed to spill over the keys she was playing. She continued to paint the picture of scenes in her hometown in the reminiscent execution of her vivid lyricism: “We’re underneath the bridge at night / We thought we’d see the northern lights / But smog is filling up the sky / And smog is filling up tonight.”
For “Mean Guy,” Stokes shared that the track almost didn’t make it onto the album because it was a last-minute idea. “I’m powerless / When it comes to your name / Oh, I thought I was safe / But you left me ashamed,” she crooned over the stillness of the room. The hypnotic effect of Stokes’ emotion-filled performance is all attributed to the song’s cutting nature, as Stokes refrained from using any flowery language to hide how she felt. Ending off the evening with tracks like “Amusing” and “Habits” showcased a bouncier facet of Stokes’ discography, gleaning a light onto her Regina Spektor-esque sound.
It’s safe to say Los Angeles was truly bewitched on the evening of her last show. Stokes is one of the best and most versatile songwriters in her scene, and we’re counting on that deluxe version of ‘With a Lightning Strike’ to hold us over until her next project.
