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Rainbow Kitten Surprise Turns a Meadow Brook's Lawn Into One Big Sing-Along
- LJ Portnoy
- 10 hours ago
- 4 min read
Spacey Jane closes out their run as openers in style, and Rainbow Kitten Surprise brings the Bones Tour to Rochester Hills, MI.
Photography by LJ Portnoy.
Article contributed by LJ Portnoy & Leo Lad.
The Start of Night
On a cool Wednesday evening, a gentle breeze brings forward the scent of jumbo pretzels, fresh from the concession stand. Fans of Rainbow Kitten Surprise eagerly await the show. Many fans can be spotted partaking in an adult beverage, just happy to be somewhere sharing a common thread.
The show marks the 13th stop on their Bones North America tour, joined by opener Spacey Jane at Meadow Brook Amphitheatre in Rochester Hills, MI.
Spacey Jane Sends Off Their Run as Openers
This was the first time Spacey Jane found themselves playing in Michigan, and their last stop as openers on this tour. Before treating the crowd to a setlist with many of their indie rock hits, the band has a bubbly ethereal synth that then launches them into a bouncy surf-rocky sound.
Frontman Caleb Harper wasted no time charming the crowd, his Australian accent dripping through between songs as easily as it does in his wailing, haunting vocals. He told the story of spending Christmas in Ann Arbor once, hoping for a white Christmas and getting nothing but rain.
Then, almost as an afterthought, mentioned trying oyster stew while he was in town; to which he wasn’t a fan. It was the kind of loose, self-deprecating banter that made a band playing their first Michigan show, and their last night as openers, feel less like strangers passing through and more like a band that already knew how to hold a room.
And hold it they did. Rhythmic strumming, pounding drums, and Caleb's echoing, floating vocals built a wall of sound big enough that it was easy to imagine this band headlining a room like this themselves before long. Spacey Jane is clearly becoming a favorite in its own right, and it's hard not to walk away curious what they do next.
Rainbow Kitten Surprise Takes Over the Stage
By the time Rainbow Kitten Surprise took the stage, the sun had dipped low enough that the lawn had gone from golden to blue, and the crowd, a mix of alt kids in RKS tees, a few heads of vibrant dyed hair, twenty-somethings through forty-somethings, and a handful of kids in tow, had settled into that particular lawn-show ease. Chill, unhurried, just glad to be outside together as the first promise of colder weather rode in on the breeze.
RKS opened with a thrumming synth and a pitter-patter of drums that built on itself, harmony layering in from the rest of the band until it cracked open into something soulful. Frontwoman Ela Melo's voice is raw around the edges in the best way, demanding, with a howl in it reminiscent of something almost wild. It's a voice that's impossible to background; it makes you turn and look.
Song after song, Ela found her way into the frame first, and the guitar would follow, picking up like it had been waiting for permission. The drums hit high while the rest of the instruments wove the melody underneath, groovy when the song called for groove, sharpened into rock when it needed teeth instead. Across the lawn, nearly everyone had fallen into the same shimmy-sway, the universal language of a crowd that knows every word and doesn't need to think about it, to be moving to it.
A Voice Worth Singing Along To
Ela has been open about her identity as a transgender woman for several years now, and there's something quietly powerful about watching her at the front of this band. She has a voice that cuts clean through an amphitheater full of people who came out just to sing along. The band leaned into that connection all night; the crowd didn't need much invitation to sing the big ones back at full volume, and as the confetti rained down, it was a burst of color against the darkening sky for the fans lucky enough to catch it.
By the time the cool night air had fully settled in, pretzel smell long faded into cut grass and distant basslines, it was clear this was exactly the kind of show Meadow Brook was built for: low-key, easy, and full of people who came simply to have a good time.