Katy Guillen and The Drive at The Bottleneck- Lawrence, KS (2022-12-17)

More than just Another One Gained,

By the end, the entire room had undoubtedly become fans (if they weren’t already) of Kansas City’s Katy Guillen and The Drive, who headed West to The Bottleneck in Lawrence, for their penultimate show of 2022.

The evening began with a generous opening set from The Black Mariah Theater, aka twin sisters Analiese and Sophia Motta, who we caught earlier in the year at this same venue, opening for Low Cut Connie. Their sound is self-described as “sparkly witch-rock” (with a sequined wardrobe to match) and mixes some garage with voodoo blues, slight jazz, and more.

Newest single is “Broken Bone”, released in October, which wasn’t played, but we did get a helping of songs from last year’s full-length, Patron Saint, a revved-up Dua Lipa cover, another cover from one of their current favorites The Peculiar Pretzelmen, and even a brand-new song, “Shakedown” which is yet to be recorded / released.

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The last couple of years have proven to be a rebirth for Kansas City guitarist Katy Guillen, who’s been recording and posting tracks for over a decade. Her previous band, Katy Guillen & The Girls toured and recorded for six years, before she and drummer Stephanie Williams made the decision to evolve anew and turn the page with Katy Guillen and The Drive.

Their initial EP, Dream Girl came out just before the worldwide lockdown and they spent much of that time, honing their sound and songs (recording w acclaimed producer Kevin Ratterman), to forge their debut full-length, Another One Gained, (self-released this summer) and hit the road, both headlining and also supporting Robin Trower.

Their sixty-five-minute set of indie roots rock found the duo expanded into a quartet- accompanied by Kat King (herself a musical Swiss Army knife of sorts that plays numerous instruments and fronts her own band) and Michelle Bacon who more than ably helped hold down the rhythm on bass. Smiles on each member as they created their bigger sound, made their collective exuberance contagious. 

“Reacting To You” with its spinning dizzy guitar riff from their Battles EP opened the evening, followed by “Willingly” dedicated to the lovers in the crowd and was from the Dream Girl EP. The title track of the new LP would follow, slowly simmering to crescendo, with a bluesy edge.

Guillen’s guitar solos are exceptional, the results of being influenced not only by the classic rock usuals (Hendrix, etc) but add in some older blues influences (like Muddy Waters, sure, but also many of the older KC-based acts), Bonnie Raitt and related, and newer flamenco guitarists like Tomatito, to all make for a very unique and compelling musical gumbo.

Somewhat ironically, the new “Harsh Realization” was written in their now “dead van”, the result of recently being stalled near Indianapolis while on tour. The rarely played “How to Live” from the new record and featuring another spanning solo, was another welcome addition to the setlist.

“Nothing Comes Close” a slow and sweet number, was written in memory of her late uncle, with Guillen emoting on the song’s bridge, “We’ll always hold you and remember” and their Heartless Bastards cover pays tribute to one of their favorite current bands, with the common thread being producer Ratterman, who has worked with both acts.

The evening would end on an exclamation, with 2020’s “No Control” which found all four musically cutting loose with little abandon- King’s keyboard sounding like a Wurlitzer-style organ and Guillen keeping things grounded with a fifth gear churning rhythm riff.

The old saying goes “Nothing ventured, nothing gained” and after rolling their musical dice and coming out stronger on the other end, Katy Guillen and The Drive not only gained fans, but proved they have a lot more to say in their musical future.

All Photos by Brandon Clasen(click on any image to enlarge and see in full)