The Velveteers at The Bottleneck, Lawrence KS (2025-03-26)

With the musical force of ‘a million knives’, one of rock’s loudest and most entertaining live band’s (and one of our favorites), The Velveteers returned to downtown Lawrence KS, to play a mid-week show at The Bottleneck.

The three-band lineup of female-led indie rock bands reminded us of nights at the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis (r.i.p.) when the typical lineups were three indie, punk, or garage rock acts on the same bill, each hungry to prove their place and suitably rock the crowd.

The night began with a half-hour opening set from local band Indra, who is Ellie Bates and band and have released a handful of singles including “Golden Glitter Girls”, “PHANTOM!” and “Thrill Ride”. The musicians come from different genres, like the classical-leaning keyboardist Daul Lee and Clark Russell’s guitar complexities but meld all together into a unique sonic amalgam that unique for area bands and shows off their still-to-come possibilities.

Next up was buzzing sister duo Girl Tones, aka Kenzie and Laila Crowe, who have a handful of singles out, including latest, “I Know You Know” and last year’s “Fade Away” produced by Cage the Elephant’s Brad Schultz, who reached out to the pair on social media, wanting to work with them.

Their sound is a raw bluesy mix of riot grrrl and garage rock, full of jagged riffs and pounding beats with guitarist Kenzie determined to work up the crowd into a lather. “Blame” is planned to be the next single (complete with a new music video) and the pair was happy to be playing, though admitted forty-seven days on the road (after opening for Cage in Europe) was a little tiring, though still managed to turn it up to eleven for the closing, “Fade Away”.

Colorado indie rock trio The Velveteers conquered the dreaded ‘sophomore slump’ on the band’s recent second album, A Million Knives, released February 14 via Easy Eye Sound (Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach’s label) and we’ve said before and will say it again- they are one the most entertaining young new bands playing live today.

How many other bands bring their instruments into the crowd and have you hold them as they play?!

Demi Demitro on vocals and guitar is playing better than ever, and dual drummers Baby Pottersmith and Jonny Fig (playing on a conjoined kit) remain amazing live, keeping a high-energy throughout, and clearly having a good time playing.

They began their seventy-minute headlining set with the opening track from the new record, “All These Little Things” then followed with the grungy and revving, “Motel #27” from 2021. Drummer Fig grew restless early and put his snare drum into a fan’s hands up from, before smashing into it with no abandon.

The new “On and On” is one of those ideal driving songs with a pounding beat and Demitro repeating its title, and anchored like most of their songs, with an Iommi-sized monster guitar riff. Demitro doesn’t say much between songs, preferring to let the music flow from one song to the next and generally lets the instruments do their talking, but did get the audience chanting the “oh, oh oh’s” on “Moonchild” and encouraged some audience pogo-ing on “Take It from the Top.”

The title track from the new record is actually one of the band’s softer songs, and Demitro’s request for light, brought cellphone flashlights beaming everywhere, as she dedicated the song to the crowd in attendance.

Latest single, “Suck The Cherry” was saved for late in the set, with Demitro sternly repeating, “Put my name in your mouth, chew it up and spit it out!” and “Dark Horse” would wrap the main set.

The encore began with the closing track of their previous album, the Dan Auerbach-produced “Nightmare Daydream,’ the somewhat dreamy “Limboland” and the final song of the evening went back almost a decade on “Death Hex”, a raw and churning number that was the band’s initial release.

With absolutely none of the ‘sophomore slump’ hex, The Velveteers have returned with a solid new record and their usual sonic fury, plus an added maturity, and a live show that still puts them in the conversation, as one of the best live acts we’ve seen.