Live Music Review: stephaniesid and Heypenny Inject Energy Into Spartanburg’s Musical Veins

As the weekend came to a close, I found myself arriving early at the Hub-Bub Showroom in order to catch Asheville’s stephaniesid and opener Heypenny from Nashville, TN. Before I even arrived that night, I had been inundated with anecdotal evidence about the greatness of stephaniesid’s brand of indie-rock/pop, with Chuck Lichtenberger’s piano-driven melodies and lead singer Stephanie Morgan’s eclectic voice. Usually, this would be a perfect set-up for failure for any band, but once the lights dimmed and the music started, I was pleasantly surprised and ended up having a great evening.

Let me elaborate.

At around nine o’clock, Heypenny mounted the stage. Multicolored sheer ribbons hung from the ceiling, and three TVs that looked oddly reminiscent of my family’s first color television blared static from on top of pedestals. The band members were all wearing sunglasses and trenchcoats. Their opening tune was a mellow, but upbeat, piano-led song.

It was obvious to me how indebted these guys must be to the Beatles, given their harmonies and the way the piano worked with the guitar, but this was rockier and jazzier than anything the Beatles did. It felt carefree and young. A few songs in, the trenchcoats were thrown aside to reveal colorful outfits that reminded me of the movie The Rocketeer but with tights.

“We have right before your eyes become robots. We are no longer human,” Keyboardist Benjamin Elkins declared. It was then that I began to understand the other influences in Heypenny’s music. The spirit of David Bryne was in Elkins’ staccato vocals, like a 1980s robot send to the future to give us upbeat Beatles tunes infused with energetic three-part harmonies. Near the end of their set, Elkins told us all, “This song is your karate lesson for tonight. Consider it done.” And really, this music was robot kung-fu with a sense of humor.

The band was most successful on one of their newer songs, a longer 60’s surf rock/funk jam based around one funky riff. It was very catchy, and I found myself wondering why they didn’t play more of these songs in their set. Maybe I’ll have to wait for the next record to come out. Either way, Heypenny provided some lively, effervescent entertainment before stephaniesid came on stage.

I’d never heard stephaniesid play before, but everyone I talked to about the band immediately mentioned something about Bjork and a piano. This piqued my interest, because to me, the only woman that can sing like Bjork is Bjork. Anything else would be a put on, so I was slightly skeptical as the band came on. I saw a piano, a trumpet, a baritone saxophone, a Fender guitar, and a drummer. The horn sectioned worked together to provide some kind of electro-jazz, while the competent drummer drove the melodies alongside the piano. On top of all that, was the twangy and dark guitar playing from Stephanie Morgan.

The first song began with a moody, driving piano melody which carried the rest of the members of the band. Stephanie Morgan’s voice popped into the song and her vocals did have a sort of vibrant vitality, full of barely contained energy that singers like Bjork and Macy Gray share. It’s a kind of register-cracking intensity that’s sifted through gravel. It’s not as unpleasant as it sounds, just very raw, energetic, and immediate.

The similarity to Bjork could have come across as an affectation, but as it flowed through the song, it seemed sincere. Often, Morgan was so full of energy that in between her singing duties, she shouted exhortations to her band and happy screams, all while smiling. I immediately thought of the Sugar Cubes, but without that band’s artsy pretensions. This music was darkly honest with a hidden energy.

Most of the songs that stephaniesid performed that evening had a way of building organically while keeping a high level of intensity. There was also a kind of friendly, party atmosphere where other singers in the audience or members from opening band would climb on stage, grab a microphone, and provide a harmony. This was done very successfully in their songs, “Mission from God,” and “Hey, Hey, Hey,” where the stage was full to bursting with musicians. It reminded me of powerful Southern Baptist church choirs, where everyone sways in time with the music, their voices optimistic.

This was the real strength of stephaniesid. Rather than just ending on a pleasant chorus and moving on, the band would build a song until it was filled with menace and power, and then release that pent up energy in a drawn out jam that could include any number of people adding their own voice to the mix, voices that oscillated around Morgan’s own unique sound.

One of the stronger pieces of the night, “Lonely in Manhattan,” was a soul-inflected ballad with another Asheville musician, Jar-E. The song itself was mostly a duet, both lonely and emotional. Moving like a waltz, the words echoed sadness, but there was no remorse there. The song seemed oddly different from the more complex tunes like “Cold Cold” and “Mission from God.” If it was simplistic, it was necessary for the song. It transmitted emotional content in a raw way that didn’t need the complex arrangement of extra percussion or singers that the other songs provided.

At the close of the show, all the people who had been seated were on their feet. The people who had been loitering in the back by the merch table, nursing a beer, were on the dance floor and smiling. The annoying high school kids who kept accidentally shoving their chairs into mine as I took down notes on the performance were right up at the front of the stage twirling and shaking happily.

Really, I think those last minutes of the show were a metaphor for the entire night. What started quietly and confidently with Heypenny, built into a miasma of dancing, laughing, and cheering at the end of stephaniesid’s encore. Any fan of indie-rock/pop that enjoys music by musicians like Radiohead, the Beatles, or Bjork should do themselves a favor and find these bands online. The only thing that could have made this night better was a nice burrito afterwards, but Spartanburg has yet to show me its burrito gold. Maybe next week.