Caroline Rose Brought Fun, Laughter, and Life to a Cold and Miserable NYC Day

April 3rd was another cold dreary day in NYC, but when I received an email regarding photo approval to shoot Caroline Rose at Rough Trade, my day immediately got brighter. I discovered Rose through roaming some music websites that had reviewed her recent release "LONER." It seemed to get some pretty positive feedback so I decided to give it a listen and was instantly hooked.

The stage decoration for Rose’s show indicated that it wasn’t going to be a boring show. The back of the stage featured an Elmo looking thing on top of a speaker, there were fake roses everywhere, and the spotlights were even red. Rose embraced her last name to create an image for herself as an artist and it shows through everything she does on stage and in her music. Caroline Rose and her band, consisting of drummer Willoughby Morse, supporting guitar/bass/keyboard Abbie Morin (her best friend) and Josh Speers, came out rocking to a sold out Rough Trade NYC. Together they filled the stage with energy and life that made you forget how miserable the weather was outside in April. They played with such a passion and emulated a sense that they we’re having the time of their lives. Throughout the show Rose would engage and talk to the audience about what the next song was going to be about (she started a running joke that the next song she was going to play is going to be the crowd’s favorite song) and also about something random that happened during their day in NYC or while traveling on the road. She brought a sense of humor to a concert, which is rare to see. Whether it was going off-cuff talking about tacos that didn’t sit well at a city they performed in, or retelling events that led to bad sex on a lawn that eventually inspired a song (she apologized for that one because her parents were in the audience), Rose added a great deal of personality to the performance and I along with the rest of the audience loved every moment of it.

In the music sense, Rose is considered to be pop-rock, however I thought it was so much more than that listening live. She incorporated a lot of synthesizer and electronic keyboard, along with high pitch guitar chords, giving the music a kind of surfer-rock feel that I really enjoyed grooving to. That’s not to say she was laid back and doing a side-to-side sway strumming her guitar, cause she did the exact opposite. Rose would jump around, hair flip, get on her knees to riff, and spin round and round as she shredded some guitar solos. It was a wild performance.

I can’t emphasize enough how fun this concert was. There was never a lull, there was never a moment of calm. Caroline Rose entertained the audience from start to finish and I couldn’t be happier that I was able to catch her live. I highly recommend downloading her newest album "LONER," and to see her show when she comes around to your neck of the woods!

Coverage by Mike Golembo

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