By: Daiyu Tang
I was over at CU some days ago to cover the impromptu concert given by Tasha and her supporting friends. It was a unique experience being that it was situated in the bowl of a Skate Park, surrounded by rails, ramps and more. Still, Tasha and her support including DJ Isabis, had managed to lug their stuff to the location in Columtreal and setup on top of one of the smaller features from where they could command the crowd.
This was music in a raw setting and raw format and perhaps the name, ‘Simple Girl’ really did fit well with the setting. The sound system was assembled that morning by the performers themselves, and the evidence of that assembly, cables taped to the floor, a mixer that looked like it had survived Hathian trauma was visible throughout. The whole event, including the crowd, spoke to the informal arrangement of people who happened to be there (as artists, or as the crowd) rather than people who came specifically for something polished and ‘produced’.
So What Was it Like?
It was a mix of songs, covering a range of topics and styles (including some rather mystical elements, and possibly a flute…). We’ve picked out some of our favourites below:
There was a track, ‘Not About Anger’ which opened the headlining set. The material it drew from had been announced publicly as a collection of anger, but the opening song is about joy. Specifically, the joy of skating: girls slipping out at midnight with kneepads, meeting under broken lights, riding concrete at speed. Not about anger, it’s the wind, it’s the wind.
‘When I’m grinding, I’m free’. The chorus is simple enough bring memories and passion, to bring joy from simpler acts.
Brother followed, and the transition from joy to loyalty was an emotional gear change. Tasha announced the dedication for her coach, a CU instructor named Soren. The song moves through three distinct cultural frameworks for loyalty and the rap-to-spoken-word shifts were clean rather than jarring.
Tasha delivered the final verse by walking off the stage, into the pit, and rapping it directly to the man’s face with a fist extended. The moment either works completely or collapses into self-indulgence. The crowd seemed to like it.
Let’s Talk About Bees and Flowers was introduced as a dare fulfilled. She had written a song about bees and flowers and delivered it through an extended metaphor of the same political content that would have appeared more directly in other singers. The worker bee trusting dishonest blossoms. The hollow nectar. The painted sugar. The truth of bees and flowers. This was the first appearance of a carved wooden flute, and Tasha used it to great impact on this song.
Crashing Waves was dedicated to Denise, announced from the stage with the directness that implied Tasha was settling a debt. The song was performed without the flute and what it was performed with was body paint. Tasha removed her shirt mid-song to reveal a painting across her bare torso: fractured ribs rendered in detail, and within them a heart. The image was precise enough to suggest it had been applied by someone who knew what they were doing and intended it to be seen. Valor removed his own shirt simultaneously. The crowd’s response was immediate and sustained.
The Void followed, and the transition from Crashing Waves to The Void was the concert’s most demanding sequence. Tasha performed the song entirely in the body paint, top still off, which transformed the earlier image from a revelation into a sustained exposure.
Simple Girl arrived next as something that required a costume change and got one. Tasha pulled on a pink top covered in hearts and placed a plastic crown on her head. The song mourned the adolescence not had, diary with stickers, mall Saturdays, crush texts, the pastel world by identifying exactly who took it. ‘You built the blaze in which I burned‘
More details of the albums and details of how to listen to the songs are available on Tasha’s various socials ((Reach out to her in-world)).
Encores Followed
Encores were given, a song about the Bayou Road. Then later, Isabis killed the stage mix. It was a great CU party and one that those present will surely remember.
