Playing a hometown show can be nerve-wracking when it’s been years since you’ve done a proper one. But the anxiety went away for Kina Grannis as soon as she took to the stage.
Grannis performed a sold-out show Sunday night at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles, singing songs old, new and some she hasn’t played before a live crowd ever before.
Her husband Jesse Epstein, the singer-songwriter also known as Imaginary Future, opened the show as per usual, with songs inspired by their early days of dating in high school (and how she’d slip extra frappucino orders to him as a barista) to “how far Kina and I have come and how far we have to go.”
(Tiffany Wong/Kore Asian Media)
Grannis’ bright, cheery acoustics, confessional songs about love, family or being stuck in Jakarta (“100 Days in Jakarta”) were accompanied by moments of crowd sing-alongs and choked-up moments of missing home.
She played songs from 2014’s “Elements” (“Dear River,” “Little Worrier”), crowd favorites from 2010’s “Stairwells” (“In Your Arms,” “Valentine”), her signature cover songs tinged with her own unique takes (“Oops, I Did It Again,” “Creep”), her first live rendition of “California” and — of course — her breakout single which landed her a contract with Interscope Records, “Message From Your Heart.”
In April of this year, Grannis, along with the help of her many friends, followers and Patreon supporters, started her own record label, KGRecords, comprised entirely of her own patrons. Though still a work in progress, under it she has released two songs inspired by her detainment in Jakarta (“California,” “For Now”) and two new ones (“When Will I Learn,” “Beth”).
“We are all here in this speck of time, sharing this moment together in the grand scheme of our lives,” Grannis said at one point, as she surveyed the crowd.
Support Grannis’s user-funded record label KGRecords at http://weareKGrecords.com.
