It’s always a quietly wonderful moment when, in or outside of the venue, you pass the artist you’re there to see play. It happened back in April at The White Hotel, when Cameron Picton of My New Band Believe weaved his way through the crowd during opener Kiran Leonard’s set. Here, too, outside YES, I watched as Skullcrusher — real name Helen Ballentine — walked past me and a friend. She was on the phone, so I simply smiled at her, and she at me; my friend, oblivious, was stunned after I told her who we’d just crossed paths with.
It’s grounding, in a way: it can be so easy to hold musicians you revere to a higher standard than that to which you hold yourself, forgetting in the process that they’re also people, muddling through their lives, who sometimes talk with a friend on the phone about feeling stressed, like you. Never gets any less weird, though, especially when they’re a similar height to or smaller than you, and in my case Ballentine was the latter.
Sticking with this notion of musicians, while being incredible talents in the business of composition, being just like you and I, may I introduce you to the night’s support act, ‘jo from school’! A Londoner with a refreshing lightness and a great ear for melody, Jo performed six original songs for us, singing and playing a brilliant blue electric guitar. From her first tune ‘Release’, Jo’s ability both as a guitarist and as a captivating singer was established. Alike to Phoebe Bridgers in more ways than just her bright blonde hair, Jo’s voice was simultaneously soft and passionate as she fingerpicked a gorgeous melody.
While evidently taking inspiration from folky artists like Bridgers, Big Thief and Ballentine herself, Jo is also not afraid to do things differently. For her song ‘Underhand’, she stuck a thin square of sponge beneath the strings near the bottom of her guitar, so that, when she plucked them, they sounded almost like those on a banjo in how muted they were. She also spoke a bit with the crowd as she did so, telling us she’d been learning what ‘sponge’ was in different languages over the course of the tour (her favourite being the German ‘schwamm’).
She also remembered last minute to inform us that the songs she played for us are set to be released on an EP coming out (I think!) in August. Two of them are currently available to stream, and they were lovely live. Her first release, ‘Chicken’, is a pleasant acoustic number whose main allure comes from Jo’s delivery and the small yet important flourishes she adds (such as the breathed ‘ha, ha ha’s before the verses and the slight dissonance she incorporates into the melody). ‘Julia Roberts’, her second single, is a track about a school friend (rather than the actress, though I don’t know if she was joking) and ‘thinking you don’t deserve to be where you are’. The unaccompanied version of this that she played for us was stunning, and one of my personal standouts from the set; some favourite moments being when she sang/yelled the end of the song’s refrain and the little discordant broken chord in the instrumental that follows (specific, I know, and unfortunately it’s not as audible on the recording – you’ll just have to see her live, I’m afraid…).
Including the other two songs she performed, ‘Six years of keeping on’ and ‘Weight’ (which had a gorgeous call-and-response thing going on with the vocal and guitar melodies), I found jo from school’s set to be thoroughly enjoyable and moving. To paraphrase one of Skullcrusher’s lyrics (for a song that was on the setlist), I’d like to think she’s going places!
Now, onto the headliner’s set. For this show (and the tour overall), Skullcrusher comprised Helen Ballentine, from New York, on vocals and electric guitar and Adelyn Strei, with roots in the Midwest but based in NYC, on flute and clarinet, as well as effects pedals and backing vocals. While just two people on stage, the expansive soundscapes they created together — largely courtesy of Strei and her pedals — would’ve had you thinking there was more (if, say, a curtain hid them from view). That said, this was as much Strei’s show as it was Ballentine’s; the latter’s decision to play with another musician, as opposed to doing a solo acoustic set which, yes, would’ve worked, but would’ve ultimately been a lot less interesting, paying off to spellbinding effect.
The pair kicked things off with ‘Building A Swing’, the second track from Skullcrusher’s 2023 debut album ‘Quiet the Room’. As with all of the songs on that album, it has a wistfulness and vulnerability about it that is immediately endearing. Honestly, though, I wouldn’t have expected it to be the opener, let alone on the setlist. Ballentine said early on in the show to anticipate a mixture of ‘different eras’, which it was (seven songs from the 2023 record, four from her latest and two from other EPs — but I feel like she could’ve picked a better composition of hers to begin with. ‘They Quiet the Room’, if it had to be a song from her debut, would’ve been more effective (and more apt, given it is that album’s opener).
I was glad to hear what she played afterwards, anyway: ‘Whatever Fits Together’, which follows ‘Building a Swing’ on the debut, and then ‘Song for Nick Drake’ and ‘Pass Through Me’. Over the course of these performances, the importance of the musician on the stage’s right-hand side became increasingly apparent. From the clarinet part in ‘Whatever’ to the canon vocals at the end of ‘Nick Drake’ and the exquisite warping, via pedals, of ‘Pass Through Me’ as it tapered off, I found myself marvelling more and more at Strei’s musicianship, and at Ballentine’s ingenuity in bringing her with her on the tour.
Next, we had a track from last year’s ‘And Your Song is Like a Circle’. ‘Periphery’, one of my favourites from the record, is hypnotic and down-tempo, qualities that saw it work particularly well stripped-back and with Strei’s clarinet accompaniment. ‘Changes’, another ‘Circle’ number, worked in a similar way, the flute part and pedal ambience provided by Strei elevating what was already a beautiful composition.
The songs they played from ‘Circle’, including the similarly sparse ‘Vessel’ and ‘The Emptying’, were delightful — there was just too few of them in the setlist. I think that they could’ve done with a computer or drum machine (likely manned by Ballentine as Strei was already covering so many bases) which would’ve enabled them to perform some of the album’s more electronic tracks like ‘Maelstrom’ or ‘Dragon’, which are really beautiful and would’ve been great live. Moreover, this brings us to the unspoken social contract forged between audience member and performer in the run-up to a show: if you’re touring off the back of a new album, it’s fair to say that your audience would attend with the expectation that the setlist would be mostly made up of songs from that new album. Though a simple and, for some, inconsequential thing, I think that Ballentine’s decisions regarding the setlist prevented the show from being as good and memorable as it could have been
Unfortunately, I have yet another issue with the choices as to which songs from the ‘different eras’ to play. I feel, overall, that too many songs from the debut were included where other, more impactful ones could have been instead. For instance, only one track from Skullcrusher’s first, self-titled EP — her most successful release to date — was played, ‘Places/Plans’. It’s a stunning composition, as are the three others on the EP, and I would’ve much preferred to have heard one or more of those in place of the smattering of ‘They Quiet the Room’ instrumentals included, to my mind, simply because they lead into or follow on from other ‘Room’ songs (‘Outside, playing’ into ‘It’s like a secret’, for example).
Minor gripes on the table, I did relish the chance to see Skullcrusher live, and I liked all of the stripped-back renditions of her songs that Ballentine and Strei presented to us. I only wish that the setlist was more balanced to incorporate more cuts from this latest record and her self-titled EP.
The show was promoted by Now Wave. Details of all their forthcoming events can be found at Now Wave – Home
