By Halley Freger

fregerha17@grinnell.edu

Perhaps you don’t imagine Herrick Chapel as the cool place to be on a Thursday night, but last night it was. Callie kicked off the night with a captivating set of her experimental electronic music.

She layered various kinds of dialogue, music and sounds into a textured cacophony of samples. She even added live vocals with her powerful voice. After Callie, Minneapolis based singer-songwriter Caroline Smith and her band performed a high-energy set that included music off of her album “Half About Being a Woman” and a few brand new songs. Although Smith has roots in indie-folk, her solo work in which she sings and plays guitar, is inspired by 90’s R&B and neo-soul. During an instrumental moment in one of her songs, she chatted with her backup vocalist and good friend Mina Moore.

The fun, improvised dialogue was reminiscent of something from a classic pop group like the Shangri-Las. Smith also performed an exciting cover of Alanis Morissette’s classic “You Oughta Know.” This song fit perfectly into Smith’s personal set in which she often reflected on her past romantic relationships.