REVIEW: Rainbow Girls foster a space to feel and be
07/29 @ Caffe Lena, Saratoga
“Sitting feet away from them, listening to them pour out their most vulnerable moments, there is a space created in which all you can do is feel.”
Right about this time last year, I wrote my first ever review for Metroland after seeing Rainbow Girls at Caffe Lena. At the time, it was a bit of a shot in the dark: I needed to dive headfirst into reviewing, had always wanted to check out Lena, and thought Rainbow Girls sounded like a cool band name, backed up by some solid Spotify tracks. I left the show as a brand new fan blown away by their gorgeous three-part harmonies, raw lyrics, and overall warmth and genuineness. Naturally, when I saw that they were back at Lena this summer, I knew I had to see them again.
Erin Chapin, Caitlin Gowdey, and Vanessa May surveyed the crowd to see how many audience members had been at their show in 2024…only about five people raised their hands. While you might see this as a negative, I see it as a net win: two years in a row they were able to pack the room with people willing to take a chance on them, rather than relying on a homogeneous fan base. And, just like I had been before, these newcomers were wooed by their charm.
The three women weaved in and out of center stage, trading instruments and lead parts with one another as they wound through their more popular tracks like “Unwavering,” “Free Wine,” and “How To Deal.” Masterful dynamics pulled you in close, then sent you back out to sea, drifting on melodic bass or bobbing along with Chapin and May’s occasional beatboxing that took the place of physical percussion.
While I was enraptured by their sound, there was something different that struck me towards the end of the first set. The beauty of their harmonies is the sweet sugar that’s sprinkled over the knot of complex emotions and tangled web of modern challenges that each track grapples with. “Santa Anna,” off their 2021 record Rolling Dumpster Fire, is a quintessential example of this. Referencing the Santa Ana winds of California, known to make their destructive wildfires even worse, the song is a reflection on the natural disasters that maybe aren’t so natural. “No amount of braking can slow the crash of time,” May croons about our climate crisis, but it’s the kind of lyric you can apply to any deep conflict.
The same expansiveness can be felt during a newer track, “if i saw you now,” off the 2024 record HAUNTING. Chapin reveals that the “you” is an abusive ex-boyfriend who she often thinks about meeting once more. Rather than meeting him with violence and anger, she meets him with caution and curiosity: “If I saw you now, would I forgive all the cruelty? Would I weigh your traumas with mine, all those ill-fated lines that you gave to me?...I hope you’ve changed.”
While the sound is what initially drew me in, it’s songs like these that took me back to Rainbow Girls this year. Sitting feet away from them, listening to them pour out their most vulnerable moments, there is a space created in which all you can do is feel. It’s expansive, it’s confusing, it’s dark and light and gray in between. Hell, a later lyric in that track is, “I climbed in through your window with my hopes on high / Then I slipped into the shadows while you got your ride / In that far-from-fairytale where you skinned me alive.” That’s quite nearly gothic imagery, yet it’s sung in such a mournfully beautiful way that you’re stuck between the traumas of the past and the lightness of peering back with maturity and distance.
Truly, I could go on and on about the worlds we inhabit that Rainbow Girls illuminate the deep corners of. I didn’t even talk about “American Dream” (“Unfathomable luxury, a plan for growing old” is just hitting too close to home for many of us right now). Walking out of the show, I had the feeling of just *existing*. Not worrying, not overly excited, just present in my space and grateful for this moment of experiencing art with all of the people in that room. If you haven’t felt that way in a while, then I truly hope you find it soon – perhaps turning on Rainbow Girls will help.
