Words by Willa Rudolph
Seeing a show “in the round” is sooooooo special. Le Poisson Rouge offers this, and I saw an incredible show there the other day–King Woman supported by Stella Rose.
Stella Rose was the perfect opener for this show, because she commands the crowd with elegance and authority. One thing about King Woman live is that she OWNS the entire room, and seemingly the world, while she’s on stage, so I’d think an opener for her would have to be able to achieve a similar effect.
A newer artist, Stella Rose more than held her own opening for the powerhouse that is King Woman. Her EP Hollybaby came out last year, which followed her debut album from 2023.
Her music is synthy dark-pop meets Siouxie and the Banshees. It’s doomy and fits in the universe of King Woman’s sounds. Stella Rose totally killed it and owned the stage–her outfit alone had me sold, but her voice backed it up 100%.
This is an excerpt from “MS. 45,” which is my favorite of her songs and I played this incessantly last winter.
Here’s a peep of their setlist I found backstage…is that messed up to share? Idk, I think it’s cute to share little things like that 🙂
Anyways, Stella Rose is daughter of Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, but she stands on her own two feet, for sure.
While her voice is loud and unwavering, she has an undeniable vulnerability in moments and flails herself around the stage with abandon, dancing like nobody’s watching.
Heavy metal, punk rock, and electronica are all referenced, resulting in the gunmetal sludge that is Stella Rose’s music.
King Woman’s music has elements of black metal and doom metal, but if they had a baby with shoegaze and post-rock. Kris’s voice is insane. It’s truly ground breaking, earthshaking, all encompassing…I could go on!
Their sophomore album, released in 2021 and titled Celestial Blues, is biblical in its epic proportions of sound. From her appearance and self-presentation to her world-building imagery and vocalizations, Kris references the godly, the ungodly, and the otherworldly.
Stomping about the stage in giant platform boots, waving her arms as if casting a spell over the whole crowd–which she very well may have been–her audience was enraptured, singing along to every word.
In between songs, the NYC & L.A.-based Serbian- and Iranian-American singer, songwriter, and producer shouted “FREE PALESTINE” and offered wise advice about how we all need to focus on being “decent human beings” to one another.
King Woman is a fighter, and she’s tough, but she has a softness and motherly-ness towards her audience. She takes care of them. She reminds them to keep going. That the only difference between herself and them is that she kept making music and performing ’til it wasn’t scary anymore.
I can’t get her imagery out of my mind as I watch her set: wings torn, bloody, lullabies and self-sacrifice…
Crowd favorites included “Morning Star” and “Boghz”.
The following video excerpt is from “Boghz”…which might be my favorite King Woman song…get down on my hands and knees for you / you know this is a lie / shot down by the arrows above.
Her tour dates are in Europe this summer, but she’s in NYC every now and then so definitely keep an eye out!
And if you like the idea of seeing music in the round, I highly recommend it! It was so awesome, and I think the venue killed the sound and lighting, too.
King Woman in Europe:
AUG 06-09 Brutal Assault 2025 Jaroměř, Czech Republic
AUG 07- 09 Sonic Blast 2025 Vila Praia de Âncora, Portugal
Looks like Stella has Europe tour dates this summer, also! Check it out:
