Seattle songstress Dice celebrated her Reflections In Broken Glass album release party at Barboza on December 20. The relaxing lounge-style venue filled up with fans and local names, including Nacho Picasso, Jake One, Jarv Dee, DJ Hyphen, The Good Sin and others. They were all here for her, and surely would not leave disappointed.
The opening acts were surprisingly all great to watch. Camila Recchio played the piano and sang beautifully. Gift Uh Gab is a female lyricist coming out of the Moor Gang. Xperience, who just got off tour with Macklemore, proved to be another example of a good rapper and a good singer, and some stuff was highly experimental and different. Now it was time to meet the woman of the hour.
Debuting her new band, The HighRollers, Dice was very nervous. A couple early stumbles (and admitting them) couldn’t stop her from eventually shining through the whole performance. Performing mostly material off Reflections…, it was fun watching her talk in between songs as it added more personality to the woman behind the songs. A couple stand out moments were when she explained her vicious verse on “Coat Tails” and the story of the producer behind “Slow Down” not letting her use it two days before mastering. Vitamin D to the rescue, though.
In terms of the music, Dice’s voice is heavenly. The transition from studio to performing doesn’t always work well in every singer, but it only strengthened herrecords. The little noticeable additions and pitch ranges distinguishable from the album’s made all the difference. While she’s been around for a couple years, it was this night that really introduced us to the potential star that is Dice.
Observation: Kendra in her red dress.
Observation 2: Vitamin D’s set consisted of a lot of abstract choices ranging from Junior Reid to Amy Winehouse. This was better than just throwing on “what’s hot,” I might add.
