Catie Turner Performs Comedy & Tragedy: Act 1
Catie Turner is skilled at turning her personal songwriting into a universal experience, letting her situation parallel listeners' lives. Comedy & Tragedy: Act 1 is the singer’s latest release, having come out earlier this month. To celebrate the release, Turner is currently on a US tour. I caught her at her stop in Brooklyn, NY.
Opening the night were Baby Fisher and Sophie Holohan. Baby Fisher warmed up the audience with his bluesy songs and anecdotes behind them. Holohan followed with her acoustic guitar, stunning the crowd with her voice.
After the openers, the stage was quickly revamped, with a vanity mirror taking center stage and a rotary phone on a table nearby. A recorded voice memo prompted Turner’s appearance and she took the stage to cheers from the crowd.
Opening with the stripped-back “God Must Hate Me,” Turner had the crowd singing along to the emotional song. Turner quickly moved into “Nothing,” an upbeat track that had the crowd moving.
Joking about how nobody knows her earlier material, Turner had a spinner wheel filled in with previous releases. Making the show interactive, Turner called on a fan to spin the wheel to allow fate to take the choice out of her hands. Dancing around on stage and connecting with the audience, it’s clear that Turner loves performing.
Leaning into the comedy portion of the night, Turner used the rotary phone to call Sophie Holohan back on stage. Together, the two surprised the crowd with a duet of “Breaking Free” from High School Musical. The audience was definitely soaring and flying alongside the two friends.
Turner's easy-going personality makes it feel like you’re on FaceTime with your best friend instead of watching someone on stage in a room full of other people. When it came to performing “Home,” Turner explained how she found it on a Wattpad story and if you don't know what Wattpad was, consider yourself lucky.
The band left the stage as Turner went acoustic for the song. Flashlights went up around the venue as Turner sang the song about missing someone when they’re away. The crowd joined in on the chorus and it felt magical to have hundreds of voices singing “And I just want to go home / home” in unison. For the last chorus, Turner ditched the guitar and went acapella with the audience.
“You don't love me, you just love control,” Turner also has a ragier side that she fully lets out when performing “Control.” As she jumped around on stage with her band, the audience leaned into the heavier track, embracing the rockier side of Turner.
The title track of the EP, “Comedy & Tragedy” followed. A deeply personal songwriter, Turner writes about her own life and experiences. While writing about her father, Turner diffuses the tragic situation with comedy, cracking jokes in her writing. Showing who she really is, underneath the vibrant, bubbly personality, there’s also sadness. Emphasizing Tuner's nuances, this song feels like getting to know Turner and all she is.
Turner made light of the song on stage. “Is she really going to leave us with a song about her dead dad?” the singer joked as she explained how she didn’t have time to pretend to leave the stage for an encore. Instead, the singer chose to hide behind the drum set and emerge to fake gasps from the audience to perform the encore.
“Who here likes their dad?” Turner asked before launching into “Step Mom.” The “Stacy’s Mom” like song had a change of pace and comedic relief after the previous emotionally heavy track.
The final song of the night was “Hometown.” A warning that you should not date anyone from your hometown, the track was the perfect choice to end the night on an anthemic note.
Comedy & Tragedy: Act 1 is what the title is: a spectrum of emotion to be the soundtrack of your life.
Stay tuned to hear Comedy & Tragedy: Act 2.
See Catie Tuner on tour here.
See photos from the show here.