Mia Riddle is a Brooklyn singer songwriter who fronts a six piece indie folk band. She has been performing every Monday night in June at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn 9:30pm, no cover. Her show was part of her residency, and had a relaxed, familial feel to it despite the fact that it was absolutely packed with Riddle's admirers. Pete's is doing a great job providing an intimate and at times joyous setting for local Brooklyn musicians as well as national and even international acts. As this was the last Monday in June, Riddle's show had a special celebratory feel. There were celebration balloons everywhere in the small room (more about the balloons later), and the audience was clearly enthusiastic about Riddle, the band and the show. It's always great to be part of an audience that cares about the musicians and the performance.

Riddle took the stage wearing a white sleeveless blouse covered by a brown leather vest with a thin headband across her head. She had the look of a young hippie an appropriate appearance considering the Neil Young/ Fleetwood Mac type sound her band creates. Small stages are popular for exploring new material and Riddle remarked that “Our thesis for the evening was that we were going to play all the songs from the new record…so this is like a project.” Riddle played the guitar through most of her set, but was even more charismatic without it dancing around singing energetically. On many songs, Riddle was provided harmonies by her female keyboardist, Amy Merrill and the two women’s voices were great together. Riddle’s new songs were mostly melancholy love ballads that sounded similar to each other, and flowed one into the other without memorable highlights. Her singing style has a conversational, even confessional feel. She has said that although some people see her music as bittersweet, she sees her songs as based on honesty. While I felt that her songs were sweet but too similar, I also felt that Mia Riddle has a greater range than I heard last night. Her final song was easily her best with Riddle dancing around the stage perhaps not so coincidentally without her guitar.

The room was humid to an uncomfortable degree, and the stage must have been sweltering under the exposed bulbs that frame the Candy Store’s tiny stage. At the beginning of the set, Mia’s vocals were far too loud, causing a friend of the singer to advise her to turn them down. I found the heat and sound dynamics to be an issue all night with symbol crashes often overwhelming the pallet of sounds. The band occasionally played at a higher volume than the small room could comfortably withstand causing the festive special occasion balloons to explode intermittently.