Show Review: Spill Tab performs at Sounds That Move Festival, Brooklyn.
Written by Arianna Conti
NEW YORK – Back in the city to celebrate one year since her album ANGIE was released, Spill Tab closed the first ever Sounds That Move festival in Brooklyn at The Chocolate Factory on Sunday, May 17. The festival takes place across several club-oriented venues on one avenue in Bushwick and is designed to highlight the next generation of musicians in a block party style.
Spill Tab shared the Sunday graveyard shift at The Chocolate Factory with the one-woman show hailing all the way from Australia, Olivia C. Dacal, who had fans all on the barricade to kick the night off. Following Dacal was Merges, whose cover of Landslide by Fleetwood Mac hypnotized the audience with her fusion of country, R&B, and alternative sounds.
Claire Chica created the Spill Tab persona during her time at New York University, but her love and passion for music goes beyond her time in the city. Her upbringing spans across multiple cities—born in Bangkok and raised in both Los Angeles and Paris—Chica’s sound ranges from a light bedroom pop to more euro-centric melodies where she sings in both French and Spanish.
Her music spans a plethora of genres. Chica’s collaborations with artists like Gus Dapperton on Velcro and JAWNY on Grade A push her sound to resemble more of pop and hip hop; yet she was also a supporting act for alternative R&B and lo-fi artist Joji’s Nectar coast to coast tour in 2021, dance pop artist Sabrina Carpenter’s Emails I Can’t Send tour in 2023, and shared the stage with electropop artist Charli XCX for the We Love Green festival in 2024.
At The Chocolate Factory, Spill Tab and her band connected with the audience through a call-and-response portion of her dream pop song Suckerrr as soon as they took the stage. The set began with bassist Caleb Buchanan leading the crowd to participate in the song, immediately casting the line baited by the spectacle that is Spill Tab. The creative liberty of the stage being centered allowed the walls to host projections of dream-like visuals of the seasons and silhouetted dancers, a means to reel fans in.
Spill Tab facilitated a show that felt intimate with casual conversations about her time in the city and love for a chopped cheese—a New York City bodega sandwich—along with playing cartoon sound effects with her band. Prior to playing fan favorite PISTOLWHIP, Spill Tab announced to the crowd that they’d be cranking the energy up for the remainder of the set, and the liveliness could be felt all the way into the balcony, where no one remained seated. It was an absolute banger—everyone had left the show a fan if they weren’t already.
Chica’s ability to waste no time in between switching it up from a gentle ballad on the guitar to thrashing around in an intentional way between her fans and drummer Gabe Stout gives her an incredible edge on performers today, all while doing it on a stage that can barely fit a four-piece band.
