Katie Gavin is on her first solo tour outside her band Muna, and she recently performed at The Atlantis in DC. The Atlantis is a small venue connected to the world-renown 930 Club; it holds only about a third of the 9:30’s capacity but makes for a perfect setting for Gavin’s acoustic set.

Gavin is currently touring to promote her new solo album, What a Relief, and played a very intimate show on Dec. 13 for a very enthusiastic sold-out audience at The Atlantis.

Nana Adjoa opened the show for Gavin and has played 12 of the 15 shows on Gavin’s current tour across America and played guitar during Gavin’s set afterwards.

Overall, the show was fantastic giving both outstanding musicians an opportunity to play instruments in a crowd that loved acoustic songs in such a compact venue. The sounds of the evening radiated throughout the venue.

The mood at the show was a dark setting but this tended to accentuate the acoustic numbers allowing the songs to be heard more precisely. Gavin proved not only that she is great singer in a band such as Muna, but also is more than capable of building a great rapport with the audience even though she admitted she may have been a little anxious at the beginning of the set, but was easily able to overcome this and begin conversely earnestly with the crowd after her heartfelt presentation of her song “Sparrow” from the new album. The new record’s “Sweet Abby Girl” also was a standout song of the evening.

Stream “Sparrow” by Katie Gavin on YouTube:

Gavin perhaps is first and foremost is a great songwriter. This was evident as she sang song after song in a room that you could have heard a pen drop at times. The vibe of the occasion much different than a Muna show, which has more electric guitar-driven pop-rock songs. During Gavin’s solo set, you could hear influences from country, bluegrass, and jazz during the songs. Her songwriting may even compare to legendary songstress Suzanne Vega during specific moments with her very profound way of speaking her lyrics during a song. The fans loved it.

Halfway through the show, Gavin advised that she was happy she could talk with people throughout her show and even brought her sister Emily up on stage to do a song at one point.

Gavin’s tour has been 95% sold-out, and her popularity continuing to grow with this latest release. She has a beautiful voice and easily controls the stage while performing encapsulating the audience in attention. There was very little movement during songs as the audience easily sank into the great songs played by Gavin. Anyone who enjoys great songwriting, and those songs played live should go see a Gavin solo show. I am hoping that we see a new offering by Muna as well going into 2025. It was a very entertaining and rewarding evening of music.

Gavin will close-out her tour on tonight Thalia Hall in Chicago.

Here are some photos of Katie Gavin performing at The Atlantis in DC on Dec. 13, 2024. All pictures copyright and courtesy of James Todd Miller.