Here in the lovingly begrimed basement of Minneapolis’ historic 7th Street Entry, where Hüsker Dü’s first album Land Speed Record was cut and indie kids still show to fill their cups, Squirrel Flower is about to split some ears. The Chicago-by-way-of-Iowa-by-way-of-Massachusetts (she was born there), guitarist and singer is ready for her second straight sell-out show. It’s also the second night of her US tour, which began the prior evening at another notable venue, Chicago’s Lincoln Hall. It’s the first day with temperatures above 0°F that the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul have seen in two weeks. It’s a whopping 10°F. The sun has been shining all day. “It’s warm and gorgeous outside,” was a phrase overheard not once, but twice. The cold doesn’t bother the adopted Midwesterner at all. Squirrel Flower, whose real name is Ella Williams, loves whatever this region throws at her.
What’s not to love? The scenes are tight-knit and thriving. Ella met most of her band after climbing out of Lake Michigan and into Chicago’s sound. One of her roadies grew up across the Mississippi River in Saint Paul. She had a brief stint here in Minneapolis. She started making music with her drummer Jacob in their final semester at Grinnell College in Iowa. They’re all accustomed to driving six hours so they can play the next major city. Right now the band is sleeping off their first road trip of this tour on a couch that’s probably had notable asses like Kurt Cobain’s planted on it. No offense to the fine folks at First Avenue, but there’s no way any furniture in this room has been replaced in 34 years. These car-tired sleepyhead’s bellies are also filled with pho from one of Minneapolis’ many no-frills Vietnamese restaurants. There are plastic to-go soup containers half-filled with beef broth scattered about the room. Ella is curled up on another grungy couch with a hoodie pulled over her curly hair. She presses her hands between her sweatshirt and mane. “I think when people have the space and time to live comfortably and foster community, that’s when the best art is made,” she said.
Many boots are sauntering through venue doors to get a glimpse at Squirrel Flower’s contributions to this great big world of musical arts. Ella’s Chicago clique is one she gladly let spark this ongoing US tour. She hasn’t been submerged in it since October 2023. That’s when her new album Tomorrow’s Fire came out on Polyvinyl Records. Squirrel Flower packed up after the release, headed out to play the east coast, then hopped the Atlantic to hit up concert halls and festivals across the UK and EU. After playing for strangers and hanging with new pals Wednesday, Porridge Radio and Water From Your Eyes, Ella planted herself right back in the thick of the community she loves. Rubbing elbows with your foreign fans and contemporary musicians would have soothed some artists before coming home. Ella admittedly got the jitters.
“I find I’m most nervous when I’m playing for people that I know,” she said. “What if they hate it? It’s harder to slip into a persona too, which is of course part of being a performer. You’re not entirely yourself when you’re up there. A lot of the time, if I feel slightly nervous, once I get on stage, it goes away completely. It’s more just the anticipation.”
She suggests taking her time after hitting the venue floor puts her at ease. It brings her guitar’s clamor into focus.
“If I feel like I need to be upbeat, rushed or too energetic, it throws the music off,” she said. “Because a lot of my music relies on space and slugginess.”
Ella knows her routine. It’s certainly expansive. There are intervals of elevation. Then it knocks you right in the face.
*The following story could well be the tale of the first “best concert” a cramped room of Minneapolitans filled like sardines in a dimly lit venue have seen this year.*
It’s 10:30 on a Saturday night. One of the most popular artists on the road right now is about to take the stage. This at-capacity crowd just saw local act Products Band have a weirdo punk freakout. LA crew GOON had the “music is all I think about” type attendees buzzing. There was a nearly eerie anticipation. Cue Ella and her band. There’s a magnificent roar. The Squirrel Flower crew picks up their instruments. They don’t strum a single string or hammer sticks to the drum kit. Ella walks up to the microphone. She starts singing a track she’s released twice, “i don’t use a trash can.” Her voice is the only sound. Every concertgoer is staring in awe. The band looks down at the stage. Pedalboards are at their feet, waiting to be stomped. When Ella finishes the final line, “I’m not gonna change my sheets, my sheets, my sheets, my sheets,” she softly breathes. A slow clap emerges. Finally that first long and drawn guitar note hits. She starts the most streamed hit from her latest full-length, “Full Time Job,” playing in a key or two higher than the studio version. When the stanza “But it doesn’t pay the rent,” arrives, so does that predicted loudness.
The whole performance checks the boxes on that space and slugginess Ella promised.
In a day and age where the shoegaze renaissance is (in this writer’s opinion, worthy of) all (okay, most of) the rage, Ella is doing something comparable in tone but completely separate. It’d be foolish to call this anything other than rock music. Ella would prefer not to label her sound, but she’d settle for witch rock if she didn’t have a choice. Just thank the fine folks who published her Spotify bio for that.
The beginning of this live performance is akin to Squirrel Flower’s discography. Tomorrow’s Fire is a tad of a far cry from her debut LP. On 2015’s Early Winter Songs from Middle America, Ella had an unadorned take.
“The first few things I put out were all sparse and incredibly minimalist,” she said, still playing with her hooded shirt. “Then I made another EP. That was me picking up distortion for the first time ever and it felt so fucking empowering. These new songs are very different from the other EPs and albums, but they lend themselves to being loud. It’s about frustration and desperation. Heavy emotions. Let’s call it ‘loud guitar music.’ That’s why I call it witch rock. Because it’s just easier. I’ve never been good at categorizing myself.”
One last thought on witch rock: Does playing this self-described style mean you can cast spells? Are spells cast on you? Perhaps another witch rocker alakazamed Ella into not knowing the difference between indestructible human slab of muscle, John Cena, the wrestler, from human plastic bag waiting to be whisked away in the wind, Joe Pera, the comedian.
“One time we played a tour stop at Bottlerocket in Pittsburgh and Joe Pera was there,” she recalled while her eyes rolled back into her head, as if she was still under some magic sorcery that couldn’t differentiate between two very opposite human beings. “To be honest, I thought that it was John Cena. Like, I thought the name Joe Pera was John Cena. I was like, oh shit, this crazy wrestler is at my show. But then I was educated that he is a lanky comedian. He walked by and said ‘good job.’
Joe Pera is known for liking cool music, by the way.
And there are, in fact, plenty of chances to see cool shows in the next few weeks. By good fortune, Squirrel Flower’s US Tour is just getting started. Ella carries on out west before lassoing the tour van down south and back up the east coast. She’ll play over 20 shows between late January and February. Maybe then the Squirrel Flower band will come back home to their community, still filled with some jitters. Perhaps community will be found in comfortable nooks along the way. A lucky reader might get to experience it in one of those cities. As Ella believes, that is where the best art is made. Show up, be comfortable and feel the slow-burning sludge.
You can stay updated with Squirrel Flower by following Ella on Instagram. Subscribe to Beyond The Stage for more music news and exclusive interviews. Follow Beyond The Stage Magazine on Instagram.
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