Song Spotlight: Rose Droll's With Strangers (a night at The Fable)

When Rose Droll and band mates started setting up on The Fable stage for a Ryan Pollie night, I was initially confused. Her band took their places in the area of the "stage" that is usually reserved for the lead singer. I use quotes around stage, because it really isn't a stage. It is just an open corner of the bar that is used by bands. I was looking at them and the faces definitely did not match to what I had seen on Instagram. She eventually rolled on up taking her place catacorner to her band, sitting behind her keyboard. 

Rose Droll at The Fable

I will admit that I have no clue, which songs were on her seven song setlist. I wrote down some random lyrics from the songs and can't pinpoint them to any specific song. Just based on how I do these blog posts I do like to know at least some of the songs that are on the setlist. So yes, I basically felt like I was off kilter. 

But here I am writing a blog post. Why? I just found the music interesting. The music pacing was mostly a quiet relaxing nature with the keyboards taking center stage and a soft backing from the drum kit and bass. There were backing vocals provided, as well. 

Rose Droll at The Fable

Yet there was an under current of discordant clashing between the three musical instruments. Perhaps that was driven by Rose Droll's singing that at times was classic singer-songwriter purity and then at other moments a willingness to push her vocals in the operatic direction. The backing vocals added to the undercurrent of clashing sounds. The music isn't looking for melodic perfection, but instead wants to have the listener's ears trying to put together the random puzzle pieces into a whole picture. 

The crowd fully appreciated the complications of the music as loud cheers followed the conclusion of the set. 

Rose Droll at The Fable

In 2024, Rose Droll released the album With Strangers. She mentions on her Spotify page that her music is about the "exploration of the human experience." Her lyrics is a self-examination of her procrastination, about decisions that friends make and how a similar decision needs to be made, and a potentially too close dependency on her therapist.  

The title track "With Strangers" looks are her drinking and how friends are concerned about her. Though she may be in denial due to her talks with her therapist:

So don’t you think I’d know it after all these years
Of working through in leather chairs

Rose Droll's drummer at The Fable

Comment 1 of the set: Usually, I'm hilarious

Comment 2 of the set: We're going to have to do some surgery on this guy.   

Comment 3 of the set: Wrote about a dog's house when most people can't afford a house.

Do I suspect her whole set was purposely meant to put people like me off kilter? Probably.