Ruston Kelly does not fit in. He isn’t making purely country music, or rock and roll, or even Americana. Instead, he has embraced genre-bending by creating one of his own: Dirt Emo. And it is the aptest description of the kind of grungy, moody, slightly twangy songs that make up his 2018 debut record Dying Star, and his recent release Dirt Emo Vol. 1. The latter is a mix of originals and covers that also defies genre conventions, with Wheatus on the same track list as Taylor Swift and Dashboard Confessional.
This time last year, right around the release of Dying Star, Kelly played to a small room at New York City’s Mercury Lounge. But on Thursday, he was taking the stage just blocks away at a sold-out Bowery Ballroom. And there didn’t seem to be a single person in attendance that didn’t know the words to at least a few of Kelly’s tunes, even the darkest ones. And like his music, his personal aesthetic blurs the lines of genre, too. Decked out in an oversized shredded band sweatshirt and his signature backward cap, Kelly somehow managed to reference 2019 hip-hop and 90s nostalgia and grunge, all while playing sad, soulful, country-tinged songs on his acoustic guitar.
Kelly was joined, as always, by his dad “TK” on pedal steel and a band of stellar musicians to turn his quiet, introspective heart-wrenchers into full-fledged, fire-breathing rock numbers. And across 90 minutes, he covered a lot of ground, from “Cover My Tracks,” to “Blackout,” “Mockingbird,” “Mercury,” nearly the entirety of Dying Star and even a new one, “Hellfire.” And of course, that perfectly executed cover of the aforementioned Wheatus’ 2000 gem “Teenage Dirtbag.” That smoky mumble was at its most beautiful on “Paratrooper’s Battlecry” and “Big Brown Bus,” the latter of which found him taking a seat at the keyboard. It was all he could do to keep from smiling when he realized how many people knew his lyrics, and given Kelly’s rocky road to this point, it was rewarding to partake in such a moment.
By the encore, the ladies in the crowd were feverishly begging for Kelly to perform his cover of Swift’s “All Too Well,” and he didn’t disappoint, practically turning it into a Chris Carrabba scream-o track. It is this juxtaposing of sounds and styles that makes Kelly the best sort of anomaly.
