Review: Del Water Gap brings 'I MISS YOU ALREADY + I HAVEN'T LEFT YET' to Atlanta

S. Holden Jaffe––the artist currently known as Del Water Gap––tore up the stage at Atlanta's Terminal West on Tuesday, October 12. His latest album, is named for his grandparents; In a note to his grandmother, with a poem by William Carlos Williams, his grandfather signed "Love David. I miss you already + I haven't left yet."

Feelings of longing and existentialism are prevalent throughout the entire album. The opening track, "All we ever do is talk," plays like a breakup song but is really more reminiscent over a relationship that has grown dull. This honesty and reflection over past conversations and struggling to communicate ruminates across the album to tracks like "Coping on Unemployment" which cites a conversation Holden had with himself, where he says, 'I think your music got worse / Since you went fully sober / At least now you won't kill yourself."

‍

In the note announcing the album, Holden talks about how it came out of a time where he "saw an uglier side of my mind than [he] could've imagined" at a time when he was fighting loneliness, addiction and repressed feelings. Despite these struggles and his self proclaimed cynicism, he has found that "Del Water Gap has been a nice  practice in trying to indulge in romance."

On one of my personal favourites, "Doll House," he sings,
"It's hard enough to be human
and worse when you're on your own"

Del Water Gap has been on tour almost constantly since the early 2010s. In his recent interview with Rolling Stone, Holden talks about how building a home is a major concern in his life right now. Living out of a suitcase has allowed him to indulge in some avoidance, but it is difficult to not be able to call anywhere truly home. When talking about his childhood Jaffe admits that avoidance is not so noble and that "communication is actually a greater act of love."

Though his music is quite sad and emotional it didn't stop him from putting on a show. Constantly jumping, dancing and screaming the audience echoed Holden's moves and intensity thorughout the night. When he returned for an encore of "We Will Never Be Like Anybody Else," I saw a few teary eyes around me, but when he followed it up with "Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat," those tears were replaced with impassioned yelling.

‍

Kristiane's opening set filled the air with beautiful songs seeping with sadness and that made me want to both dance and go lie down in my bed. She is currently opening on tour with Del Water Gap, and just released a single last week titled "Sleep Through The Fire." Onstage in Atlanta, she explained before a beautiful rendition of Lana's "Video Games" that every night on this tour she likes to include a song that made her fall in love with music, which reminded me of the Songs That Found Me at the Right Time initiative.

In an interview with Billboard, Kristiane talked about how she adopted the idea "that music didn't have to be for anyone else. It could just be for yourself." This idea of using music for her own process and growth comes through in her song "Before The Night Is Over" where she sings, "I could scream, I could try, I could write another lullaby." The song is about feeling "lost and alone but looking for the light at the end of the tunnel" she said in another interview to The Luna Collective.

At the end of both interviews Kristiane closed with positive messages - a hope that her new EP makes listeners "feel seen or understood" and to remember that "you're not alone" and "there's something beautiful in [the] struggle for progress."

‍

‍