Kendra McKinley EP Release Show

Kendra McKinley arrives at the Avalon Lounge next month armed with a title that reads like a manifesto and a wink: music for smoking weed with your bra off. The five-song EP is a home-studio affair, written and recorded solo, and it reveals McKinley as a self-possessed world-builder—one who leans into silk-soft neo-soul textures, psychedelic haze, and emotional candor without sacrificing groove. Think the unhurried warmth and analog grain of Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun filtered through the dreamy luminosity of Raveena’s Lucid, then given a mischievous Catskill-at-2 am energy all its own.

For the release show, McKinley isn’t going small. A six-piece band will stretch and lift the songs into full-bodied cosmic-soul territory, supported by dancers interpreting the material live—a nod to the EP’s sensuality and McKinley’s instinct for immersive performance. West Coast psych veterans Whiskerman set the scene with kaleidoscopic rock, while Brooklyn-via-Germany dream-pop duo Haerts bring widescreen romanticism to the bill. Upstairs, a curated vendor fair promises “sensual treasures,” making the evening feel less like a typical release show and more like a mini-festival of pleasure, texture, and feeling.

A night built on softness, synesthesia, and slow-burning heat—just in time for November’s first chill.