Chloe Star / Sarah Cowan / Girl Cologne

Oct 13

FOR FANS OF: Paramore, YUNGBLUD, Avril Lavigne, P!nk, The Pretty Reckless, Halsey, Billie Eilish, Alanis Morissette, Machine Gun Kelly, Third Eye Blind, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Deftones, The Cure, Incubus, The Kooks, Royal & the Serpent, Scene Queen, Meg Myers, The Breeders, Veruca Salt, Hole, L7, The Donnas, Weezer, The Front Bottoms, The Regrettes, The Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage, Sleater-Kinney, Pixies, Bikini Kill, Paramore, The Distillers, Soccer Mommy, Wet Leg, Momma, Mannequin Pussy, The Muffs, PVRIS, Halsey, BANKS, Lights, CHVRCHES, Royal & the Serpent, MARINA, The Neighbourhood, Billie Eilish, Ashnikko, UPSAHL, K.Flay, Poppy, Scene Queen, MisterWives, Pvris, Fletcher, K.Flay, Evanescence

October 11, 2026 at The Foundry in Cleveland, OH

I showed up to The Foundry Concert club on a brisk and dim October night to find myself in line with a bunch of girls giddy to see Chloe Star, Sarah Cowan and Girl Cologne. Chloe was out front when I approached and was talking to a group of girls who were obviously fans there to see her. They were talking like old pals and one of the girls asked if Chloe would like some glitter makeup. Instead of Chloe saying no, she said, “not yet, put it on me in the middle of the set.” I thought that was awesome. She took giving a fan a memory to another level by doing this and the photos of that moment during her set are in the gallery below. Having not heard much about Chloe Star before, and only hearing a few of her songs, I knew I was a fan of her as a person to say the least. I head in and upstairs to the green room to do an interview with Chloe, which included these questions (make sure to head to the else concerts YouTube page to hear her responses):

If your music was a food, what food would it be?

What artist would you love to open for?

What artist would you wanna put on and have open for you? Someone who needs more recognition.

What’s your desert island CD? Take one album and that’s it.

I read about your Persian and indigenous background, What’s the best food dish in your family?

Whats your next tattoo gonna be?

What game show would you wanna be on?

What reality show would you wanna be on?

If you could take one musical talent from anyone in history; what are you taking and from whom?

If you could go back in time and tell yourself one thing about the songwriting or recording process, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

The song Straight girls reminds me a bit of Kaash Paige, have you ever heard of her?

I shoot a lot of metal bands, What’s the heaviest music you’re into?

If you weren’t in the music scene, what job would you want to have?

What’s one thing you wish to tell all of America today?

At the end of the interview, we heard music coming from the stage. Girl Cologne was up first.

Girl Cologne is a Cleveland-based melodic, grunge-influenced alternative rock band with punk energy and a super cool look. I enjoyed their set a lot and Jenna (vocals) killed it while showing a ton of expression (shown in the pictures). They did a slightly sped up cover of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing In the Name” as well as showcased their own sound with a good handful of original songs.

The band met through the School of Rock program and supposedly the band name comes from Cade (guitarist) who forgot the word “perfume” during an interview and instead said Girl Cologne. The joke stuck around and so did the band. Spencer and Parker make up the rhythm section of this band and they kept a nice steady pace for the other members to stay on track. Give them a listen and see them asap whenever they play next near you! “Subtweet” and “Crash” are some of their newer singles that I really dig and “Let Me Know” can show you where their sound has progressed from.

Next was Sarah Cowan, from Columbus, Ohio. She is a visually impaired, queer singer-songwriter who creates dark, emotional alternative pop that she self-descibes as “sexy alt/pop music for sad people.”

Considering there is a lot of synth-driven production in her recordings, she played with a guitarist and drummer but had backing tracks for a bunch of her other instrumentation. The guitarist played an Ibanez AZ series and was a fantastic player. I’ve always wanted a nice AZ series Ibanez thanks to the band Chon.

Sarah’s sound was poppy yet dark, playing on emotional experiences when it comes to love and life in general. She played her newest single PROVOCATIVE, for the first time. In the song, Sarah says she likes drama and wants a girl with a temper so that she can “take care of it.” FERAL and VENDETTA are other popular newer songs from her setlist that are worth checking out! If you can relate to insecurity, self-doubt, struggling to move on and self-discovery, you may really dig her music!

Next up was the (Chloe) Star of the show. The Los Angeles-based self-taught guitarist leaned heavily into pop punk with influences such as P!nk, Paramore, Nirvana, Amy Winehouse, YUNGBLUD and MGK.

Her look is definitely MGK-esque with over 100 tattoos, a choker, spikes on her pink belt, leather pants and razor blade earrings. Being from Cleveland, I can’t help but visualize the hundreds of photos I’ve seen of MGK and making this connection. He also came up in our interview for a moment so make sure to watch that video! I’m not gonna lie, I actually like Chloe Star’s music more than MGK’s music. Sorry, Colson. I listened to Chloe Star’s song “Call You Back” ONE TIME and it was in my head for over a week.

Chloe’s band was fantastic. Professional, tight, punchy. Her guitarist, Cheska, rocked a Reverend Charger with p90s and a quad cortex. The bassist, Maxwell, played a Fender 5 string Jazz bass that sounded fantastic in the venue. The drummer, Chase, rocked a Sonor kit and kept things as lively as could be. Chloe’s guitar was a Gibson SG with a pink pick guard and stickers on it. My favorite sticker said “I LOVE YOUR MOM.”

Mid-set, Chloe yells “alright, who has glitter?” which made me happy she stuck to her promise to her fan out front. She let the fan apply roll-on glitter to her face before starting the next song. She asked the crowd where everyone was from and as everyone shouted out random cities, you could tell how happy Chloe was to hear these fans drove from hours away to see her. I love to see an artist who’s killing it that isn’t too good for her fans and stays humble yet herself.

Chloe is one to look out for. Her songs are intensely catchy and fitting for her vocal tone and chill attitude. Her songs are professionally recorded and sound incredible. As a person who is rarely a fan of similar music, this is actually fantastic. I’m glad Playy reached out for else concerts to cover this show. Chloe is a real one. I can’t wait to see her again.

Follow these bands at @frenchtoastkiller @iamsarahcowan and @girlcologne to stay up to date on their next shows.

Images shot by Shane McNicholas @elsephoto with a Canon r5 and r6ii with an RF 24-105 2.8 and RF 70-200 f2.8 with a PrismFX star filter for Chloe Star (appropriately)