SV Presents: Blackwater Holylight • Spirit Mother • LUME

Thu 06/02/22
8:00PM
18+
music
$16 ADV // $18 DOS

RSVP for the Event

Tickets Event

Beta Feature: Screenshot Flyers

1:1 Square 9:16 Portrait

Notice: Proof of vaccination is required for entry into this event. Please show a valid vaccination card, clear photo of card, clear photocopy of card, or your state immunization registry which can be accessed online.

All sales are final. Please take note of our current COVID-19 policy stated across multiple platforms.

Show Lineup

Blackwater Holylight

(Portland, OR)
Genre: Psych

Empty surrounds all of me. It’s a poignant line from the third album by Blackwater Holylight that encapsulates the search for self when suddenly everything has changed. There’s a theme of processing vast personal trauma throughout Silence/Motion that eloquently — both lyrically and musically — and simultaneously embodies the crushing emptiness, sorrow, strength, and rebuilding of recovering from personal devastation.“There was so much grief both in the world and interpersonally during the process of creating silence/Motion,” says vocalist/bassist Allison “Sunny” Faris. “The four of us gave one another more space to be ourselves, to experiment with each other’s ideas, and to be gentle with one another more than we ever have before. So, we knew this tenderness would manifest in extremely honest arrangements, and I think that you can hear that throughout the record.”Curiously, considering the dark times in which it was created, this is the band’s most melodic and catchy music so far. Blackwater Holylight, as the name suggests, is all about contrasts: It’s a fluid convergence of sound that’s heavy, psychedelic, melodic, terrifying, and beautiful all at once. And, Silence/Motionfinds the band honing those contrasts, letting ideas and moods fully develop from song to song, rather than filling every song with a full range of their capabilities. It allows the band to go fully prog-rock here, and simply stay hushed and intimate there. There’s new confidence to the band in how seamlessly they wield their stylistic amalgam.“Writing this album was extraordinarily difficult emotionally, however, it did come to fruition fairly quickly,” Faris says. “In the past, the theme of vulnerability has always been a big player and it definitely showed up full force while writing this album.”Blackwater Holylight recorded the album as a four-piece: Faris on vocals and guitar (on “Silence/Motion”, “MDIII”, “Around You” and “Every Corner”) and bass for the remainder, Sarah McKennaonsynths, Mikayla Mayhewon guitar (and bass when Faris plays guitar) and drummerless Dorsay. New second guitarist Erika Osterhoutwill perform the songs with them live. silence/Motiontheband chose to work with a producer for the first time, bringing inA.L.N.(ofMizmor, Hell) to produce, along with recording engineer Dylan White — who also helmed their previous albumVeils of Winter(2019) — at Odessa Recording Studio in Portland, OR. Guest vocals on album opener “Delusional” are by Bryan Funck(Thou.)Mike Paparo(Inter Arma) andA.LN.(Mizmor, Hell) lend guest vocals to album closer “Every Corner.

Silence/Motionopens softly with interwoven folky single-note guitars over an ominous-sounding drone for the first minute, akin to moments from pink Floyd’sEchoes. Suddenly an irresistibly head-nodding, groovy drop-tuned riff kicks in with the drums and it’s a full-on blackened rocker with soaring synths and Funck’s witchy whispers over the top. “Who The Hell,” the track quoted above, take proceedings into a Krautrock direction, centered around McKenna’s arpeggiated synth loop andDorsay’s tom-tom triplets, while 16-note guitar strums add tension as Faris wearily sings, “So tell me who the hell would want to live this way — so afraid/ To feel this void, to dwell in it… I can’t describe this pain I wear/ It suffocates and you left it here.” It’s an incredibly powerful 6 minutes. The title track delivers the 1-2-3 punch of the album’s brilliant opening trilogy. It starts with lightly plucked acoustic guitar, plaintive piano chords, and Faris’ voice gliding so softly it sounds more like a Mellotron. The song builds slowly toward crescendo, led by a swinging tom pattern, that abruptly switches back to a heavier version of the opening melody.“Silence/Motion” is about digesting and healing from sexual assault. As Faris explains, “It is an ode to the juxtaposition of feeling paralyzingly blank and like your entire life is moving through you simultaneously.” Elsewhere, Black Metal guitars collide with dreamlike melodies. “Around You” brandishes a hopeful, hummable synth melody and shimmering shoegaze guitars like throwing down a gauntlet. In the end, it becomes undeniably clear just how completely into their own Blackwater Holylight has come.“The analogy is that with our first record (Blackwater Holylight, 2018) we were getting into the car and buckling up,” Faris says. “The second (Veils of Winter, 2019) we were turning the car on, and with this third, we have kicked into the drive toward our destination. Our destination is a bit mysterious and has the ability to change from day to day, but we’re on our way.”

Spirit Mother

(Long Beach, CA)
Genre: Psych

“The vibe is vibe if you can vibe, like languid grunge blasted into outer space in the desert night.”

-The Obelisk

Vocals, Bass / Armand Lance

Violin, Vocals / SJ

Guitar / Sean McCormick

Drums / Landon Cisneros

LUME

(Chicago)
Genre: Psych

Conjuring elements of destruction and decay, LUME delivers heavy, hazy, slow-burning rock like a stoned wrecking ball. The Chicago/Detroit-based trio’s latest LP “False Calm” finds the group pushing further into drone and doom territory, offering the truest representation of their live sound to-date.