Eve Black, Fauvely, Hobbyist...and then Shimmer

 
 I planned it like this.......yet even in this plan you must accept that it can all go south. Go to Tonic Room early enough to see Fauvely and then from there go see Rani's new band Eve Black at Martyrs, and then from there bask and finish the night at Shimmer. The venues were a short drive away in the same fucking North side. Seeing Hobbyist in between them was completely accidental.  And I need time with them....but wow were they crazy! As soon as Fauvely was done and I can say hi and talk with them, then I would be on my marry fucking way to see Eve Black.  And so it almost happened.
  Second Tuesday means Philly and Sarah have their monthly shoegaze night. This was ambitious and fun thing to try, seeing all these shows and finishing the night dancing to shoegaze. Shimmer is this comfortable space. I understand Slippery Slope reverts to it's natural state on other days but when its Shimmer, its for me.  Its special and it would feel way more coming in from all them shows.
  To my warped German Expressionist memory I was going dump all these fucking events and make sense.....    Yeah...that Rani.....from Resistor... Dream House...Girl Detective. I fascinates me to no fucking end that I can call Rani and Sophie friends. Seriously? Let me just stay in this fucking universe as a stray black cat.  And in this German Expressionist world of course Rani and Sophie are friends.  Let me tell you how small the fucking world is.  Its gonna shrink to a familiar neighborhood.  Resistor's last performance was Fauvely with Dorsia!
  Eve Black is her new band...Rani's. I've been a Siouxsie fan since high school, but I was not familiar with all her music. I did not explore any further than what I knew and was familiar with. I was not into seeing cover bands. In comes Rani, she starts Dream House and it was impacting. I had to confront this dislike for Cover bands.  I mean here comes this friend, I'm a fan of ......hers and she's crossing all these wires that I kept apart, and its fascinating...... I was reintroduced to Siouxsie and all her music that I knew and did not know as much about. It was fascinating because her own voice for Girl Detective is different from her Siouxsie voice and yet they are both authentically hers.
  Girl Detective sounds to me.....like Mono, remember Mono? They got that one song into the Great Expectations soundtrack, Life In Mono. Then add to that, Mira, this Projekt band from around 2005. Sorry, trying to genuinely pin down how Rani sounded with her old band. I was angry at myself for missing so many Girl Detective shows and Solemn Meant Walks shows.....that becomes relevant...this is how I tie it in. SMW is my friend Ami's band. And she played guitar for these Siouxsie gigs. I went to a number of them. I got to see and I got to know these friends.  I missed their shows, but now they are friends and that is way cool. The mystery remains for me...where the fuck was I when they was playin'......
  Fauvely has been getting written about a lot....and I fucking love that. I am curious as to what the wider world thinks of this band I like. It's a window out of my own bubble....alright, a filtered window.  Its great to see others give this band that attention. "oh really,  you like Fauvely"....do fucking tell, please. Fauvely  showed there is real strength in being vulnerable, self critical...even sad with their first EP Watch Me Over Complicate This. The live gigs were great because they were so different from each other, revealing living sides to each song. The band was still figuring itself out. If the music that you chose to listen to as the soundtrack of your best moments then surely it must matter this.........There was an evolution that I observed with each show.  I have seen Sophie's Fauvely in small venues like DC Torium and at Empty Bottle.  Most recently, just casually in the space under Subt's. I think I have seen more than a few at Empty Bottle.  She has played a lot lately because she is promoting her newest 8 track Tides, and wow! She is also playing new songs I think that have yet to be recorded.  I gotta say, I am into this! Tides is bold, dramatic.  It takes off sprinting uphill on rough country.  Its way different from Watch Me. But...it is not unrecognizable from it. It's still Fauvely.  As much as Tides is about her roots in Savannah. Fauvely still had to be a Chicago creation and I am fucking cool with that.  

  So these two band are playing the same night, but at different times.  Eve Black will play last at Martyrs which means Fauvely will play before somewhere.  I walked in time to catch some of the set of Fauvely. Hi, Sophie! You know this song.......you know I must come off like a trekkie nerd....you know, Jon Lovitz with the ears...trying to talk to William Shatner. I always feel on the edge of making it awkward.  The other side of that is I do feel at relative ease around them, they are all cool people. Hi, Scott! It felt good to have the time in between shows. I was not intending to even stay for the next band, but I knew for sure that I would not be into what was before Rani so I dragged my feet. It just seemed weird to not stay so soon after seeing Fauvely. Still I remember stepping out. Then, I wandered back in...I mean yeah....take a piss, tie your shoes, soak the place in. The stage of Tonic Room is weird...it just is. It was my first time at the place.  This foggy German Expressionist memory has me sitting next to Sophie when Hobbyist begin their set.  Originally I was just coming back in to take a piss, kill time, but certainly not intending to stay and see who is next....and she tells me to sit down, and I do like a good little Zig. And then now...Hobbyist drops a brick wall of awesome...we're not at Eve Black yet. I'm listening to Soulless Lies now and I need a fucking moment.  That is just one song from their self-titled 2013 release.  In seeing this and while seeing this, I had to step back and see how fulfilled was the night already, how abundant it was with these wonderful moments. These are not artists I get to see from a distance. Their struggle to exist as such is like salmon swimming against the current. So Hobbyist has to have their own post. Here I have them as my first time seeing them. And I saw them by accident after Fauvely. So now I say bye to my friends for real this time. It turns out, Rani knows Hobbyist, had them at Resistor.

Martyrs is a venue I rarely see myself go. Its not deliberate. I actually don't know why. Its way up there on Lincoln Ave. There is a band still playing before Rani. Damn, I was real lucky to stay at Tonic. So now I actually have time to wander around... hi, Rani! Guess who else I just saw.....and now finally.....wait, washroom first. Alright now, we are ready for Eve Black.

They keep reminding me of This Ascension, goth rock/ethereal. Also, Autumn, Changelings....Solemn Meant Walks . They are also goth rock with a heavy ethereal presence. This is kind of where Eve Black sounds to me. I like the two downloadable songs The New Horizon, To Breathe Again.  I was genuinely into every song they played. They have a show coming up 18 January, a Friday with Solemn Meant Walks at Underground Lounge!! Martyrs is more of a regular place. Its around the same size as Empty Bottle.  This was a long time coming, Eve Black, Rani's new band. You get hints of how great it will be, little confirmations that present themselves along the way. I was already into Girl Detective. Naturally I'm at least curious, if not inclined.  So when it does come around, on a Shimmer Tuesday, with Fauvely and Hobbyist....this is a constellation of starry moments that I shall put together as something to remember.
Zig