February 5’s Co-Op show was the kind that every journalist dreams of: music to get lost in, gorgeous lyrics, a great crowd, and most importantly, artists who are just as charming off-stage as they are masterful on it.
Jordaan Mason opened his set by saying that he’s a bit mic-shy, and asked the audience if he could perhaps sit on the ground with them. The crowd was more than willing to circle around him as he settled down with his guitar and proceeded to play songs with simple melodies, poetic and frank lyrics, and about subjects ranging from what he thinks it would be like to give birth (“She slid out, I don’t know how… I can barely stand in your disease…”), wedding nights and what happens on them (“You fuck like a racehorse… you can swallow shotguns if you want to…”), and the year 2012 (“You became bones…”). At one point, Orion Rigel Dommisse, with whom he’s touring, chimed in with an eerie back-up wail. Between songs, he made quiet banter, commenting on the warmth of the Co-Op and his enjoyment of the salad at Terra Ve, and, lamenting at a flyer on the wall, that he can’t be present to learn how to “sex better.”
Once Mason finished on a soft, quiet note, Dommisse sat herself up on stage with an electric cello. Though her pitch-jumping voice and the frank, dark imagery of her lyrics created a sound vaguely reminiscent of cabaret rockers Rasputina, Dommisse’s music is entirely her own. Skinwalkers and Shapeshifters invade her songs, along with murder and death (“Fake your death, if you need to… leave the body in your bed covered with a sheet like you were murdered in your sleep… you can burn your house down and leave some bones… make sure the bones look something like your own…”). The use of a saw by Mason created a ghostly, ethereal accompaniment to a couple of her songs.
Third up was Sister Suvi, who opened a show in the Student Center at the end of last September and according to singer/ukuleleist, they were “super-stoked” to be back at Purchase. Like Dommisse, they found the Co-Op a more comfortable atmosphere to play in, as opposed to the “huge cavity” of the Stood, which is admittedly designed to better suit the needs of more electric shake ’n’ move music. Suvi’s last show had an unfortunately meager turnout, due partially to poor advertising and partially to the fact that every Purchase student had inexplicably disappeared from campus for the weekend. On this occasion, by 10 p.m., about fifty people had crammed themselves into the Co-Op.
Still, as drummer Nico Dann said in September, the size of the crowd doesn’t matter to him and his band mates Merrill Garbus and Pat Gregoire (also a member of the band Islands); they played just as hard and with just as much spirit and mirth as they did last semester. While they played some older material, they introduced some new, louder and harder songs, including one in which Garbus bellows, “I’m an American, I want to rip you to shreds just to make sure you love me,” all the while a “lookit what I’m doin’” smirk playing across her lips.
Dann accredits the change in musical pace to the evolution of their song-writing process; while their older material was written before they formed as a band, they wrote these new songs together.
Headlining this show was Purchase sophomore Colby Nathan, under the moniker In the Distance: A Light! With Nathan on lead vocals and keyboard and guitar, Lena and Dante De Leo of the Dandy Lions sang back-up vocals, (Josh) Kirby on drums, and Zak Botsko of Pat King and His Designated Drivers on bass, the group put on a superb show. The lyrical discourse of Nathan’s songs, as well as his vocally and facially expressive delivery made the experience feel like a captivating, satisfying story time. In one song he sings about a man whose wallet was stolen in the subway, while in another he comically pauses in the middle of a line for several moments before screaming out the final word and switching the direction of the song entirely.
Crowd participation is also often a large part of his shows, and it makes for a moment of cinematic ambience: the small, warmly lit and hodge-podgely decorated Co-Op, filled to burst with people, most if not all chanting, “Ooooohhhhh, I was only blinking…” over and over again as the band plays. His performances are also often interactive, as he encourages sing-and-clap-a-longs and on occasion has thrown flowers and candy out into the audience.
The general consensus of all the bands after the show was that they all adored each other; they shuffled around, congratulating and commending one other and trading CDs and demos.
“I liked Sister Suvi a lot,” praised Dommisse, before approaching Garbus for a trade.
“They were incredibly tight,” Nathan said approvingly of the band. “Not in terms of the slang phrase, but they were really in tune with each other, everything sounded great. Their harmonizing was amazing. I liked Orion a lot, too,” he added. “It was interesting how she used a more classical instrument to create such a folksy sound. I liked the finger plucking.”
“The kid from In the Distance has a fucking amazing voice,” Mason said.
“It was a really great bill,” said Gregoire, enthusiastically. “Jordaan and In the Distance were both really good.” In concurrence Garbus earnestly described Dommisse and Mason’s performances as “quiet and beautiful,” and proclaimed Nathan’s set as “awesome, especially for being his first time with a band.”
Sister Suvi will be performing in Brooklyn’s Silent Barn this Friday at 8 p.m. On February 29, In the Distance: A Light! will play the Bowery Poetry Club. Orion Rigel Dommisse has scheduled a few dates in NYC at the beginning of March. Jordaan Mason might make plans to play Purchase at the end of April. For more information check out their MySpaces:
http://www.myspace.com/sistersuvi; http://www.myspace.com/inthedistancealight; http://www.myspace.com/orionrigeldommisse; http://www.myspace.com/jordaanmason
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