Live Music Review // Dot Iso / Fred Cracklin / orchiddBB / Trance Macabre at Never Ending Books, New Haven CT June 14th 2024
Additional photos can be found on Facebook here :::
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1502110337185849&type=3
This was an interesting show because right away it felt like it might be too loud for the book store. Trance Macabre was playing as a five piece, so even they didn't really seem like they were going to minimalize down to a duo or such to be quieter. But if you are at all familiar with Fred Cracklin (and if this is not your first time on Raised by Cassettes, you should be) then you'll know that they are loud.
To me, this show hit every possible note in the perfect way. You can go to shows and see four artists perform and you've seen them all before or you've never seen any of them before and this was just the delicate balance between that for me. I have seen Fred Cracklin before, but it was good to see them again because it had been a while. I had not seen (or was really familiar with) Dot Iso or orchiddBB and that made for the element of surprise.
I also have seen Trance Macabre a number of times, but in different forms. Cameron Campbell was the only artist I'd seen as part of Trance Macabre before, aside from their leader Nicholas Serrambana, but what was really special was that it seems like Michael Larocca is on percussion more often than not but while I have seen Michael Larocca live before it's never been as part of Trance Macabre.
The night opened with Trance Macabre and I always feel like the loudest should play first at Never Ending Books and then the night should grow slightly quieter as it goes on. I wasn't sure, going into the set, that Trance Macabre would be the loudest set of the night but they might have been. What's interesting with this particular line up is that they had the keys and a trumpet but also it was the guitar-bass-drums trio that really made it thrash.
The only other set I could really think of that could rival this in terms of loudness was the first time I saw Trance Macabre, but even then it felt more like improvisation with different musicians taking time to do solos and sort of be put into that individual spotlight. On this night, at NEB, Trance Macabre played together as a solid unit, intense and with a purpose. That purpose might have been to simply wreck you, but that's okay.
This was the best Trance Macabre set I've ever seen and if you have the chance to see them perform live you should take it because you never know what it might bring. Even if I saw these same five musicians do this exact same set a thousand more times I would be content, but the idea that you're not really sure what you might hear when you go to a Trance Macabre show--but it will be special-- is what should bring out the listeners.
And make no mistake about it- this show was not short of listeners. When Quentin and I arrived around 6:30 (we were told a sharp 7pm start time!) it felt like we were the only ones there not playing that night, but as the musicians began to show up so did the fans to fill the seats. It was that Field of Dreams type of idea where if you put out the chairs, people will come and fill them (and they were standing too when the chairs were full!)
I wasn't too familiar with the music of orchiddBB going into this, but if you're playing with Trance Macabre and Fred Cracklin you already score some sort of points in my book. This was a quartet of musicians with a violin, drums, bass guitar and singer. This got loud and the singer hit notes I didn't know could go that high. It really just felt like this experimental almost skramz type of sound with the music, but then the singing came through in this operatic way.
I just feel like there is this whole scene of musicians (Trance Macabre included) who have this classical training where they could get up in front of a crowd and play Mozart or even compose classical pieces if they were so inclined, but instead they create this wild and crazy music which goes against the norm and it's not really neo classical but more like a free classical in the way that you'd think of free jazz.
At one point during this night I saw a flash outside and knew it was supposed to rain so I checked the weather and it said we were in thunderstorms. During this orchiddBB set, more than once, there was a flash of lightning which you could see behind them as they played. I really enjoy how much the music I've been experiencing lately feels connected to nature, as if the sky opened up and got loud as a response to the loud music at the book store.
There was also one point during the orchiddBB set where the drummer began laughing and everyone stopped playing and they all were laughing. It felt like they were laughing at the singer, which made it kind of uncomfortable but also it was just something I've never seen before so it was definitely something we could say we all experienced together.
Fred Cracklin was up third and they played these guitars that were somewhere between psychedelic and metal. If Ozzy Osbourne did more drugs and had some Mudhoney influence, then you'd begin to get the idea here. The guitar and vocals are also coupled with the drumming which is loud enough to wake up the neighbors and just some of the best drumming you'll ever hear.
It has been a while since I've seen Fred Cracklin, but if they were a west coast band (like if they were based out of Seattle or something) they'd be the type of band that when they came through the northeast you'd want to see them on four or five dates. This show just reminded me that I want to see them so many more times and even if it means driving an hour or more into MA to do so, it's worth it.
The night was closed out by Dot Iso who featured the violin and drums from orchiddBB but added a third member who didn't play before and that meant sometimes there was a guitar and other times there was a saxophone. At other shows at other times this might have been perceived as the loud and weird set, but on this night and in this company it felt somewhat normal and mellow.
As much as I enjoyed this show in the sense of seeing a different version of Trance Macabre, seeing Fred Cracklin again and seeing orchiddBB and Dot Iso for the first time, it also just felt like it was very much about adapting to the other aspects of the show. The way that I feel like these artists could all play with various other genres but came together and sort of formed their own wave to ride made this show so special.
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