Live Music Review // Mother Juniper / Camp Saint Helene / Nighttime @ Never Ending Books, New Haven CT, July 12th 2024
Additional photos can be found in an album on Facebook here :::
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1521724908557725&type=3
As soon as I saw this show on the Never Ending Books calendar as "Nighttime / Camp Saint Helene" I knew I had to go because the new album from Camp Saint Helene is on constant play inside my head. This was also an interesting show because I feel like many of the artists changed their sound in the sense of leaning more on the folk / acoustic side of their sounds rather than having full bands with percussion (Though Mother Juniper did have light percussion)
This show began with the music of Nighttime, who is out here on tour from California. Though I feel like there are other layers to this sound if you listen to this as a recording, this version of Nighttime was Eva Louise Goodman with only her voice and an acoustic guitar. This whole sound was big, not just the guitar chords strumming but the voice as well. I've really been into music that has a big voice to it lately (which I feel like I keep typing a lot) and Nighttime is a great example of this.
Upon seeing this show listed on the Never Ending Books calendar, I did do some research and listened to Nighttime a little bit and just felt like it made sense for Nighttime to be on tour with Camp Saint Helene. But then it was revealed to us all by Nighttime that this wasn't a tour but was more of a situation where both artists reached out to NEB at the same time and the show came together like that. In a world where you can see different artists play together, to have these similar artists come together just felt like fate.
Camp Saint Helene was on second and as they played their songs they moved from instruments. They made use of the organ and piano which are stationary in NEB but also had the bass guitar and at times Elizabeth Ibarra would sing while at other times she also played the acoustic guitar while singing. Alex Wernquest, the drummer, was absent but both Dylan Nowik and Wesley Harper made up for it with the sound staying both folk and cool while also psychedelic and ominous.
There is just something about Camp Saint Helene that got me into these songs and now that I'm into them there's no going back. I feel this same way about releases this year from Abigail Lapell and Membra, where it just feels like you put on an album for the first time and think "Yeah, I like this" and before you know it the record becomes a borderline obsession for you. Hearing the songs live just reassure that fact of how well you've come to know the songs through steaming, but Camp Saint Helene also has this presence about them- an aura in their sound which cannot be replicated.
Mother Juniper was the third and final artist to play this show. Back in April, we saw Mother Juniper at NEB as part of the NHV Noise Fest and at that time they appeared as a duo- Lindsay Skedgell on guitar and vocals with only a drummer who also played saxophone. This time the drummer/sax player returned but two other musicians- shifting between guitars, bass and other stringed instruments joined in.
What I like about Mother Juniper is that I feel as if I saw them again in this same form- these same four musicians- it would still feel like a completely different show. And if I do see them again (and I hope to) it could be in a different form. In that way, that this ensemble lead by Lindsay Skedgell can be almost like a shapeshifter, it can also have a lot of sound shifting. I did recognize songs from this set that were also played back in April and you can tell the difference.
So what is Mother Juniper? It's a lot of simplicities coming out in complex ways, that border between folk, rock and punk, but it is just the type of music that I feel like you could pass by and hear and say "Hey, wait, let me stop and enjoy this some more". Mother Juniper is an amalgamation, not just within the musicians but within everyone who is a part of this and that includes those in the audience.
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