Live Music Review // Red Rainbow / hissquiet / Jeff Dragan at Little Lost Records, Stafford Springs CT, July 20th 2024
Photos can be found in a folder on Facebook here :::
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As it feels like we're on this connected path with music, we are back at Little Lost Records the same day we went to Willimantic Records and we find ourselves once again experiencing Jeff Dragan and hissquiet. It's kind of nice how you can almost feel this sense of community in Connecticut, as I can think about "Oh, I was just here" or "I just saw you perform a few weeks ago".
Quentin and I got to Stafford Springs fairly early because of when we left Willimantic, but we avoided getting caught in a downpour, had the local ice cream and then went into Little Lost Records to avoid getting caught in more potential rain. Though we were there early, it was looking like the show might be only a handful of people outside of those performing. But right when it was time to start, like it has done so many other times recently, it became a packed house.
Jeff Dragan was on first, playing the longest set I've heard him play (possibly ever) n=and shifting between these ambient tones that will relax you and electronics which will move you. In addition to what was used to create this sound last time I saw Jeff Dragan perform, there was also a laptop involved now and that added another level to the sound. For only a split second, a drum beat could be heard as if we were going to get some hip hop.
Up second was hissquiet and I was sort of sitting at a different angle from last time but also kind of felt like I knew more of what to look for when exploring that source of sound. I immediately saw- even before the music started- one of those radio deals truckers talk into and say things like "breaker breaker", so I knew to be aware of when that was going to come into the sound to see how it was used.
The electronics of hissquiet are so chill it's like you're floating through space, sending a distress signal but adding that idea of "Come save me... or don't, it doesn't matter I'm just floating". That radio transmitter deal did eventually get full of singing, which then looped, and it just made this entire effect feel so celestial.
Red Rainbow closed out the show and through a series of pedals and microphones I believe every sound we heard was originally created through vocals, then looped and some of them would become altered through the pedals as well. This created such an interesting effect overall because by the end of it some of them were still going, some had come and gone and others didn't sound as they did in the beginning.
While it would be interesting to sit down and follow the path of each vocal progression using something like different colored lines on a chart, just listening to the sound that they all make when they come together in the way that they did here should be enough to satisfy any listener. It feels better to think about the sounds more as a collective than in an individual way.
After this show, there was apparently also an event at the nearby motor speedway letting out. Normally, we could turn right out of the parking lot and get back to the highway, but these motor sports fans were driving down this road, yelling things out of their car windows. As we got near the parking lot, people parked near the ice cream place were getting yelled at.
Quentin and I heard someone yell at someone near the ice cream place "Hell yeah brother!" so we, of course, went out of our way to sort of drive around the block, pass the same group of people near the ice cream place and Quentin yelled "Hell yeah brother!" at them.
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