Text via EYE OF NIX
October 18th, 2018
We play a kickoff show in Seattle at the LoFi with the ritual catharsis of Caligula Cartel and cascadian psych-folk mavens Witch Bottle. The show also commemorates the vinyl & CD re-issue of the 2017 album, BLACK SOMNIA, by Prophecy.
October 31st, 2018
Halloween in ghostly New England, and a visit to the Eastern Cemetery on Munjoy Hill in Portland, Maine. About to play a killer show at Geno’s.
JOY: Having heard many good things about Portland ME from former residents, I was excited to see for myself…so many cemeteries and mansions, beautiful water. At the show Jon from Last Mercy Emissions set up we had a great time! I wore a dress from Indian Summer modified by the illustrious Helene Glover with studs and lace…and met some of the sweetest gals freaking out up front at the show.
LUKE: No better way than starting a tour than by flying into your home state of Maine on Halloween to play a rager with a super sick DEATH cover band by members of Falls of Rauros. We stayed on the eastern promenade among the Victorian homes at my friend Eric’s place…he and I had a Neurosis worship band in high school. It was also the first time my parents had ever seen me play drums. The show was great and there were a bunch of my old friends there.
November 1st, 2018
Onward to play the Chanticleer in Ithaca, a college town buried in the farmlands of upstate New York. Not one major highway connects this college town but at least one road on a tour like this must lead to a noise guy using a contact mic. Nothing puts driving 8 hours into perspective like a noise opener…an enjoyable calm before the amplifier-worshipping sludge storm.
LUKE: This show was a culmination of a lot of work by Jason Eldridge, whom I met in Seattle when my other band Spacebag played a show with Escuela who was on tour. Barely knowing me, he really went out of his way to make this show happen. Tonight was more about the thunder than the lightning and that’s exactly what we got from Buffalo’s Settlement, followed by Jason’s band, Hearse (Formerly Monolith). It was a weapons training course in sludge mastery.
JOY: We are truly grateful for the effort Jason and his bandmates put forth bringing in a PA (to a 2nd floor space above a bar) and lending us equipment. Enthusiastic crowd and intense appreciation all around!
November 2nd, 2018
Buffalo, Niagara Falls/Goat Island, Sugar City
JOY: Fortunately it was cold and rainy (which kept a lot of tourists away) as we took a detour to Niagara to stretch our legs and see black squirrels …and a million gallons of water. It’s been almost 20 years since I saw the Falls and I forgot how beautiful it is. Sharing a bill with Hearse and Settlement again in Buffalo tonight was even better the 2nd time around. We were also reminded of nature’s majesty when a deer almost darted in front of the van at 2 am after the show.
LUKE: I’m definitely the least goth guy in the band but everyone else had their goth card temporarily removed by visiting the Falls followed by a visit to the hard rock café. Plus that’s probably the closest I’m legally allowed to be near Canada. We were on a roll so why not play an all ages show in Buffalo? We played at a really nice art collective called Sugar City. This time the opener was another sludge band called Yanari. They reminded me a lot of early FLOOR. But the show wasn’t complete without the essential 3 band photo at the end of the night! So much black.
November 3rd, 2018
We drove a couple hours the night before so we could get a head start to Brooklyn in the morning. Nothing says fun like loading your gear into a house or motel after every show so your sickass rental mini van doesn’t get broken into. We stopped into our new obligatory east coast second home dunkin donuts on our way out of Bath, New York.
Dante Torrieri
JOY: We were the first band to arrive for Prophecy Fest. It was a lot of fun- especially meeting some of the Prophecy team for the first time in person. The whole band were happy to be part of such an awesome label and fest! First time playing in NYC and had a blast, with a great audience. Masaaki and I stayed with Christine and Ben of Ariadne, who graciously opened their home. After a good visit, we took a walk and subway ride to meet up with the rest of the crew in Williamsburg.
LUKE: I decided to play Neurosis’ “Souls At Zero” for the first part of the trip. It’s the kind of album, composition and arrangement wise, that I would love to make with Eye of Nix. We’re playing everything on our album “Black Somnia” for the Prophecy label showcase tonight, called simply Prophecy Fest. We had just enough time to play one of our new fast songs at the end of our set. It was quite an eclectic line up featuring 1476, fellow Seattleites Year of the Cobra, Crowhurst and headlined by Alcest. We packed up and some of us crashed at our friend Dana’s epic and humungous pad. Especially for Brooklyn. We had played a couple of shows with her brutal slide guitar band, Insect Ark a few weeks back in Seattle and Olympia. She spoiled us with hospitality.
The Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY 11/3/18 – Hillarie Jason
November 4th, 2018
After running through the New York City marathon to get some breakfast, we were on our way to Providence. We made our first mistake by getting gas and coffee in Greenwich, Connecticut. We were the fuck ups in a John Hughes movie invading the heart of old money New England’s khaki and scarf district in our brutal mini caravan heavy metal filth party. Once in Providence, we were back with our people. Plus, cheap Mexican food, a Salvadorean bakery, thick accents, friendly servers and an overly jovial shipping store employee (possibly still riding high on comicon). We pulled in to the venue called Dusk, which is an amazing old brick building turned into a well renovated black metal bar. Perfect size, great sound, evil as fuck.
LUKE: The night started with some experimental noise acts but the band that really took the cake was Violet. They also were my favorite band of the tour. Total nihilistic shred! Glad we played before them. We spent the night at The Dirt Palace, an old library that was converted into several artist work space/lofts. It reminded us of a time when Seattle was more flourishing in freaks and weirdos…but it’s time to go back where the same old conversations and clichés about people being pushed out of their cities by a bunch of corporate normal people dying for you to see how fucking interesting they think they are.
JOY: Masaaki and I were happy to reunite with Pippi (Rectrix), one of the forces keeping the Palace together for the last 20-something years. She and House Red came to Seattle earlier this year and we set up a show for them at a DIY theater, Teatro de la Psychomachia. Pippi generously lent some cabs, too. I adored the lineup for the show at Dusk. Josh Yelle (Pencilmancer) set it up – he is a talented calligraphy artist who made a band logo for us, and we presented him with stickers and patches of his design in person. I was also excited to hear his solo musical project, LVMMVX which is created solely with a cello and effects to create rumbling, rhythmic and beautiful soundscapes. Death Industrial noisers Tovarish provided apocalyptic visuals and sounds, and Violet did indeed rip our faces off and closed the night with intricate polyphony and shredding guitars… Thanks to everyone who helped us along the way!
