Cloak & Dagger, Night 1: The Jesus & Mary Chain, Com Truise, HEALTH, Drab Majesty, Chasms

Cloak & Dagger Festival Dusk Till Dawn was a really great event, right in the middle of downtown between the two venues across the street on 8th Street: The Globe Theater and the Palace Theater with smaller events going on in between (DJ sets, art installations, etc.). We saw the guys from She Wants Revenge wandering around the whole time and I later got their autographs on my CD sleeve of their 2nd album “This Is Forever”. More on that when I write about the 2nd day… I think getting the VIP passes was actually worth it for the seated viewing areas above. I would consider doing it again, though it helped winning a free hotel stay in Burbank from OCTA.

Only saw the first few songs by The Jesus & Mary Chain, but they were pretty great to see in the Darklands. I only caught a few songs including “April Skies” and “Head On.” There was clearly a huge crowd for them and they were headlining the first night for good reason. I guess they are part of the whole Cloak & Dagger scene, since many of their songs are darker and noisier on their early albums. It was great seeing and hearing JAMC even for just a few songs. I was in the balcony (VIP was actually worth it!) for the most part since the view was best up there. Aside from being too packed, I enjoyed seeing them again even for a few songs. Check out the Portable Infinite for some good close ups near the stage! 

Drab Majesty were the band I think I enjoyed most because of VIP and I love their music. I’d kind of followed them earlier in the year as they are still local and acquainted with a friend of Alexander’s, who also got some closer photos. I took a few videos of them since I was seated the whole time with an unobstructed view of the stage from the Tower Theater balcony. I actually got short videos of most bands, but used my camera for full songs for just a few (of course, Poptone – though I left early since we were tired). I got videos of songs called “Unknown to the I” and “Too Soon To Tell.” I think they sounded great and said I loved their band when Alexander introduced them to me on the 2nd day, I meant to say “I love your music.” Is their a difference? I hope not!

Com Truise was also pretty good – instrumentals with lots of synths in the Tower Theater.  From the side balcony – we could see a bunch of people dancing both above and below. We also unfortunately encountered some drunk people who decided to throw my out of town friend’s bag out into the crowd below. Very luckily for my friend Kira, the bag landed in the sound booth so no flights needed to be rescheduled.

Before them, we saw HEALTH – who kind of rocked. I’m not too familiar with their music, but it’s a good mix of electronic and rock. I thought they were headbanging a lot, but when the lights came on – you can kind of see how many pedals and gear they’re working with to explain why they might be looking down a lot (not shoegazing, per se). I thought they sounded great too, though I do enjoy hearing that sound of mixing electronic sounds into rock music.

We got a late start, so Chasms and Ho99or (pronounced Horror) were who we started the day seeing. I enjoyed Chasms more than Ho99o9, but even Ho99o9 thought they didn’t sound good. I guess they had sound issues? They had a very industrial NIN-influenced sound. It’s not bad, just not my cup of tea. Chasms are kind of shoegaze-y and seemed even more so at Cloak & Dagger. They played downstairs in the basement of The Globe Theater, which actually didn’t seem like a bad place to play.