Concert review: Haunted Summer at Isis Music Hall
One of the hardest realities of the road is the empty room. Just about every band that’s spent time touring the country has found itself in this uncomfortable situation at least once or twice, performing for a combination of a bartender, promoter, and a few members of the other bands on the bill. How an artist handles playing in front of a sparse audience is far more telling than any performance in a packed house.
Making its Asheville debut on Sunday, July 17, at Isis Music Hall, LA-based dream pop band Haunted Summer found itself in this precise predicament. Ever the pros, the quartet appeared relatively unfazed by the few scattered faces in attendance. Fresh off a number of dates with West Coast psych rock mainstays The Warlocks, the group pretty immediately proved deserving of a larger audience.
Originally formed in 2012 as a duo by Bridgette Moody (vocals/keyboard/guitar) and John Seasons (guitar/keyboard), Haunted Summer has spent the past decade refining its sound and building a following on the west coast. But prior to Sunday night, I was relatively unfamiliar with the group, having only listened to a couple of tracks.
With Isis only a few blocks from my house and having enjoyed what I had heard, I decided to take a chance and catch their set. The dreamy lounge pop vibes pretty instantly brought to mind recently-departed icon Julee Cruise — best remembered for her vocals on the Twin Peaks soundtrack. As they extended further into a set primarily composed of songs from their new album, Whole, the members of Haunted Summer proved more and more impressive, seemingly never running out of memorable tunes.
As complementary as the rhythm section accompaniment was, my favorite moment of the night came when, as a duo, Moody and Seasons played a couple of tracks from their 2013 debut EP Something in the Water. Moody’s exceptional vocal performance of the titular song was undoubtedly the highlight of the set.
Great as they were, even a last minute decision by the West Asheville venue to make the concert free of charge wasn’t enough to draw a crowd. This was the latest attempt by Isis Music Hall to step outside of its comfort zone of Americana and jazz to book the type of smaller indie rock acts that may have previously found a home at The Mothlight. Unfortunately, the space has yet to crack the code of attracting better turnouts — Torres also failed to draw much of a crowd last fall. A more targeted advertising approach might be all it takes, or possibly just booking an act exciting enough to give the venue more cred with the local hipsters who’d otherwise never take the time to check their calendar. Whatever it takes, it’d be great if Isis could help fill the void left by The Mothlight’s absence.
(Photos by Jonny Leather)
