Review: Setting at Eulogy
In 1964, psychonaut Timothy Leary wrote in The Psychedelic Experience that achieving transcendence with psychedelic drug experiences hinges on the “set and setting,” for which he provided the following definition:
“Set denotes the preparation of the individual, including his personality structure and his mood at the time. Setting is physical — the weather, the room's atmosphere; social — feelings of persons present towards one another; and cultural — prevailing views as to what is real.”
This context is helpful when considering the band Setting, the all-instrumental, North Carolina-based band which features Nathan Bowles (strings/keys/tapes/percussion), Jaime Fennelly (harmoniums/synthesizers/piano zither), and Joe Westerlund (drums/percussion/metallophones). The band’s first and only studio album, Shone a Rainbow Light On, was released in September and includes four improvised tracks composed of drones, pulses, washes, and other musical layers that shift between warm tones to more unsettling warnings.
Only a few weeks ago, the band released Setting at Black Mountain College Museum, a documentation of their October concert at the downtown Asheville arts center. So it was a bit of a surprise that Setting performed at Burial Beer Co.’s relatively new venue Eulogy on Dec. 17. It was a happy surprise to those who missed the October show and were given a second chance for the live set-and-Setting experience.
The performance began with no fanfare or even an announcement as the band simply began playing after finishing their onstage set-up. As Setting created a drone led by sustained notes from Fennelly’s harmonium, Bowles began placing weighted objects on specific keys of his synthesizer to add to the musical base. Enabling the drone to continue in this way allowed Bowles to shift to other instruments throughout the performance as he began to play a cymbal with a bow while Westerlund pounded along on the drums. The band increased the intensity of the music, building to a peak. Then with a quick locking of eyes among the trio, they abruptly down-shifted to another mode.
As with Setting at Black Mountain College Museum, Setting never took a break between songs at Eulogy, though there were definite changes that felt like new musical pieces. After the opening improvisation there was a moment in which Bowles shot a look at Fennelly as if to ask, “Should I go for the banjo?” The answer must have been an affirmative as Bowles laid the instrument across his lap and pounded on it with felt-tipped mallets.
Bowles is a virtuosic banjo player, as evinced by his playing with Pelt and The Black Twig Pickers, so playing it in this way could be viewed as a subversive act. However, the construction of a banjo includes a resonating membrane similar to that of a snare drum, so Bowles’s playing was less subversion and more of an embrace of the full capacity of what the instrument can do. Regardless, the music in this section was gorgeous as the band created a vibrant, satisfying groove emphasizing the drums and the drummed banjo.
After hitting another musical peak that was met with a few whoops from the crowd, Bowles picked up the banjo and began playing it, clawhammer-style. The sound created in this section was in a higher register, giving the impression of a cascade of pearls repeatedly falling and hitting a floor. As with Setting at Black Mountain College Museum, the high point of the Eulogy performance was when Bowles frailed away on the banjo in lockstep with Fennelly’s harmonium and Westerlund’s drums.
While Bowles played a few slides on the banjo’s bass notes to indicate something new, Setting slowly shifted gears to another piece. He then laid the banjo down, removed the weights from the synth keys, and began creating new blurry, rippling sounds akin to flares being set off. As Setting began building the musical tension of this new piece, Fennelly shifted from harmonium to zither while Bowles played the cymbal with his bow once again. The peak for this part resembled alarms resonating off of Eulogy’s walls. As the band descended from this point, they played ghostly sounds over an eerie drone. Eventually, the nightmarish effects gave way to white noise as Setting brought the concert to a close.
This performance at Eulogy corresponded to Leary’s “set and setting” definition as Setting, the band, provided the setting, creating music within the given physical and social environment. With the setting determined, each audience member was left to bring their own set — or correct mental state — in order to achieve an exalted experience.
At the South Slope venue, Setting’s beautiful single-song set expertly combined electronic with acoustic instrumentation to create a sound that was half songline and half retrofuturistic effects. The band truly lived up to its name by creating an improvisatory soundscape that shifted and morphed throughout the performance, allowing the audience to have their own experiences, either lost in thought or appreciating the gorgeous and sublime music.
(Photo by Will Warasila)
