Show Review
Secret Attraction (not seen)
Deceits (not seen)
Past Self
Trit95
@ CLUB FLESH in Catch One
Los Angeles, CA.
I was excited to see Dream Recordings signee Trit95 for the first time in a few months- when last I saw him he was performing solo at the Permanent Records Roadhouse. This time he was in town for CLUB FLESH which is hosted inside Catch One down there in the heart of Los Angeles. Headliner Secret Attraction was going to be on Dream Recordings but the relationship did not work out and we gave them their record back.
Catch One has a spotty reputation as a venue for live music, but as I said before and I will say again now, it's a good place to see a show. There are multiple events at Catch One every/most nights- from the Courtyard I could see the entrance for BRATZ PARTY (2000s) and as I left the front/main venue had a line down the block for a 100% gay(cis gay men) dance party. That's the kind of cross pollination that I associate with creative fecundity, though of course it would be too much to ask to be able to go from show to show within Catch One, which I would desperately like to do.
Another observation worth mentioning is that a show like this could have very easily, once upon a time, been hosted at the Echo, but the Echo has fallen so far since its purchase by Live Nation that it is almost impossible to contemplate- like the vastness and depth of the fall. The fact that it was being held at a Club Flesh which is technically a BDSM club is a testament to the acuity of the promoter ("Electric Eye Presents"- and if you have a search set up for your name, greetings). There are multiple promoting entities working out of this space- Das Bunker is another one that is here on the regs with different kinds of live music.
Even though I'm not a goth I do love a good goth club, it's always a vibrant sub-culture with a firm commitment to live music- going back half a century now in places like London, NYC, SF and LA. You couldn't ask for a more polite, attentive audience. And clearly they aren't overly fussy about genre since neither headliner Secret Attraction now Trit95 are what I call "goth".
After a brisk conversation between by friend Rabbi Dave and I about the roots of gothic as an idea in western culture- from Ruskin and the Stones of Venice, to the architectural qualities that gave rise to the term, to the rise of Goth novels in the late 18th century- ghosts with clanking chains in remote castles in southern France, the wilds of Italy and Spain, to the Gothic revival of the 19th century- with writers like Wilkie Collins and Edgar Allan Poe drawing on a shared culture of gothic culture but adding their own themes, to the emergence of the contemporary sub-culture out of the stew of English post-punk in the late 1970's and early 1980's- Trit95 took the stage.
They performed as a three person band- it was a tight 20 minute set- crowd response was outstanding, this is the outfit that Trit95 could tour- they could play SXSW tomorrow and turn heads. I personally told five people in the Audience the name of the artist. The crowd was not that of an opening act at a rock club- everyone was there, and interested in the show. Trit95 was just great last night- this was my third time seeing him/them play live but the first time I'd really witnessed the magic- the potential star quality, if you will. Mario has been Trit95's biggest booster and I trust his aesthetic choices- that's his job- I don't have anything to do with picking the bands that Mario selects- but our conversations over the years have fed into his decision making process and it was cool seeing what he had seen.
Stuck around for a couple songs of Past Self- a more avowedly goth act complete with matching white and red face paint. They had two synth players and a guitarist and boy/girl vocals- I surmise they are on tour from their base in Washington states.
Something that came up with Secret Attraction is an inability of label and artist to understand the point of the relationship. Most of the issues arose from questions of timing- which is the same for every artist and label, in my experience- going up to and including the major labels. It's easy for DIY artists to wonder what the point of a label is in an era where you can get your own music online, sell your own music digitally etc.
And the answer to that question is that is an issue of Audiences. Subjecting ones artistic career to the timeline of the post-TikTok internet is a recipe for burnout and failure. On the other hand, if a DIY artist just takes the time to work with a label that has SOME kind of a track record, that serves as a notice to EVERYONE in the music business: other labels, managers, booking agents, publishers, that this is an act perhaps worth looking into.
Whereas if these same people are looking into an entirely self promoted/DIY artist, the ONLY question is "how many likes," "how many streams," "what is the artist produced content." Artists with a label don't have to always be doing that- they can focus their energy into building up the release of a full album physically and digitally and then touring that record- this is what serves as a sign to the music professional class that this particular artist is different from the dozens and hundred and thousands doing the DIY thing.
Secret Attraction didn't want that- something I recognized pretty early on- they want to be on the Tik Tok self-released content rich timeline, which- more power to them, but if I was an artist, or advising an artist in 2023 I would say look, you want a label to make and distribute a physical record, and you want to focus all your energy on first promoting and touring the record, because that is what professionals care about, that is what they think about.
In my experience, most DIY musicians have little or no idea about how the actual music industry works. They may BELIEVE that they know how it works, but they do not. Ask a DIY artist you know about music publishing and the ways one is compensated from a license of a song on a network television show, see what they have to say.
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