By Daniel Warren Hill
This Alchemical Records article is read by the author to provide a multimedia experience for our audience while increasing the accessibility of our content to persons with hearing loss, low vision, dyslexia, physical or motor disabilities, or are on the autism spectrum.
That’s a great title, isn’t it? It’s punny and conveys most of the pertinent information. Unfortunately, just a ghost of its former self. Let me explain.
We received an email from Daniel Graham, bassist and vocalist of Great Wide Nothing, an indie-prog rock trio from Atlanta, Georgia about an upcoming show happening October 5, 2021, with Brave and Flowerbomb at DC9. I was excited to be learning about a local gig via the touring artist. I think it says a lot for the kind of reach and community building we have so heavily prioritized at Alchemical. What would have been Great Wide Nothing’s first tour promoting the release of “Hymns for Hungry Spirits, Vol. I” and first time in the DC market was abruptly put to a halt when the band made an announcement on social media:
“It is with great sadness that we must regretfully announce that we have canceled our Fall tour due to COVID-19 related concerns.”
It is a disappointment all too familiar in the times in which we live, but we trust that whatever the circumstances, Great Wide Nothing (also consisting of keyboardist Dylan Porper and drummer Jeff Matthes) is doing what they must to keep themselves and others safe, and we anticipate they will reschedule (the grapevine says Spring 2022) when they have the opportunity, most likely with a similar bill for the night. Graham had expressed how the lineup had come together in all the natural synergistic community-building efforts we’ve always appreciated:
“Their [Brave] music has been featured on some of the same radio shows as ours, and shared bills with other east coast bands the members of which I knew more personally, and all of whom had lots of good things to say about them. So I more or less had them in mind from the get go when I was booking the date.” – Daniel Graham (Great Wide Nothing)
Brave would certainly have the history to share common threads with a number of artists from all over the world and they have also spent time developing and releasing other artist’s music, but they are excited to be back into the live music space:
“We’ve spent the last couple of years branching out and creating new music projects under our own label, Bravemusic. While our core band, Brave, is still going strong after more than 20 years, we wanted to venture into some new musical territories–so we’ve got a number of other projects, including Stellar Death (ambient post rock/metal), Day of Departure (progressive post rock), and one that is way out of left field called Hyperwar 1989 (kind of a retro-futuristic synth project). Despite all of these other new avenues for creating music, we’re looking forward to getting back to playing a live gig as Brave. It feels like it’s been a long time, so it’ll be sort of a celebration to play music again that spans more than two decades.” – Brave
As to Flowerbomb, they joined the lineup as a result of Grahm’s exploration on Bandcamp to discover acts that complement one another, but that don’t “necessarily reside in that same ‘prog’ bubble. I’m glad I did, because as a result I found them (most of their stuff is tagged more as indie, post punk, shoegaze, alternative). I absolutely fell in love with their most recent record, “Pretty Dark” (I even bought the limited edition purple splatter vinyl!) and became a massive fan, so I reached out to them. “
Flowerbomb wows fans and other bands alike. “Pretty Dark” was the winner of the 2021 Wammie Award for Best Rock Album, and contained the single, “II” which also won in the Best Rock Song category for the same year. The album was co-produced by Flowerbomb drummer Dan ABH and by Mark Reiter (whose impressive list of credits is certainly worth visiting), who subsequently invited Flowerbomb to join his label Mutineer Records, which Reiter began in Fall 2020.
Vocalist and founder, Rachel Kline says, “Flowerbomb is currently writing and recording new music, filming music videos, and preparing for shows this upcoming Fall. When they’re not playing music, Flowerbomb enjoys eating tater tots, watching bad 90’s sitcoms, and laughing…a lot.”
Now, with the most recent announcement, what was intended to have been a perfect evening of synergy between local and long-distance acts has been transformed into an evening of perfect synergy between local acts Brave, Flowerbomb, and the latest contribution to the lineup Jasmine Gillison who will be joined by her full band, a real treat for those who know how captivating she is as a solo performer. When not awing audiences from onstage, Jasmine has been flexing her multi-instrumentalist muscles as a session bassist at Inner Ear Studios in Northern, VA.
Between now and Spring, you’ll have plenty of time to familiarize yourself with the music of Great Wide Nothing (we expect to see you singing along) whose latest album, “Hymns for Hungry Spirits, Vol. I” is available. Meanwhile, we know they’ll be missing out (at least for now) on the chance to catch Brave, Flowerbomb, and Jasmine Gillison all on the same stage. Don’t let that be you.
Daniel Warren Hill is an American musician, writer, and motivational speaker. He is best known as the frontman for Washington DC area Alternative Rock band YellowTieGuy, as co-founder of Capitol Groove Collective, and increasing the exposure of artists on a global scale through his work with Alchemical Records.
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Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
