WORDS & PHOTOS BY FIESTABAN PHOTOGRAPHY!
Saturday night at the Lodge Room in Highland Park was filled with experimentation and new territory with three completely different acts: Jonathan Bree and openers Nico Turner and Ryder The Eagle.
Nico Turner is known as an influencer in the experimental avant-garde L.A. music scene and for her work with Vincent Gallo, Prefuse 73 and Cat Power. Her solo work however is sweetly restrained, and softly reminiscent of other ethereally dulcet female artists like Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins, Beth Orton or Diamanda Galás. Her songs are at once atmospheric, tender and seductive, even though at some points you could hear licks that could have been on a Sonic Youth or Breeders album. A truly heavenly way to open the show, Nico and her virtuosic guitarist VAVÁ provided a brilliant opening act that made everyone feel soothed.
Ladies, if you’re looking for a handsome and recently divorced French husband, Ryder The Eagle is your man. Unafraid to share his personal problems regarding his ongoing separation, as well as his personal cell number (sorry, it’s an international call) with the crowd, this one-man band is a tour de force, singing debaucherous rock songs about having sex with your ex’s friends, fighting with a cheating girlfriend, and working to preserve a clearly toxic sexual relationship. Ryder The Eagle is a living, breathing Molotov cocktail of a musician who doesn’t give one iota about what you think about his frenetic dancing or his often brutally honesty lyrics. Songs like “Wounded Bird,” “Alone In Love” and “Free Porn” are one part ice and one part fire. Removing his denim-on-denim-clad outfit over the course of his act, he twice propelled into the crowd to croon individually to audience members, or belt out songs while Coyote Ugly-ing the Lodge Room bar. He doesn’t have much of a social media presence, but check out his Youtube here.
Headliner and Kiwi, Jonathan Bree is truly something else. An unsettling swirl of nightmarish phantasmagoria, Velvet Underground-esque wigs and melancholic synthpop (think maybe The Magnetic Fields meets Pulp meets Nico meets Ultravox and The Smiths), Bree is here to satisfy a niche of his own creation. Covered head-to-toe in vintage white (or in Jonathan’s case, a black button-down), the entire backing band’s identifying features are completely obfuscated in a sort of dystopic 60s nostalgia. While his two dancers (including singer Clara Viñals) cheerily go about their rehearsed choreography, Jonathan eerily strikes a contrapposto position—his quiet spectacle haunting the stage until the vocals begin again. His songs are minimal (even with the pre-recorded string sections and occasional bossa nova rhythms) but the impact is maximal as Bree serenades his brand of dreary yet hooky “pop” tunes such as “You’re So Cool,” “Waiting On The Moment,” “Valentine,” and newly released single, “Cover Your Eyes.” If you haven’t seen his highly theatrical brand of ennui, please do yourself a favor next time he’s in town and check him out.
JONATHAN BREE
NICO TURNER
RYDER THE EAGLE
NOVEMBER 16TH, 2019
LODGE ROOM, LOS ANGELES, CA
PHOTOS BY FIESTABAN PHOTOGRAPHY!
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