Cold Cave
The Glass House - Pomona, CA
August 13th, 2015

Support for The Jesus And Mary Chain


"File Under: Gothic Darkwave Synth Pop"



Taper: mixter_

EX-




Shoutouts: To fellow tapers blg, eric and coolerluzi who were in attendence and my pal Alan for nabbing
the set list.


Lineage / Equipment:

on rail / 10' from left ceiling stack / fob -> 6.7' h -> at933's (4.7k dt mod) cards -> naiant pipsqueak
pre (+4dB) -> edirol r09 (24/48) -> san disk extreme plus 32gb class 10 - 80mb/s -> reader -> audition 3.0
(minimal level adjust +1dB l / +2dB r - fades - normalization - de-clap process) -> har-bal 2.3 (slight e.q.) ->
audition 3.0 (dither to 16/44.1) -> cd wave editor (track split) -> tlh (flac level 8, etc...) -> DIME -> you ->
sense of enjoyment -> sharing is caring -> support the artist (yes) -XX convert to mp3 (no!!!)


K.I.L.L. = Keep It LossLess



Set List:

01 Love Comes Close
02 Icons Of Summer
03 Confetti
04 A Little Death To Laugh
05 Heaven Was Full
06 Underworld USA
07 The Great Pan Is Dead


Total Time: 32:52



Cold Cave is...

Wesley Eisold: Vocals, Synthesizer Programming

with...

Amy Lee: Additional Keyboards


The band? / performance:

Cold Cave is the musical outlet of one Wesley Eisold with his trusty girlfriend Amy Lee in tow. The band fills a niche
for the disaffected youth that has only recently discovered Joy Division's brilliant yet brief oeuvre. The band has no
doubt been aided by music streaming services like Pandora and Spotify. I'm sure that if you programmed a Joy Division
playlist, you would invariably hear some Cold Cave tunes once you exhausted the band's 45 or so songs over the course
of three hours. Now if you wondered what JD would have sounded like with Shep Pettibone at the controls instead of
Martin Hannet, then you get a vague sense of Cold Cave's monochromatic style of gothic dance music. Whereas Ian Curtis
expressed a sense of fear, isolation, and despair in his vocal delivery, Eisold expresses an ultra earnest sense of
indifference. There are some interesting elements to the synthesizer programming, but only momentarily as the sequences
are lost in a rudimentary vocal delivery that never changes key from song to song only volume and to a lesser degree
pitch. It's very contrived sounding and more than completely reminescent of New Order's Movement and what was played in
L.A. (Scream, Club With No Name) and San Diego (Soma, Red Tape) in the underground goth and industrial clubs during the
mid 80's to mid 90's. The band wasted no time in pouring through seven songs in the course of 30 or so minutes. Wesley
appeared to be rather engaging with the few fans in the audience. I'm not sure if it's Amy's place to speak or not. She
most certainly did not. I'm really not sure how this outfit has become so popular opening for NIN / Soundgarden last
summer while very talented acts like IAMX and Big Black Delta remain grossly overlooked. Sorry, just my 2 cents.


The recording:

I decided to set up shop exactly where I was for Lord Huron the month prior with similar results (fortunately). The band
(thankfully) played a very short set. The recording is pretty close to perfect in terms of what my humble equipment and
primitive mastering skills can provide. Wesley's vocal's are clear, if unintelligible, and in the front of the synths.
There is a vague amount of background chatter than can be heard somewhere in the midst of the sequences. There is very
little in the way of crowd noise. Minor amounts of clapping and cheering between the songs only.



Of note:

The Quietus wrote a pretty insight article about Cold Cave some six years ago. Since the band hasn't really changed (read:
developed) that much, it could have been written last Tuesday.

http://thequietus.com/articles/03167-cold-cave-love-comes-close-album-review


Indy Week also stated:

"Every song feels like the melodramatic closing-credits music of some lost '80s movie involving doomed romance, wrecked
motorcycles and dead friends".

I couldn't have put it any better than this.








Enjoy,



mixter_