Lost Under Heaven, a duo consisting of Ebony Hoorn and Ellery James Roberts, came through Seattle a couple of weeks ago debuting some new music from their upcoming release Love Hates What You’ve Become, slated to be release in January 2019.
Lost Under Heaven
First of all, I knew a Lost Under Heaven (LUH) show was going to be fun. I’ve never been to one before, but I have seen Ellery James Roberts perform before, in one of my previously-favorite bands, WU LYF. The band broke up shortly after I saw them perform live, and after their first album. Roberts is an assertive frontman - his vocals croon and he’s got a feral stage presence.
Hoorn is a complementary addition to Roberts’ vocals - their harmonizing is surprisingly pleasant - she takes off the edge of the harsher male vocals while holding her own mysterious and melancholic notes.
With LUH, many of their songs offer familiar community chanting opportunities, similar to WU LYF’s songs. With songs like LUH’s latest single “Post Millenial Tension,” it’s easy to get caught up in the bold lyrics “Everybody singing fuck the world // Close your eyes and we’ll be alright … My generation’s burning // Still we sing our lovesongs.”
Also, with their song “Lament” from their first album Spiritual Songs for Lovers to Sing, Roberts beseeched the crowed to help him sing along to the lyrics “To the powers of old, to the powers that be // You have fucked up this world but you won’t fuck with me”.
The atmosphere was a loving one. The crowd offered and followed through with buying the band drinks throughout the night, and there were friendly conversations between songs, which usually ended up with us talking about a meme, and them acknowledging how silly it was we were talking about memes during their performance.
Laughter aside, LUH came to play their music and they took their performance seriously. At one point they opted to restart a song to get a climax just right after a beat was missed, and they indicated they would likely be back very soon for another show in 2019, after the new album drops.
Unfortunately, only a handful of people filled the High Dive for this powerful performance. When you looked behind you, there was a very empty back of the house, and it was so easy to tell because the 50 or so people who were there were all crowded near the stage, hanging onto the performance until the very end.
Cold Soda
Locals Cold Soda, opened for the evening. Many of us were taken by surprise because we didn’t realize the band is made up of Cave Singers band members.
Come to find out, Cold Soda is the more dance-y version of Cave Singers. They were a very easy listening opener, eager to play their music but not nearly as loud as the set that followed them with LUH. The music was very welcoming and sounded great at the High Dive stage.
