Blue Cactus w/ Nightblooms

127 Princess Street,Wilmington NC 28401

20 May, 2023

Description

Doors 9pm. Show 10pm. $10 ADV $15 DOS. Blue Cactus https://www.bluecactusmusic.com/ Blue Cactus, the North Carolina duo of Steph Stewart and Mario Arnez, make Dream Country: a blend of grit, glitz, groove, and twang that evokes a celestial soundscape of mid-century heartbreak and harkens comparisons eclectic and iconic as Bobbie Gentry, Fleetwood Mac, and David Bowie. Their sophomore album, Stranger Again, released in 2021 on Sleepy Cat Records, nabbed enthusiastic attention from tastemakers including No Depression, American Songwriter, FLOOD Magazine, Talkhouse, and INDY Week among others. Following their critically-acclaimed 2017 debut and a string of singles in 2020, Stranger Again saw the band taking their sound to an ambitious new plane, where country-rock and light psychedelia mingle, vocals soaring over twangy slide guitars and propulsive basslines. The North Carolina duo have performed at several beloved festivals including Nelsonville, Red Wing Roots, Muddy Roots and Hopscotch and shared the stage as support for an array of artists from The War & Treaty, Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, and Lilly Hiatt to Town Mountain and Junior Brown among others. Between the comfort of classic country and the glamour of 70s rock, Blue Cactus resuscitates a fleeting style of honest-to-goodness country music considered valueless to a “new” country music where songwriting is officiated by financial analysts and teams of marketing plutocrats instead of woebegone troubadours. With a high lonesome twang, an Emmylou-like southern drawl, and blistering guitar techniques, Blue Cactus exercises the honky-tonk muscles to firmly bear the flag for a new generation of country music. Nightblooms https://www.nightbloomsnc.com/ One of the hardest parts about having a band is describing what you sound like. It’s often easier just to reference other bands people might actually know (Elliott Smith, Weyes Blood, George Harrison, Grizzly Bear, The War on Drugs, Wilco…) than to come up with overused adjectives and round-about metaphors. I guess I could tell you that Nightblooms sounds a little like my old band Lilac Shadows but filtered through acoustic guitars, pianos, and a lot less volume. That might help, but you also might be like, “I don’t know what Lilac Shadows is.” I could say we use lots of synthesizers or that lyrically our songs are anxious as hell but pretty fun musically. But like Saul Bellow (maybe?) once said, “I’m the bird — you’re the ornithologist.” So just listen and see what comes to mind. It’ll probably be more evocative than I can write here anyway. Whatever we sound like to you, I just hope you enjoy it.