Sloppy Jane at Zebulon

I headed off to Zebulon for the first time. It's a nice location in Atwater Village, just by the LA river on Fletcher. I'd gotten an e-mail from Bloody Death Skull saying they were playing a free show. I was like, "Why not? They're always fun to photograph, I've never been to Zebulon, and it is free." Also, on the bill was a band called Sloppy Jane. I'd never seen them before and only tangentially knew about them via a photo that I'd come across one day and the fact that video blogger Scene and Heard TV mentioned them to me once in a conversation we had.

There is this similarity between Sloppy Jane and Bloody Death Skull. Both had large bands on stage. Sloppy Jane was comprised of 8 musicians and Bloody Death Skull had 10 on this night. There was this feel of a music commune going on.

During set up, two members of Sloppy Jane were sitting next to a mini-television/VCR combo set. One kept playing around with the machine. She'd hold the VHS tape, play with it and then put it into the VCR. I think she did this two or three times. When she put the tape in for the final time, she pushed a button repeatedly on the set. I wasn't sure if the set was malfunctioning and she was trying to fix it or if she was just playing around. Or maybe she was just trying to get static lines to show up on the television, because as soon as Sloppy Jane started to play, the picture quality had all these static lines across it.

Sloppy Jane

Just before the set began, all 8 members of the band sat together as a group. Some were talking with each other. Some were just watching the others. Others just staring off into space. Anyways, another reason why I got this sense I was watching a music commune gather together.

Then the band started. Lead singer, Haley Dahl, turned her back to the audience for a brief second. She turned back around and blue blood vomited out of her mouth. She then stripped down to her birthday suit. I was temporarily taken aback. I knew she played nude via the photo and conversation, but it was still a shock when there was a crowd around the stage and the rest of the band just kept playing as if nothing had happened.

The rest of the set had you sometimes wondering if you were watching a band or an artsy play. Why do I say this? Well, beyond Haley being nude for 75% of the set, there were other moments like when two members of the band were hugging it out. Also, there were moments when I wasn't sure the members of the band were actually in coordination. One could almost say they were going off on their own, in tune with their own musical feelings. Or maybe I should call it independent improvisation.

Sloppy Jane

Putting the whole set experience together, I can only say it was marvelous.

Anyways, I'm sort of limiting my thoughts here on Bloody Death Skull as I recently wrote up a review on them, which you can read here if you wish.

Bloody Death Skull