Jason Cain of Astrophagus poured himself into his performance on Saturday night. Photos and text by Reverb contributor .
In a town renowned for its soul-bearing crooners, there are few that can actually match Jason Cain of in walking the line between emotional performance and onstage breakdown.
During Saturday night’s CD release at the Hi-Dive, Cain zig-zagged back and forth across that line like a man trying to avoid bullets from a sniper, or more likely glances and memories from a certain muse in the audience.
At times Cain appeared to be moved to tears by his own melancholy lyrics, but the band’s complex and powerful music, driven by drummer David Kurtz, kept the audience energized. Guest musicians Carrie Beeder () on violin and Matthew Fox () on lap steel layered ambient strains over Chris White’s inventive bass playing, and Joshua Cain’s knob-turning.
Unfortunately, trumpet player Joshua Trinidad was out of the country and unable to perform the horn sections he beautifully laid down on the CD. However, unless you had already listened to the CD repeatedly, it was hard to tell anything was missing musically during the set. Astrophagus closed out the night with the title track from their new CD, “For Boating,” during which Cain’s emotions finally exploded. At some point during the song, which has the refrain “and I’ll live again,” Cain’s guitar and forehead occupied the same space resulting in a bloody gash.
When the song and set ended, the visibly shaken singer was standing at the back of the stage, head in hands, shouting something like “turn on some damn music!” to the soundman. A few songs before this dramatic finish, in referring to the new CD, Cain had said that the end result of years of work on something this personal was just a box full of plastic and paper. It was clear by the reaction of the crowd, and the reception he received when coming off stage, that Cain has built something far more meaningful to others and himself.
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