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Concert Reviews

The Night The Jester Joined The Cult Of Cats

Curse of Cassandra is (l-r) Jake and Nicole Richter (Credit: Jester / Music in Motion Columbus)

More often than not, the majority of shows that pass through Columbus end up somewhere downtown, either on High Street or in the surrounding areas.

There are a few concert halls that dot the Interstate 270 outerbelt inside and out, but normally you wouldn’t expect a band with a large cult following to play somewhere like The Dark Horse Tavern in the suburb of Reynoldsburg. Owner Joseph Lamb is looking to change that culture and give central Ohio a new alternative location to find darker shows.

With that in mind, he brought in Dayton’s Curse of Cassandra, comprised of husband and wife duo Jake and Nicole Richter. The name is ironically drawn from the Greek legend of Cassandra, who was cursed by Apollo with the ability to see the future, but never to be believed in her prophecies. Nicole describes their style as “witchy electronica,” and says that it is “dark music with a moonlit center.”

As the band was setting up their merchandise table, I noticed that the majority of their items had somewhat of a cat theme. Sure enough, their most recent album is titled “Cult of Cats”, which Jake says was purposefully ironic, as “you just can’t have a cult of cats, because cats are so fiercely independent”.

Nicole Richter at her hauntingly best…
(Credit: Jester / Music in Motion Columbus)

Interestingly, the band let me take a tour of their RV, which is home to their two hairless Sphynx cats Asia and Armand. “Right now, it’s almost as if our entire band is centered around cats,” Jake said with a smile. “Did we mention we like cats?”

Inside the venue, the Timelords set the stage with a rocking set. After they finished, the duo brought up their equipment, including a microphone stand built to look like an upside-down broomstick, a glowing orange light-box that looked like a funeral pyre, and a cutout of a the Sphynx cat’s head surrounded by flashing lights. It was bizarrely unique, and in a landscape of carbon copy, cut-and-paste music, it was nice to see something incredibly fresh.

The first track of the evening was Hold Me Kill Me Slay Me, which had a bass-heavy opening and featured a wonderful vocal harmony on the chorus. It was a slightly quieter song compared to what I was expecting, but Jake’s synthesizer work immediately kicked in hard for Ghost Of You, featuring a pulsing drum track to go with Nicole’s sultry-sweet voice. At the end of the song she passed out kitty ears for anyone who wanted them, as an invitation to “join the Cult of Cats”. I happily obliged.

As the synth-beat started to percolate on Falling, the smoke detector in the bar suddenly started blaring. Apparently the tiny smoke machine that the band had brought was too much for the detector, and the bartender ended up having to unplug it. Someone in the crowd remarked that “you know you’re at a goth show when…” and we all had a laugh. Falling featured Jake singing lead, with a beautiful chorus harmony asking “Do you wanna know my love?”

Jake Richter lays down the beat…
(Credit: Jester / Music in Motion Columbus)

Following that, Nicole encouraged everyone in the crowd to act like cats, with meows and purrs beginning to emanate from around me. Binding was the only song of the night that wasn’t from the new album, but it featured Jake’s most complex keyboard work this evening. From an auditory standpoint, Nicole had the pitch and sugar to rival Chibi from The Birthday Massacre. But when she danced on stage, she brought forth memories of seeing Donna Lynch from Ego Likeness. The blonde hair didn’t hurt in that department.

Stardust followed with haunting little chants, as Nicole jumped on her funeral pyre and put more of her dance moves on display. Not to be outdone, Jake ended up pulling out a saxophone and laying down some smooth and savvy notes on the track. The line “Make it rain stardust, let it unite us” jumped out at me as another deceptively clever bit of lyrical work.

Naturally, the hottest number of the night was titled Dragon On A Leash, which switched things up and came off as an almost dub-step sounding track. It was an angst-filled, sexually charged number that featured a screaming trance intro, permeating the entirety of the Dark Horse Tavern with noise. Somehow, all of that worked. With Nicole meowing seductively throughout the song, I have to say… thank God for air conditioning.

Dancing in the shadows with Curse of Cassandra (Credit: Jester / Music in Motion Columbus)

Finally, the band played their “witch revolution anthem”, Carpe Noctem. Nicole crooned “I will rise and seize the night,” as she jumped off stage to dance with members of the crowd, while Jake pulled out a drum-head to add a little percussion to the bass-filled synths on the song. It was a fun and fitting end to a short but exciting bit of music.

The crowd might have been a little lacking for a Saturday night, possibly due to it being Pride weekend, but Lamb informed me that he was not at all disappointed. “We tried to have a good dark show, and people showed up for it. We didn’t fail at all tonight, and I can’t wait to do it again”.

Personally, I’m grateful that central Ohio has found a new location for oddballs and weirdos such as myself. And I’m happy that I got to join the Cult of Cats tonight.

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Setlist

  1. Hold Me Kill Me Slay Me
  2. Ghost Of You
  3. Falling
  4. Binding
  5. Stardust
  6. Dragon on a Leash
  7. Carpe Noctem

Curse of Cassandra – Dragon on a Leash

 

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