For even the hardiest touring superstars, playing over 100 shows in a year is a test of endurance. For Baltimore’s transcendent psych-drone duo Darsombra, every night on tour is another welcome chance to connect with audiences and each other. Brian Daniloski and Ann Everton will add Portsmouth to the increasingly lengthy list of cities they’ve visited on Thursday, Aug. 13, when they bring their heavy instrumental soundscapes and powerful psychedelic imagery to The Red Door.
The band calls the tour the “3-Legged Monster,” and it’s earned the name — so far, they’ve played 71 cities and have eight weeks to go. Boston emotive hardcore outfit Choke Up and Durham stoner-metal trio Green Bastard will join them.
“We did a 60-day tour last spring and we thought, ‘Wow, we’re really driving through a lot of towns and missing a lot of these more crazy places that we’d like to stop in and see if there’s any freaks there and see if we could play there,’” Daniloski said. “So we mapped them all out, and when it was all done, we decided we wanted play over 100 cities in the U.S. and Canada.”
A veteran of sludge-metal pioneers Meatjack, Daniloski began Darsombra’s musical journey as a solo act in 2005. When video artist Ann Everton joined in 2011, she added synthesizers, percussion, and projected visuals to the dynamic riffs, experimental looping, and manipulation that already defied genre conventions. “We’re a heavy band. We’re loud, but our music is becoming so expansive and weird and out there. When we go play bills, sometimes people don’t know what the hell to do with us,” Daniloski said.
While listeners often mistake the material as free-form or spontaneous, it’s quite highly composed — “almost to the second,” Daniloski said, adding that there’s usually room in the songs for improvisation on stage.
There are no traditional vocals in Darsombra’s work, but Everton’s evocative videos provide a narrative for the music. “Composing videos to the music is a wonderful way of dreaming for me,” she said. “Visually, there’s a lot of science fiction and pre-CGI-era film influences. I love how ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ was basically filmed in a studio, but gave the impression of being out in space. So our upcoming work is going to include a lot of blue screen use and I’ll be working with miniatures and costumes.” It adds up to a captivating set that creates “an internal trance-like state for us, but also for the viewer,” she said.
The psychedelic spectacle of a Darsombra show. (photo by Michel Anderson)
For Daniloski, their engaging live shows embody what he always envisioned for the project. “I always enjoyed bands that gave you a little bit more,” he said. “When I was very, very young my dad took me to see Kiss and I was just blown away. You got so much more than just a band up there playing music. Then I went and saw the Butthole Surfers, of all people, play at a little dive bar in Baltimore and still have a trippy, mind-blowing show, even in this crazy, tiny, punk-rock shithole, and that really brought it home.”
Everton is equally excited about the connections to be made in small spaces. “We love the small, intimate shows where everyone’s just right there and connecting closely,” she said. “When we perform, we typically encourage the audience to become comfortable. Sitting on the floor, we encourage that.”
Seeing do-it-yourself performance art at a young age helped inspire Daniloski, and that ethic remains the core of the band’s mission. He remembers thinking to himself, “Oh, wow, this is something I can do. I didn’t need to be some chosen super-star, son of a wealthy person to be able to pull this shit off, you know? Anybody can do it,” he said.
Darsombra practices what they preach, with Daniloski and Everton acting as the band’s booking agents, publicists, lighting technicians, and marketers. The logistics of playing in more than 100 cities in under a year is a daunting endeavor, but even after several long tours, the two remain positive about the remaining 50-plus shows. The pictures on their blog chronicle a lengthy adventure full of landmarks, landscapes, and new friends. “The goal now is to play as much as possible and bring our weird shows to as many people as we can,” said Daniloski.
Darsombra has no plans to slow down. “We’re hoping to release a double album. We have three pieces of music that all total almost two hours. … So that’s what we’re going to get to working on after this,” said Daniloski.
And as they look ahead to the last nine weeks of the tour, their excitement is palpable.
“This, for both of us, has been such a incredible facet of our friendship and our relationship and to share it around the country the way we do brings us so much gratitude,” Everton said.
Darsombra performs with Choke Up, Time Shares, and Green Bastard on Thursday, Aug. 13 at 8 p.m. at The Red Door, 107 State Street, Portsmouth.