I was covering Jay Som at The Roxy for US Rocker Music and before heading out I decided to do some research on the opening band, Los Angeles based Fashion Club (the moniker for Pascal Stevenson). I started off at the Instagram page and was like, "No, I don't think I've ever heard anything about this band." Then I did a Google search and up popped a Flood Magazine article. I clicked on the link and scanned through the write-up and the band name Moaning caught my attention. Then it all came together. I've been following Stevenson since 2010 when I saw a band called Moses Campbell playing a long gone music festival called Silver Lake Jubilee.
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| Fashion Club at The Roxy |
The members of Moses Campbell still have an impact on the Los Angeles music community. The violinist in the band was Pauline Lay who later was involved in a DIY venue called Pehrspace and still books events at 2220 Arts. Taking a look at their decade's dormant Instagram page, it even looks like Staz of The Paranoyds got involved in the Los Angeles music scene via the band. When the band called it quits, lead singer Sean Solomon and Stevenson formed Moaning. I'm not sure if Moaning is still around. It appears that Solomon has started a solo project and, of course, Stevenson has started her own project. (An interesting side project that Solomon was in that I don't believe included Stevenson was a band called Heller Keller that I caught once or twice.)
As a note, you can read my review of her set at The Roxy here on US Rocker Music.
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| Fashion Club at The Roxy |
What does Stevenson have to say about her project? Per her Spotify bio: You can’t help but feel both enlivened and exposed as its aberrant synth lines, artful strings and disfigured guitars swell into larger-than-life crescendos, which evoke a divine yet probing spotlight.
That line connects with The Roxy set that had her playing under the darkness of the venue except for a handful of small spotlights that danced around the stage and two table lamps that were placed on the synth table that flicked on and off.
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| Fashion Club at The Roxy |
My song spotlight goes to "Confusion." There was no visible setlist so I don't know all the songs that were played, but what stood out were the partial lyrics to this song, "I feel empty again." The song is a search for meaning and purpose in this life.
I make upA fantasy to get myself through the day, awake
It's all I have left
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