Secondhand Setlists

A special hometown edition of Secondhand Setlists complete with a special group of artists.

Every so often, I get the chance to catch an act when I’m home in Cleveland. Imagine my delight when I saw that Jhariah, who released one of my favorite songs of the year, announced a tour at the same moment I happen to be in town. I went into this evening hesitant as it was a Sunday night, I’ve been exhausted, and I admittedly knew nothing of the other acts nor the venue itself, Blk Punx Press.

The whole lineup blew me out of the water, a satisfying performance that will likely be my last of the year. What a way to close it out.

Glorychile, making her live debut, opened the evening. Her voice echoed in these cosmic productions, spacious and somewhat chilly, perfect for brisk but surprisingly comfortable December evening. “Close your eyes for a moment / Can you picture us happy” she inquired, softly enough to not betray any vulnerability, though it and other emotions linger unstated in the background of her music. She closed out with the funkier, bass-driven “Queen Princess,” which might’ve interrupted my year-end lists because I am a sucker for twilit dance numbers punctuated by pan flute melodies.

Following Glorychile’s galactic crooning came the spunky one-person show of Bummer Camp, gripping me with the first note of “Gone Rotten,” also now a contender for a top 2021 tune. Armed with their guitar and phone, Eli Frank gave us, essentially, the live version of a continuous mix, each song bleeding into the next. No small feat when one of the songs, if I counted correctly, was in 7/4 time. The momentum never broke, allowing Frank to steadily charge the room’s energy for the arrival of the ringmaster himself, Jhariah.

Jhariah makes music for fans who enjoy Taking Back Sunday’s whiplash tempos, Brendon Urie’s theatrical tenor, and the lively wordplay of Cursive – in fact, one of his shouts resembled Tim Kasher’s screlt so much that it made me commit to revisiting Happy Hollow sometime soon. Whether shuffling and leaping across the venue or planted behind his keyboards, Jhariah always conducted the show like a true maestro.

His main tool was that boisterous, emotive voice, commanding us to move (“Debt Collector”) or bringing us to the floor for something akin to a campfire anthem (“Chapter”). The dramatics of his tunes carried over to his stage dialogue, too, asking us if we enjoy songs about beans or birds; when one audience member responded that birds are fake, Jhariah played right into it: “You played yourselves – I’m a bird,” said in reference to the resplendent “Flight of the Crows.” The latter, the way sways into standard time out of a lilting 6/8 tempo, also showcased percussionist Cole Raser, whose sticks kept up admirably with Jhariah’s high-energy antics.

Finishing off the evening was The Sonder Bombs‘ Willow Hawk, armed just with her dynamite voice, incisive lyrics, and her guitars. Opening with a track about “being okay with” dying alone, she decided to gut us attendees right then and there. Her prickly, eviscerating wordplay felt akin to a folkier, singer-songwriter vibe, but her melodies are more in-line with pop hooks, altogether a winning combo of snipes and hooks. My only regret of the evening was not getting some video footage of that first number, because if there’s anything I relate to, it’s artists who turn the fear of the unknown into something beautiful enough to distract us.

All in all, an incredible show made all the more satisfying by the end of the year.