Muzzins emcee a night of costume swaps and electro pops at Midway Cafe on Saturday, 7 October 2023.

Side Body, Petaluma Vale, and The Ghost-Lights sandwich the four-stack bill.

DJ Luna del Flor starts the party.

It’s Muzztival 2.0 already? It’s been less than a year since the inaugural edition, which was a New Year’s Eve bash come early.

The second edition jumps the gun on Halloween by getting costumes into the mix. Guests were invited to take part in a costume swap, make-up station, and queer vibing.

At this rate of return, expect another Muzztival in about six months, coming at you faster than the next generation iPhone.

That’s the kind of planned obsolescence that we can get behind. A Hump Night of music and magic at the storied Midway Cafe.

Shout out to DJ Luna del Flor, who cooked up some chill beats to kick off the night.

Petaluma Vale & The Ghost-Lights

A harp and cello duo. It’s Petaluma Vale and The Ghost-Lights.

Was this contemporary classical, pagan folk, or pop music? All of the above.

Harp is a fascinating instrument to watch strut its stuff in the pop music vernacular. The sound is so singular, it tends to swallow compositions whole and chew up the sonic scenery. Unless you’re just adding harp as a passing flourish, the instrument tends to take over whatever song it's a part of.

As a result, the instrument has had a tough time breaking out of a certain kind of folk music ghetto. You need a dynamo like Alice Coltrane or Joanna Newsom to jailbreak the instrument into the mainstream once in a while.

But wait! There are some stirring signs of late that the popular music consciousness might be waking up to the possibilities of the forty-seven string instrument. Mary Lattimore has been touring all over the place, pushing the instrument into the modern classical space. Brandee Younger picks up the mantle of jazz harp to wide acclaim. Now Petaluma Vale…

Harp: not just for St. Patty’s Day brunches anymore!

Cello has long had a more established role in popular music. It’s a blessing and a curse – cellists get invited to play what must be the most boring auxiliary roles in rock n roll songs. There’s always some popstar, having a creative crisis, who wants to “class up” their humdrum ballad with cello parts that basically just double up the melody. For what you’re asking them to do, you might as well just hit a few keys on a synth.

The Ghost-Lights (moniker for Valerie Thompson?) got more interesting material to work with. Nice interplay between the cello and harp on wide-ranging numbers with a sense for the epic. 6-, 7-, 8-minute numbers. Moody and magisterial string play. Extra points awarded to Thompson for asking the bar crowd in back to shut the fuck up because it was her birthday and she’s a Libra. Fair!

Also, look up what a “ghost light” is. Bet you didn’t know.

Muzzins

The founding inspiration behind the Muzztivals, it’s Muzzins! No definite article.

The band loves a party and a party loves the band. The music is dance-centric, dividing the labor of its three musicians between different departments of electro funkitude.

The bass serves as the anchor, as with all dance-centric units. It’s the pivot on which Muzzins explore different body-moving pop inflections.

Whether the percussion is synth or banged out by hand on the skins. Whether lead vocalist Rayna Jhaveri is rocking out a keytar or melodica. Whether the band trots out old skool hip hop styles, disco traxxx, or New Wave pop jams. Through it all, the bass holds down the low end, holding fast to the unspoken social compact with the dancefloor.

In the words of Rick Berlin, “A sonic avalanche!”

Shout out to the Donna Summer banger “Hot Stuff” cover. Apparently one of the first songs the band played together according to the hazy, golden reminisces of their arcadian origin story.

Side Body

Music ensemble, art collective, silkscreen auteurs. Side Body bring a high energy rock n roll attack with heavy dance vibrations. At the drop of the hat, though, the four-piece can switch gears into a more contemplative, a capella, choreographed Rite of Fall mood. Shades of Honey & Soul meets Electric Street Queens meets Bread & Puppet Theater meets Justin Arena’s Together Press.

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