Cave Curse: Tackling Mortality With Midwestern DIY Synth-Punk
Maximum Pelt presents the Wisconsin band alongside Grun Wasser, Nightstop, and Wet Piss at Cole’s on March 31
by Katie Ingegneri
Sometimes it’s nice to switch things up a little from the usual indie rock fare I focus on here at Houseshow, so I’m excited to have connected with Bobby Hussy, the prolific Midwestern DIY musician of multiple touring projects like garage rockers The Hussy, Fire Heads, and as a former member of Nobunny’s backing band. We realized we’ve probably never exactly met, but I was at the show Fire Heads played on the second-to-last-night of shows at beloved Logan Square punk house Wally’s World before they shut down in March 2016, and I was hanging with Cadien Lake James that night, a true devotee of DIY life who was buying their records and had played shows with The Hussy. That night was two years ago! The Chicago scene has morphed into new DIY spaces, but I personally haven’t been to as many lately, the further they get from where I live in Logan Square, and I’ve been feeling disconnected from the energy felt in places like that.
Which is why I’m psyched now to be checking out Bobby’s project Cave Curse, whose energetic synth-punk brings to mind those wild nights of moshing, beer spraying, and unpredictable crowds in DIY venues like Wally’s. You can hear it in their track “Drones (We’re All),” from Cave Curse’s debut LP, “Future Dust,” released by FDH Records, and the new video for which is below. Dark but high-energy and upbeat, it just makes you want to get drunk and be in a crowd of friends and strangers shoving each other — with a rallying cry of “I’m always getting stoned.” Cave Curse describes the record as “a record for the stoners, loners and droners of the godforsaken world we live in.”
Born out of bedroom DIY in Madison, Wisconsin, Cave Curse “started as an outlet for Bobby to create simple synth pop/darkwave tracks in the downtime between making new The Hussy recordings. The project was aptly named for the curse of the dank basement apartment Bobby lived in alongside his fellow Fire Heads’ bandmates during the project’s gestation period.” Cave Curse picked up new members by fall 2017 to become a four-piece including Ben Brooks, Tyler Spatz, and Emili Earhart.
While the sound is dark but energetic, the album “Future Dust” has more tragic undertones related to Bobby losing his mother to a car accident in December 2015. The result is a “concise, 25-minute ‘concept’ album of death, despair, and destruction,” dedicated to her memory as Bobby contemplates her death and his own mortality, and an artistic shift towards darker sounds and themes. As Bobby sums the project up best himself in the title track…“We are all future dust. We are all creeping towards death.” Fortunately, an antithesis — or at least exploration — of death and darkness is to be found in music and connection.
Come to Cole’s on Saturday, March 31 to see Cave Curse alongside Grun Wasser and Wet Piss of Chicago, and Nightstop, from Finland! The show is appropriately presented by Maximum Pelt, the local DIY punk/rock n roll label run by Magic Ian who was the proprietor of Wally’s World. It all comes full circle. I unfortunately will be departing Chicago for good a few days before that, but I’m sure it’s gonna be one solid night of high-energy bands. Come be “stoners, loners and droners” with Cave Curse and the crew at Cole’s.
