Photo by Daniel Belis
Words by Nathan Solis

Provoked, any docile creature will show its fangs. Sleepy Sun was cornered the other night at Spaceland – a large group of people attended to catch some of their acid soaked folky tunes and they lashed back. They showed us their canines, their harmonies thrashing in the brambles of guitar and percussion bliss, the deluge soaring on those peaks and valleys, always reminding us that even though we came to see them play on that tiny stage at Spaceland, they were there to correct our posture and civilize the lot of us. 

It’s been eons since their song “New Age” came out, the name making mocking gestures to time, enthralling the audience for a solid 8-minute celebration, as though it wasn’t 2010, but maybe when we left Spaceland Nixon would be our Commander in Chief and we could have another chance to do the last 40 years over again. Maybe. It’s the herald to an old era, resurrected by Sleepy Sun and that’s all right with me – with you too if you knew what was good for you. 

There are live recordings of “Red/Black” – bootlegs mind you, bless those people who sneak cameras into venues – but none of it does justice to the song. It could have been the whiskey telling/throwing my senses off, might have been the audience general mood to the whole night in general, whatever it was, the song melted glass even though they went through it in less than a minute - like a shot of adrenaline directly into the nervous system. Sleepy Sun, they are not the architects of this type of soul shattering freak folk experience, but they’ve obviously had experience in previous lives.

And many more photos from the show.