Blackwater Holylight

Monday, March 2, 2026 brings a heavy, immersive night to Westside Bowl featuring Blackwater Holylight, SOM, and rebreather. Expect atmosphere, weight, and contrast — the kind of show that lives in the space between beauty and collapse.

Blackwater Holylight

Blackwater Holylight emerged from a period of rupture and relocation, leaving Portland for Los Angeles and stepping into a creative blank slate. That shift sharpened the band’s long-running fixation on duality — light and dark, power and vulnerability — culminating in their fourth full-length album, Not Here Not Gone.

On Not Here Not Gone, menacing riffs sit beneath hypnotic melodies, dense shoegaze guitars dissolve into airy synths, and heavy subject matter arrives cloaked in siren-like vocals. Drummer Eliese Dorsay describes the emotional balance simply: “some songs we’re the predator, and some songs we’re the prey.” That tension runs through the entire record.

The album’s title reflects displacement and persistence — “one foot in, one foot out,” as vocalist and guitarist/bassist Sunny Faris puts it. Songs like “How Will You Feel” pull the listener through murk and shadow toward moments of clarity, while tracks such as “Bodies” and “Spades” reshape sludge and psychedelia into something strangely uplifting. Lead single “Heavy, Why?” distills the band’s approach: crushing instrumentation softened and reframed by fragile vocal delivery.

Later tracks lean into patience and restraint. “Void to Be,” “Fade,” and “Mourning After” favor layered textures and fever-dream melodies over immediacy. That sense of restraint is shattered on the closing track, “Poppyfields,” a harrowing response to wildfire loss, driven by blast beats, symphonic synths, and black-metal-inflected guitar work — a reminder that no calm is permanent.

Recorded at Sonic Ranch outside El Paso with Sonny Diperri (Narrow Head, DIIV, Emma Ruth Rundle), Not Here Not Gone stands as Blackwater Holylight’s most expansive and focused work to date. Suicide Squeeze Records will release the album on January 30, 2026.

SOM

SOM released their third full-length album, Let The Light In, on March 14, 2025 via Pelagic Records. Described by Metal Injection as “Doom Pop,” the record balances dreamy shoegaze textures with a core that’s heavy, deliberate, and emotionally charged.

Where earlier releases The Fall and The Shape of Everything grappled with external collapse and existential pressure, Let The Light In turns inward — focusing on instinct, resilience, and the bonds that keep people moving forward. It’s an album shaped by years on the road, touring across North America, Europe, and the UK alongside acts like Katatonia, Sólstafir, Slow Crush, and Holy Fawn.

That constant motion reshaped the band’s creative process, resulting in a record that feels both grounded and expansive. Let The Light In pulses with confidence and catharsis, urging the listener to move through darkness rather than around it.

rebreather

rebreather opens the night, setting the tone with immersive sound and weight-forward compositions that complement the evening’s atmosphere.

Schedule & Tickets

Doors: 6:00 PM
Show: 7:00 PM

Tickets:
$18 Advance
$22 Day Of