Heavy doom/psych band Blackwater Holylight headlines Bottom of the Hill
SAN FRANCISCO -- Celebrated heavy psychedelic doom quartet Blackwater Holylight returns to San Francisco Saturday to headline the Bottom of the Hill Saturday night.
Formed in Portland, OR in 2016 by Allison "Sunny" Faris after the bassist/vocalist teamed with guitarist Laura Hopkins and original drummer Catherine Hoch (keyboardist Sarah McKenna was also brought into the fold), the band explored a sound that touched equally on psychedelic atmospherics and stoner/doom heaviness. Blackwater Holylight quickly built a local following and were signed to Riding Easy Records, which put out their self-titled debut in 2018.
The band has only grown in popularity since then, releasing its acclaimed 2019 follow-up Veil of Winter (which featured new drummer Eliese Dorsay and second guitarist Mikayla Mayhew) and earning invitations to play such noted festivals as Desertfest in Berlin, Levitation in Austin, TX, as well as Psycho Smokeout and Desert Daze in Southern California.
While the band was forced to shut down its tour in early 2020 due to the pandemic, Blackwater Holylight channeled the chaos and uncertainty of COVID times into the songs featured on their third Riding Easy release, the stunning Silence/Motion which came out last fall. Working as a four piece after the departure of Hopkins in 2020, the effort paired the band with an outside producer for the first time -- Liam Neighbors aka A.L.N., the man behind Portland experimental black-metal solo act Mizmor.
The album embraces an even broader dynamic scope, playing ethereal vocals against black-metal howls on album bookends "Delusional" and "Every Corner," while building from delicate acoustic instrumentation to towering riff architecture on the title track and "MDIII." The band treated music fans who showed up early to see swampy, southern psych rock band All Them Witches headline the Fillmore a year ago to a spellbinding opening set.
For this show at the Bottom of the Hill Saturday night, Blackwater Holylight headlines the 5th Annual Heartbreak Club, a yearly Valentine's themed throwdown organized by local favorites Nobody's Baby. Featuring members of veteran Oakland R&B/punk band the Atom Age and defunct all-female garage-rock crew Dirty Denim, the gritty quartet crafts its reverb-drenched, self-described "death doo-wop" with healthy nods to the Cramps, Link Wray, the Shangri-Las and more modern retro-garage groups like the Detroit Cobras and Reigning Sound.
Opening LA band Deathchant mixes elements of the tuneful, twin-guitar '70s hard rock of Thin Lizzy with proto metal, early SoCal punk and sludgy doom. Their sophomore album Waste came out on RidingEasy Records in the summer of 2021.
Blackwater Holylight with Nobody's Baby and Deathchant
Saturday, February 11, 8:30 p.m. $15-$20
Bottom of the Hill
