Society of the Silver Cross is a great and important band with music that is deep and life-changing. Their songs aren’t just something that you listen to, they’re soundscapes you can walk around in, carry with you the rest of the day (or night), or just sit down and think seriously with.
They will be appearing in Portland as part of the Into the Shadows II Festival in Portland on November 1 at the High Water Mark, 6800 NE Martin Luther King Blvd. Into the Shadows II is part of Out from the Shadows, an annual Goth, postpunk and darkwave music festival in the Rose City. It’s Batcaver Heaven and a great time will be had by all. During the festival Bad JuJu, Cliff and Ivy, Lizard Skin, (Portland’s Own) Psychic Guilt and Dry Wedding will likewise rock through the glass darkly at the High Water Mark.
Joe Reineke, who is a treasured friend of East Portland Blog, an incredible musician, and “one of the truly nice guys in show business” started Society of the Silver Cross some years ago after he’d fought with cancer and other health scares. S*** was getting real, the struggle was hella hard, and Reineke decided his music should explore the infinite, the cosmos and the really important business of living.
Reineke had always been the life of the party. He was an adept musician (fronttman for Alien Crime Syndicate and the Meices), an intensely creative songwriter, a man’s man and a post-punk rocker with a keen sense of humor. Reineke had rocked Seattle with the best of them (and lived to rock another day).
But now he needed more: more spirit, more inner life, more global reach, more transcendence and maybe a little room to be quiet (sort of).
Around that time, Reineke and his Silver Cross collaborator (and life partner) Karyn Gold-Reineke traveled the world and immersed themselves in the music and culture of India. In the far east they were loving all the exotic sounds and ancient ideas they came across. Everything sounded newer and truer and more valuable to Reineke because of the life lessons he’d just gone through as a cancer survivor. Nothing would ever be the same.
That’s when Society of the Silver Cross was born. It was a new musical philosophy with new sounds and different goals. They brought style and gravitas back from the Far East and some unusual instruments as well, like a harmonium– a small pump organ traditionally used for chanting– and a shahi baaja, a sort of Indian autoharp, and these instruments became the rock upon which their new sound was built.
The sound of Society of the Silver Cross is beautifully weird, haunting, dark and unforgettable. A writer from Blackbook called it “yogic metal.” It is India folk music that blends hypnosis with a touch of goth and twisted Americana. There is nothing like it anywhere.
In June 2019, they released their debut album 1 Verse, which The 405 called “One of the year’s most unique and compelling debuts.” You can find more music and information about Society of the Silver Cross at their socials. But in the meantime, everyone should head out to hear them live at the High Water Mark on November 1.
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