Kingbanana Presents

ROLO TOMASSI with The Callous Daoboys and Pound

Mon June 19, 2023
( Doors: 7:00 pm ) SHOW: 8:00 pm PDT
Star Theater
13 NW Sixth Avenue, Portland, OR
Ages 21 and Up
Rolo Tomassi
$25.00
Rolo Tomassi have spent 17 years leading the pack rather than following and their upcoming sixth album Where Myth Becomes Memory, sees them lead with more poise and determination than ever before. Where Myth Becomes Memory serves as the final part in an unintended trilogy that began with 2015’s Grievances and continued with 2018’s Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It, the most critically acclaimed album of the band’s career to date. Every Rolo Tomassi album shows signs of growth but Where Myth Becomes Memory serves as a culmination of a period of creativity that has exalted Rolo Tomassi to legendary status, a singular vision where the most savage, unhinged sonics can co-exist harmoniously with epic cinematic elegance and grace. Expanding on the trilogy thesis, vocalist Eva Korman says "those records are where we really found our stride. They felt like a departure from what we had done before, so we approached this one as a kind of closing statement to this collection of work".

Certainly Where Myth Becomes Memory takes several ques from its predecessor, expanding the grandiose piano soundscapes and melodic sensibilities that were hinted at on Time Will Die … into grand sweeping statements brimming with assurance and self-confidence. Whilst the Rolo Tomassi that released debut Hysterics in 2008 would have been predominantly influenced by the heavy-hitting disarray of Converge, The Chariot or The Dillinger Escape Plan, Where Myth Becomes Memory expands the band’s palette to its broadest point yet, with flutters of Steve Reich and Ólafur Arnalds as much a part of the Rolo palette as the chaotic mathcore that first inspired them. Keys player / vocalist James Spence sites the song
Closer as an example of their expanded focus. ‘In the past, songs like Closer felt a bit more calculated, whereas this time it was more organic. We're a lot more confident about what we do; we can really put our best foot forward and not be afraid to show that side of ourselves. Whereas before, we might've had to find the space to put a song like that on the record, this time we were confident that the quality of the song writing would shine through and that's what gives it a place on the record.’

The quintet, rounded out by Chris Cayford (guitar), Nathan Fairweather (bass) and Al Pott (drums), have never taken the easy route, always building on what has come before. This slow but steady career progression is apt, for the themes of Where Myth Becomes Memory are ones of renewal, rebirth and living in the present in the hope that it will bring a better future. ‘Grievances came from a very dark place for me,’ says Eva, ‘I reflected a lot on that record and then Time Will Die ... was about letting go, coping with that darkness and moving on from it. I felt like I was reflecting less on this record and exploring more where I was in the moment. A lot of the themes are about renewal, rebirth, new beginnings but also closure on some of the music we've written in the past. Between the three of them that journey felt very transitional.’
Rolo Tomassi