Cult Of Lip’s “Marsha” LP release show is a hard-won celebration

The shoegaze band will headline a stacked October 7 bill at Crystal Corner Bar.

Earlier this year, Tone Madison profiled local shoegaze act Cult Of Lip. At the time, the now-quartet had yet to unveil a stream for their most recent full-length, Marsha, an album that took the band the better part of the past four years to complete. Since that August publication, the band has uploaded the digital streams. Saturday, October 7, will mark the LP release. To celebrate, the band has put together a stacked lineup for a show at Crystal Corner Bar.

Doors for the (21+) show will open at 8 p.m. and admission is $10. 

Cam Scheller-Suitor’s frenetic indie-punk project Friendly Spectres will be on hand for the occasion, as will Milwaukee-based hardcore act Sex Scenes. The Heather Sawyer-led project Heather The Jerk completes the trio of openers. Each of the three supporting acts boast members who have made distinct imprints on Wisconsin’s punk and power-pop communities across a range of projects. For Scheller-Suitor, that includes time spent as Bob Loblaw and drumming for Dear Mr. Watterson. Sawyer’s logged shows as a member of Proud Parents, The Hussy, and recently, XXX Piss. And Sex Scenes—who are a fairly regular presence in Madison, despite being Milwaukee-based—have a lineup that includes bassist Connor LaMue (The Sleepwalkers, The Midwestern Charm, Bad Wig, Hughes Family Band, and more).

Members of every band on this bill have a proven, dedicated track record of engaging in and supporting Wisconsin’s DIY punk scene. For Cult Of Lip, that commitment also extends to their former home base of Minneapolis. Together, the four bands cover a fairly impressive spectrum of what’s stylistically possible within punk-leaning music. And that’s part of what makes the lineup so perfectly suited to celebrate Cult Of Lip’s latest album, which is an amalgamation of complementary punk styles and a testament of experience all its own. Friendly Spectres’ unhinged bite, Sex Scenes’ tenacious focus, and Heather The Jerk’s infectious, absorbing energy can all be found in various pockets of Marsha, Cult Of Lip’s most complete work to date.

Cult Of Lip also managed to solidify a lineup by the time of Marsha‘s release, adding drummer Terrance Barrett (Terran, Carbon Bangle, Caryatids) and synth player—and occasional Tone Madison contributor—Emili Earhart (Woodman/Earhart, Cave Curse, TS Foss, Graham Hunt, solo). The band’s core duo of bassist/vocalist Hannah Porter and guitarist/vocalist Ronnie Lee remained intact. While Barrett and Earhart don’t appear on Marsha, the pair elevates the mesmeric energy of Cult Of Lip’s collective performance. Live, the band’s current iteration effectively weaponizes a seemingly innate ability to create a truly enormous wall of sound that gets shot through with psychedelic inflections.

Having experienced Cult Of Lip’s live show firsthand, I can comfortably say it’s something that has the ability to invoke awe, as well as an awareness of magnitude. Positioned in the face of something so present and sensory-consuming, it’s hard not to feel small. But it’s also hard not to feel welcomed; the band’s tonal warmth invokes the feeling of being at-ease and, to some extent, comforted. A true blanket of sound. It’s a sense of immersion that the band also achieves on Marsha.

From the feedback swell of “Kissing Embers” that opens the record to the quieting instrumental spell on “Cruise The Spiral” that closes Marsha out, Cult Of Lip conjures a sublime effect. Over Marsha‘s 36 minutes, the band’s potent strain of shoegaze invites and rewards rapt attention, with Porter’s tempered vocals enlivening a hazy swirl of effects and jolts of classic slacker-punk energy. At no point is Marsha anything other than intoxicatingly beautiful. It’s an achievement that deserves a grand celebration. And on Saturday, a host of friends, familiar faces, and excellent bands will help Cult Of Lip set that celebration into blissful, hard-won motion.