Vanishing Kids make a temporary exit

The versatile band’s August 16 performance at The Bur Oak will be their last local performance for the foreseeable future.

Vanishing Kids’ Miracle Of Death came out last October and immediately registered as a high point in a discography that has traveled from eclectic post-punk to gorgeously mournful doom-metal. They’ve been busy since that album’s release, playing a handful of shows in Madison and embarking on a pair of national tours to promote Miracle Of Death. The second and final tour stretch concluded on July 27 at Reggies in Chicago. Vanishing Kids will play one more show and then, well, vanish. But only temporarily.

On Friday, August 16, the band will perform at The Bur Oak. In a series of email exchanges with Tone Madison, vocalist and keys player Nikki Drohomyreky confirms that it would be the band’s “last local performance for quite some time.” For the show, Vanishing Kids’ lineup will incorporate string player Gavin Epperson, who contributed both violin and viola work to Miracle Of Death. Epperson’s appearance will mark a “unique opportunity / special experience to see those songs with strings,” writes Drohomyreky.

Miracle Of Death is an album teeming with arresting songs, including the unforgettably striking opener “Spill The Dark.” From those opening moments through to the sweeping, epic finale (“To Dust“), Vanishing Kids’ latest work comes across as a moment. And it’s a well-earned moment: Miracle Of Death made the five-year wait between its release and the band’s preceding album (2018’s Heavy Dreamer) feel worthwhile. The core members of Vanishing Kids—Drohomyreky, guitarist Jason Hartman, and bassist Jerry Sofran—clearly put in a lot of work, time, and effort before releasing the album (which also featured powerful contributions from Ossuary‘s Nick Johnson on drums). Vanishing Kids thrive via an exceedingly adept control of tension-based dynamics, so a long wait and a rapturous payoff is quite fitting.

After the August 16 show, Drohomyreky notes that the band is going to be “shifting into writing mode and trying out drummers.” So fans of the band may have to endure another long wait as the core trio navigate a calibration process. The good news is that there is firm evidence for what tends to happen when the band disappears from the public eye: they come back strong. Even the comparatively short two-year gap between the band’s 2016 EP, Untitled, and Heavy Dreamer resulted in a clear artistic leap forward. By that token, their relative forthcoming absence is a double-edged sword: the band will be missed by the local music community, but whatever they cook up while away will be worth no shortage of anticipation.  

Before Vanishing Kids bid a temporary farewell to playing local shows, they will aim to go out on an extremely high note. Any band coming off a substantial national tour run is likely to be in a near-preternatural lockstep, having consistently worked towards tightening up the ins and outs of their live show. Epperson’s string contributions will add a lush dimension to the band’s live sound. And the supporting cast opening the show is a can’t-miss pairing of Madison’s Tubal Cain and Milwaukee’s Lost Tribes Of The Moon. The Bur Oak show will also serve as “somewhat of a re-release show” for Heavy Dreamers, writes Drohomyreky, an album available on LP again after  being sold out for years. “We have fresh translucent purple wax of [Heavy Dreamer] for the first time available,” she continues, noting genuine excitement.

The most direct way to celebrate an active band’s legacy, accomplishments, and impact is by simply showing up (and buying merch, if you can). And this will be the last chance to catch Vanishing Kids before this forthcoming Madison hiatus, and the first chance in a long time to pick up a Heavy Dreamer LP. For the $12 advance—$15 day-of-show—admission price, there is more than enough on offer to constitute invaluable takeaways.