Circles Around The Sun @ Union Stage [DC] - 03/05/20
Guitarist Scott Metzger fills in for Circles Around The Sun founder Neal Casal who passed away in 2019 (Photo ©2020 Avery Junius)
Los Angeles based Circles Around the Sun have been on a mission the past seven months: fulfilling the last wish of their late bandmate Neal Casal. Before his untimely passing, their friend and lead guitarist urged his bandmates to continue playing and touring the music they created together after he was gone. With Scott Metzger (Joe Russo's Almost Dead) filling in on guitar, that's exactly what keyboardist Adam MacDougall, bassist Dan Horne, and drummer Mark Levy intend to do.
The quartet landed at Union Stage in Washington, D.C. in support of their self-titled album that is dropping from orbit this Friday and delivered a set full of new tracks as well as songs from 2018's Let It Wander, and 2015's Interludes For The Dead. The latter was initially conceived as set break music for the Grateful Dead's "Fare The Well" shows in Chicago. And while the band may have initially appealed mostly to "heads," the forward-thinking music of their upcoming release makes room for music fans of all walks of life.
Case in point: The stage setup eschewed the expected tie-dye tapestries and instead mirrored that of the rehearsal space of a 70s garage band, jam-packed with equipment with nostalgic disco balls as the icing on the cake. Those disco balls became essential to the experience, especially on the track "Detroit Dos." During the new jam from the upcoming album, laser lights reflected and sparkled off of the rotating globes, signaling that it was time to party and that everyone out there trying to get down was welcome.
Check out more images from the show below with Frank LoCrasto as the opener. Circles Around the Sun is out THIS Friday, March 13th.
