A recent show at the Lost Church was a reminder that going out matters, even when it is easier to sit at home to watch Tim Curry clips. In its new location, tucked behind the Universalist Unitarians, the club sits coiled like the Jungian shadow of its kindly landlords.
My spouse and I were there to see Josh Windmiller, frontman of Sonoma avant-revival punk act The Crux. Few others came out. We felt uncomfortably early until suddenly a megaphone blurted from the back of the room and the opening act came stumbling a-song through the audience, clanging a cymbal worn as an amulet around the neck, a lone individual in boots stomping a worksong beat, singing from off to the left of God. This was Modus Opera & Eye.
By the time he strapped on the banjo and shredded through a plaintiff soul piece, we were hooked. 12 in the audience, 24, it didn’t matter, we sang songs we’d never heard before, we shouted out of pure joy. I don’t want to give away too many secrets, because what happened in that room best be left there, but we were truly transported.
From soulful to sassy, always with an atheistic brimstone and twisty wit, the kid plays hard, plays honest, and his psychosomatic presence fills the room. As fun as the driving banjo was, the set’s best moments were on piano, where Mr Opera & Eye hit at the keys through sublime renditions of his songs, and those of others.
The crowd may have swelled to 25 at some point, but for the dozen of us who stayed from the start to the end, this was the reason to get out to live music, the reason for a venue like the Lost Church to thrive. As we walked toward our car arm-in-arm after the equally raspy and ethereal set by Windmiller, my spouse said with conviction, “It was a true moment.”
To honor the great Tim Curry who left us this week, both Modus Opera & Eye [né Ricardo Zegri] and Josh Windmiller, unbeknownst to each other in advance, closed their sets with covers of “I’m Going Home,” Curry’s exquisite ballad from the end of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. That’s what it felt like in the room, man, like home.
The Lost Church Santa Rosa is an intimate, 75-seat live performance and music venue located at 545 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa. See the full calendar of events at thelostchurch.org/santa-rosa. Find the music of Modus Opera & I on bandcamp at modusoperaandeye.bandcamp.com
