Two celestial bands touched down in Central Ohio, one at the beginning of its rise and another continuing its orbit in a different fashion.
Mikaela Davis was not the headliner. But her light was shining bright when she and her band, Southern Star, performed before and with Circles around the Sun for some 150 mid-week concertgoers at Scully’s Music-Diner in Columbus.
Situated on a darkened stage with scant light reflecting off the seven disco balls hanging over the venue, Davis, seated at her harp, led the group – Kurt Johnson on pedal steel and electric guitars and loops, Cian McCarthy on acoustic and electric guitars and saxophone, drummer Alex Coté and bassist Shane McCarthy – though most of 2023’s And Southern Star over 55 minutes of orchestral cosmic-country music, the dichotomous sound reflected in Davis’ flowing dress and lime-green shoes and Johnson and Cian McCarthy’s denim overalls.
While songs like “Far from You,” “Home in the Country” and “Promise” were essentially onstage recreations of the album versions, the band stretched out significantly on “Leave it Alone,” taking the song to a CATS-like quarter-hour and examining the weird that grows out of their down-home roots. The well-received set caused Davis to remark that her last Columbus gig drew 10 people, so she was thrilled by the response and would return later to add some grounding to CATS’ far-out space-trance disco.
Launched by guitarist/composer Neal Casal to create the PA music for 2015’s Fare Thee Well gigs, CATS’ instrumental music wowed Dead Heads to the extent that the group, rounded out with keyboardist Adam MacDougall, bassist Dan Horne and drummer Mark Levy put out an album of the material, Interludes for the Dead, and began touring and making followup records. After Casal’s 2019 suicide, the remaining members tapped John Lee Shannon to step in for the irreplaceable Casal and fully embraced the trance-infused disco sounds the group was moving toward late in their founder’s tenure.
All of which makes the CATS of the 2020s a very different group that the CATS of the 2010s and even Interludes material like “Scarlotta’s Magnolias” sounds more like the leisure-suit era the band evokes in newer material like “Away Team,” and with MacDougall and Shannon’s white loafers and the keyboardist’s white jacket. All of which is to say, while Circles around the Sun are still good at what they do, they may no longer be the only ones who do what they do.
Davis and her harp returned toward the end of CATS’ 90-minute set to play songs from their forthcoming joint EP After Sunrise. The title track finds more change, as Davis sung wordlessly over the band’s interpretation of Sergio Mendes’ number, which, like many audience members did with numbers of their own, they smoked.
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