Thursday, December 2 // Doors at 7 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $10
Bombshell Nightlight is the bedroom-pop project of Jon Cardiello (also of Anything Bagel, Wrinkles, Fantasy Suite, Soft Maybe). Cardiello uses this project to process his innermost self. In Blue Heron Above Me, his sophomore album, he channels his most somber, vulnerable songwriting to date. The songs display a radical intimacy as Cardiello touches on grieving his father’s death, the pains of a drawn out breakup, and the clarity of new love. The album shares the diary-like songwriting of Cardiello’s debut, Placid Lake, but explores new sonic territory – epic guitar ballads, soft droney confessionals, light hearted synth pop – a huge range but it is all done with such earnestness that the album is a front to back delight! 2021 will see Cardiello breathing new life into these songs with a full band of Missoula musicians (Johanna Kohorst of
Mermaid Book Club, Noelle Huser of No and Esp, Kale Huseby of Boys and J Sherri, and Sanders Smith of Anything Bagel, Soft Maybe, and Wrinkles) “Placid Lake is an album based around themes of grief, mourning and self-doubt, adopting an earnest, vulnerable tone that aims for sincerity and honest connection.” – Jon Doyle from Various Small Flames


Noelle Huser (No) is a local musician, dancer and artist. She hopes to use music as a tool to express the things words alone just don’t do justice. Those things tend to focus on personal and interpersonal anxieties. Through an indie pop/rock and folk influenced lense, she makes sense of her dreams and nightmares the best way she knows how. When she is not solo she plays with her band No – comprised of Erin and Duncan Szalda-Petree (of ESP), Ally Fradkin, and Caleb Tutty. She also plays in Bombshell Nightlight. She has also released music under the moniker Apocalypse Friend, a spooky synth pop project she created with Thomas Elsen (of Wrinkles) and Brendan Casey (Katana Boy).


When you wanna move mountains sometimes you just need a little faith in small things. Ash Nataanii arms herself with nothing but an 80’s Casio, an electric guitar, and all the heartbreak she can wring out of wet cloth vocals. Generally seen as the ruckus frontwoman for hell-or-high-water punk band FUULS, Ash Nataanii shells up in tenderness to establishr her
cathartic spiritual noise is just as loud and affecting through a whimper. Her album Exit Music for Exit Wounds is as much exorcism as it is prophecy. It’s a scrapbook of familiar sounds and a sneak peek at heartbreak yet to be. Included are songs that were written via stream of consciousness and recorded the same day, as well as songs that have been soaking over nearly a decade. Everything here has a breadth of what it feels life can give, and it’s hard to think Ash could have possibly squeezed out anything more. The songs are lo-fi, curiously full, and packed with enough sweetness to soothe the heartache it bears you.