WWW.BROOKLYNPAPER.COM 1 METROTECH CENTER NORTH • 10TH FLOOR • BROOKLYN, NY 11201
Charmed, I’m sure: Brooklyn goth-folk
duo Charming Disaster will perform in
Coney Island on April 19. Shervin Lainez
This Charming band
Duo sings of murder and witchcraft in Coney
COURIER LIFE, A 24-7 PRIL 12-18, 2019 49
TBy Aidan Graham he road to Disaster ends in Coney
Island!
A Brooklyn duo known for murder
ballads and witchcraft-inspired tunes
will wrap up its first national tour with
a ghoulish concert in the Sodom by the
Sea. The band Charming Disaster will
open for surreal rock act Cookie Tongue at
Coney Island’s Sideshow by the Seashore
on April 19, launching the 2019 “Music of
Curiosities” series. Both bands draw on folk
tales and mystical stories for their songs,
said Charming Disaster’s ukulele player.
“The subject matter tends to be on the
darker side. We get a lot of our inspiration
from folk lore, fairy tales, and ancient
mythologies,” said Ellia Bisker, who also
sings and plays piano with bandmate and
guitarist Jeff Morris.
Bisker, who used to play with a circus
show, promised that the concert will be as
wild as the duo’s music.
“The shows are highly theatrical and
pretty interactive. For example, we’ll go
out into the audience and sing in the
middle of people,” she said. “We like to
break the fourth wall.”
Visitors to the show can get an advance
listen to Charming Disaster’s upcoming
third album, “Spells and Rituals,” set to
debut on June 9. The 11-track album,
filled with songs like “Soft Apocalypse”
and “Be My Bride of Frankenstein,” represents
an evolution of the band’s music,
said Morris.
“It’s a natural progression. It’s definitely
in the spirit of the first two, but I
think it’s more sophisticated and more
ambitious,” he said.
The gothic-folk duo formed in 2012,
after the pair met in a Park Slope bar and
decided to write music together, as a side
project to their respective bands. The
musical chemistry soon led to Charming
Disaster becoming their primary focus,
said Morris.
“It was quickly taking up a lot of our
creative energy,” he said. “We found that
we work very collaboratively and complement
each other really well.”
The new band allowed each of them to
focus on the gothic, noir source material
they both enjoy. But working together has
not been without challenges, said Bisker.
“As a two-piece band we have to do
a lot more with a lot less,” said Bisker.
“There’s less instruments, but this project
focuses a lot more on storytelling that we
find interesting.”
Charming Disaster at Sideshows by the
Seashore 1208 Surf Ave. at W. 12th Street
in Coney Island, (718) 372–5159, www.
coneyisland.com. April 19 at 9 p.m. $20.
/WWW.BROOKLYNPAPER.COM
/www.coneyisland.com
/www.coneyisland.com
/coneyisland.com