fust at the avalon lounge

We’re nearing the end of a cozy set by North Carolina-based alt-country outfit Fust. The initially shy yet attentive audience that had plastered itself with care to the walls has since warmed up: someone has taken a front and center seat on the ground and a small group has sectioned off a dance floor, while those who know every word have finally gained the courage to mouth along in good company. 

Earlier on, Adeline Hotel cracked the night open with a set that left us all spellbound. The title track off their album Whodunnit entranced the room with stunning vocals from Dan Knishkowy and harmonies from Jackie West. Towards the end of their set, Justin Morris of Fust (as well as Weirs and Sluice) was invited to join onstage for the band’s cover of “The Calvary Cross,” a Richard and Linda Thompson track. But this wasn’t the first appearance from a Fust member; Frank Meadows also stepped in on keys. The band gave their first official release announcement of new single “Dreaming,” out September 8th ahead of their next album Watch the Sunflowers. Judging by their set, you’ll want to keep an eye and an ear out for this one.

When the members of Fust took their place on stage, they thanked Adeline Hotel and corrected their phrasing from “opened for us” to “played with us,” a sentiment that brilliantly articulates the sense of community responsible for the flourishing of local music scenes.

Fust’s setlist consisted mostly of songs from their latest album, but they did mix a few older tracks into their Big Ugly medley, namely “Open Water,” “Rockfort Bay,” and “Rolling Prairie.” Their cover choice – “Choices” by George Jones – was a comfortable fit on them; it was also the second of three drinking songs in the set, the first being “Jody” (“Maybe we’ll do another song about drinking,” said Aaron Dowdy. “Maybe we’ll do a cover song about drinking”).

In the middle of “Bleached,” the song situated right in the middle of the album, the sudden orchestral swells of the live arrangement draw me in. It’s something I hadn’t caught on the record but standing at Avalon Lounge, a stone’s throw away from Catskill Creek, a musical surge like tides rising and falling felt so apt and present. 

I confidently place Aaron Dowdy as one of today’s most nuanced and insightful storytellers. I found myself thinking of water as a character in those stories, and how that translates in performance. It’s one thing to listen to an album that spotlights the significance of place and home while sitting alone on the subway. It’s another to hear it live, surrounded by friends and soon-to-be friends, all weaving together another a new home that exists more in time than it does in space. The mythology of the homeland that Dowdy holds so dear is ushered forth by the details: the depths of his lyricism, the careful flow of Libby Rodenbough’s fiddle, the wave-crest crescendos. Together, the band summons the ghosts of the Guyandotte.

Fust ended their set with the first song off Big Ugly, “Spangled,” a song whose beginning is focused on endings and whose end isn’t fixed. A cyclical choice. As the night continued to deepen and the bustle of the venue began to thin, many of the humble yet tight-knit crowd and Lounge regulars continued to confer not over campfire but over the gentle meandering of Catskill Creek, idling on just across the road.

words and photos by the lovely Maddie