Sun Kil Moon 6/20/25 Spaceland

 Sun Kil Moon is Mark Kozelek, front man for the critically acclaimed 90s outfit Red House Painters. We enter the sold out Ballroom on a steamy June night to view the surly Kozelek.  It was steamier in the room, seems that Mark was bothered by the sound of the club’s AC and had them turn off or down. The songs had a similar arc, intersong banter gave way to some spoken word monologues. Snarky chatter about location, a previous “bad” show in Fairfield, were comical but not endearing. So he’s turned up the heat, mocked a Fairfield fan for dancing ( prev show), packed us in like sardines, and now for the show. I’m not too familiar with his catalog save for the tune about the Death Cab For Cutie singer. The crowd, on the other hand, seemed to cultishly hang on his every word. They knew 30 years of under the radar song titles. He stated that he was “ definitely not” gonna play the Death Cab song. Some tunes I could glean from a Spotify search, Heron Blue, Carry Me Ohio, Dogs, Sunshine in Chicago. His everyday descriptive lyrics had charm. “I Watched the Film The Song Remains the Same” had him describe watching the 70s Led Zep film The Song Remains the Same. It was hard not to get “artist envy” because  I, too have watched that film. He did talk about formative concert experiences, Jesus and The Marychain, Bad Brains ( it didn’t matter how hot it was at a Bad Brains show), and a heartfelt remembrance of Elliot Smith. He said that the spoken word influence came from the Lizard King ( Jim Morrison). He did one tune Wolves, that had some audience participation howling at the top of our lungs which was oddly cathartic in a group setting. Mark has apparently toured the world and spoke this one song story about recording with the band Amoeba in the hills outside Budapest. On a transportationless jaunt, Mark happens upon a young mom and daughter who take him into town for supplies. He speaks of their interaction, an allegory for the kindness of strangers or an autistic diatribe of the days events, not sure. I speak often about uncompromising artists, they often have sketchy viewings dotted with recorded brilliance. This crowd was familiar with the brilliance and seemed willing to take the abuse.