I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 25, 2024] Midwife

My brother-in-law Ben told me about Blood Incantation a couple of weeks before this show. So I grabbed a ticket just before it sold out!

I knew they were death metal, and assumed that the opener would be as well.  But, wow, what a difference!

Madeline Elizabeth Johnston is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and audio engineer. She is best known for her work under the moniker Midwife, and has also released music as Mariposa and Sister Grotto. Johnston describes her music as “heaven metal.”

She came out on stage and her microphone was a telephone.  She spoke into it and her voice sounded a million miles away.

And it turns out that I have seen Midwife before!  They opened for Deafheaven.  And the funny thing is that I absolutely remembered a woman singing into a telephone, but I didn’t think it was the same person for some reason.  But I see from a previous post that I saw Midwife in 2022.  And I felt exactly the same as I did this time.

She created a beat on a drum machine and began playing very slowly.  She sang quietly, from a million miles away.

All my friends are in New York
All my friends are in LA
All my friends are in Chicago
All my friends in Santa Fe
All my friends in Colorado
All my friends are here to stay
How much more death can one person take?

It was the antithesis of death metal.  It was slow and ponderous.  I think had I not been there for a death metal show I would have enjoyed it more, but the crowd–dudes in leather and chains–ate it up.  I was really happy for her as she seemed like she could have been so vulnerable up there, but she was poised and powerful as she sang these slow songs about death.

Killdozer:

This has always been my town
Now it’s a living hell
Everyone wants a piece of me
How am I not myself?
All my songs are love songs
All my songs are blue
All my songs are about death

All of these songs were pretty long, but Midwife was given about 45 minutes to play.  I didn’t actually think she’d play another song after S.W.I.M. but then Morris Kolontyrsky of Blood Incantation came out and they played No Depression in Heaven together.

The lyrics to that song?

Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Kolontyrsky played beuatiful complicated solos over Midwife’s slow repeated guitars.  Her musical patterns are simple but effective and while he wasn’t showing off, he was playing some impressive lead solos.

When the set was over, they hugged and she began cleaning up her stuff.

I’d never listen to her music on purpose, it’s totally not my thing, but it was a mesmerizing performance.

∞ Forever (2020)
£ Luminol (2021)
⊗ No Depression in Heaven (2024)