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Almost from the get-go, the Brooklyn-based musical duo Charming Disaster found that Rochester was a special spot for them.
Their first show in 2018 was at the spiritualist-inspired Spirit Room cocktail bar, a location that Ellia Bisker says she and musical partner Jeff Morris could have decorated. They found an extremely enthusiastic fan base, to the point that the music video for their song “Monsters” was filmed at the bar, with locals serving as extras.
“The thing about being niche is that you may not have as broad an appeal as some other kinds of art, but you connect very deeply with the people who feel a kinship with the niche that you’re in,” says Bisker. “Because of the nature of the folks who were attracted to being at the Spirit Room, I think we made some really strong relationships in Rochester when we first came here. It became like a little home base for us, is how I felt about the city.”
After that first show, Charming Disaster continued to return to the city, performing at every Fringe Festival since then, for example. The duo will once again return for a show tonight at the Biltmore Bar and Lounge. The musicians say to expect a lively, interactive performance with their unique blend of theatrics and the occult.
“The cabaret aspect is definitely prevalent in our live performance,” Morris notes.
“There’s a certain amount of circus involved, in the band’s DNA,” adds Bisker. “We have created an oracle deck, similar to a tarot deck with cards associated with each of our songs. And so in our live performance, we’ll be drawing cards from that deck, which will, in fact, determine our set.”
Since founding their group in 2012, Bisker and Morris have cultivated a unique voice, as some have termed it, “goth-folk.” The duo’s artistic identity conjures up the visuals of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton combined with acoustic Americana murder ballads and a theatrical flair of cabaret live performance.
For example, “The Double,” their latest album, is a spooky but nimble collection. Songs invite listeners to step across a border to an alternate reality filled with magic, ritual, and the occult. Even amid dark subjects of vampires lurking in shadows or plants taking over the world, the duo is capable of delivering lyrics with a wry smile and a twinkle in their eyes.
Both musicians agree that it is a testament to how well they work together. As a collaborative partnership that now stretches over a decade, Bisker jokes that it is a “standard Faustian dark pact kind of scenario” that has kept them together.
“No, I really don’t know,” she says. “We really like each other and like working together. And I feel that we are more than the sum of our parts with our powers combined.”
“Then 13 and a half years go by, and here we are, and you say, ‘How did that happen?’” says Morris. “But I think both of us have been doing this long enough that we know a good thing when we see it. And we know how rare it is to find someone that you can deal with both on a day-to-day, behind-the-scenes logistical level and collaborate with creatively.”
While they both had worked with their own larger bands before, an early songwriting session to test the waters of collaboration turned out to be a perfect fit, he recalls.
“We came up with a bunch of ideas like, a living woman is in love with a ghost, two people have stolen a car and they’re on the run,” Morris says. “It went dark pretty quick.”
Fans should expect more new music from Charming Disaster in the future as the duo just returned from a recording session on the West Coast. Bisker says they are “quietly working” on a new album inspired by some of her own poetry.
Charming Disaster performs at the Biltmore Bar and Lounge on Friday, March 27, at 8 p.m. for a free show.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Ellia Bisker.
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