Los Angeles, California
November 5, 2004

Ever since I bought Charalambides Historic Fifth Ward and Ash Castles on the Ghost Coast self-titled CDs back in the mid ’90s, I’d always wanted to experience this outfit in a live setting. On November 5, 2004, I finally got my chance at the Smell, a small, volunteer-run, all ages, no alchohol, low cover charge, vegan food-filled venue that hosts tons of music and art shows. In short, my kind of place. A duo version of the band–Tom Carter and Christina Carter–allowed webs of forlorn dual guitar tracery and mournful singing to waft around the heads of the small crowd and on out into the night sky. When the dust settled, I loaded myself down with a handful of their strange plastic disc offerings then made my way home.