#138 The Suitcase Junket Pushes Through Loss on 'To Go On'
The Western Mass. one-man band reckons with tragedy on his latest album
This week in Freak Scene, the Suitcase Junket reckons with loss on new album To Go On, and there’s a lot happening this weekend.
On one level, Matt Lorenz’s new album as the Suitcase Junket is about coming to terms with loss — specifically, the loss of his sister, Kate Lorenz, who died unexpectedly of heart failure after she was stung by a wasp in 2022. On another level, To Go On is an album about distance: the literal distance between here and home, between who we are and who we want to be, between good intentions and their unintended effects, between loss and the ever-lengthening tunnel of memory, even the distance between the filters we impose upon ourselves through social media and the simple reality of going outside.
Those are the themes running through the 11 songs on To Go On, an album at once mournful, tender and sometimes a little wry. The Suitcase Junket is known for being a one-man band, which manifests onstage as Lorenz using all four limbs to operate a salvage-yard tinker’s assemblage of ad-hoc percussion — makeshift drums, cymbals, chains — while playing guitar and sometimes violin, and singing. In the studio (with Justin Pizzoferrato at Sonelab), presumably, the Leverett musician can separate the tracks into their individual elements, but the overall effect is the same: songs with a rumpled air, perfect in the little imperfections that make this music the work of a living, breathing human being.
To Go On is the first Suitcase Junket album since 2019, and also the first since Lorenz lost his sister. He acknowledges the context at the outset with a version of the traditional Appalachian folk song “O Death,” patterned after Ralph Stanley’s but with new lyrics by Lorenz that he sings over atmospheric accompaniment. Later, he’s fingerpicking his way through a yearning for home on “One More Mile,” the grainy sound of his electric guitar blending with clanking percussion. “Silver Linings” finds him flatpicking a fast, twangy country lead line over a click-clack train beat as he suggests an ideal spot, with no sunshine, for storing the kinds of platitudes people sometimes offer in the wake of tragedy.
Though the memory of his sister is a constant throughout these songs, her presence is sometimes closer to the surface. “Each day I wake up ticked off that you’re not around,” he sings on “More Time,” playing guitar chords pushed into crackly distortion. Over muted guitar and electric piano on “Don’t Worry,” Lorenz reassures his sister that the people who love her are doing their best to push forward. “The little things get bigger and the bigger things don’t matter / But we fight hard for the laughter ’cause it helps us to go on,” he sings, with an ache in his voice.
Losing a loved one has a way of emphasizing what truly matters, which is what Lorenz is getting at on “Put Your Phone Down.” The quiet, glimmering track is a reminder to hold fast against the temptation to get lost in your device, whether it be through doom-scrolling or the fantasies and shiny distractions that abound online. “Ain’t no love in there,” Lorenz sings, and he’s right: all the best stuff, the most memorable stuff, happens offline.
The Suitcase Junket performs Oct. 17 at the Iron Horse in Northampton (tickets), with special guest bandmates Caitlin Canty, Kris Delmhorst and Louisa Stancioff.
This Week’s Shows
Unagi, Dome Lettuce, DJ Toro Bravo, Ricci Rock and Hymn perform a free show tonight, Friday, Oct. 2, at the Music Connection record shop in Turners Falls.
Gloorp, BarbieAI+ and Rebecca Schrader play Friday at the Church in Belchertown, 18 Park St.
Christopher Goudreau and Daniel Ouellette are in Turners on Saturday, performing at the Rendezvous.
Haze in Northampton has Ichabod Stronghouse Saturday with Ouster Nash, Stunt Meridian and Buzzer; there’s a $10 cover.
Saturday is also Easthampton Porchfest, with 66 performers on 25 stages scattered around town. Artists include the Reuben Toadstool Combo, Harry Remer, Daring Coyotes and Brokestring, Lost Film, Couchboy, Teen Driver, Fever People, the Frost Heaves & Hales and Rival Galaxies. More information and the full schedule are here.
The full concert calendar is available here for paid subscribers, but here’s what’s happening over the next seven days.
Upcoming Concerts
Northampton's Outro play Oct. 17 at the Marigold in Easthampton (no ticket link posted yet), with Gum Parker and Me and Tiffy.
The Iron Horse in Northampton now has a third date with Chris Smither, the afternoon of Dec. 6 (tickets). Punk-blues specialist Jon Spencer is also on the schedule Feb. 11 (tickets).
The Parlor Room has experimental fiddle/percussion duo Dandling Dec. 16 (tickets).
The Drake in Amherst hosts Bria Skonberg Nov. 19 (tickets) and jazz organ quartet Freddie Bryant and Transformation Dec. 10 (tickets).
College Street Music Hall in New Haven features pop-country trio Midland Dec. 19 (tickets) and Sammy Rae & the Friends Feb. 19 (tickets).
Cafe Nine in New Haven has the Supersuckers Oct. 7 (tickets), blues guitarist Amani Burnham Oct. 22 (tickets), Hamell on Trial Dec. 3 (tickets), the great Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez Dec. 20 (tickets) and Jon Spencer Feb. 10 (tickets).
Stone Church in Brattleboro has the noise-rockers Whores. Dec. 12 (tickets).
That it for this week. Thank you for reading! Previous issues are available in the online archive. Freak Scene is free, but donations help make this happen and are gratefully accepted. If you’re able, please consider a paid subscription!
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