PHOTO BY IAN LEWANDOWSKI VIA HUMID AIR
Scottish-born musician Steven Hall (Bandcamp), who worked alongside the late composer Arthur Russell for more than a decade, brings his Nirosta Steel project to Will’s Pub (Website) in the Mills 50 district on Monday, October 5, for a one-off Florida solo date. Fast Preacher (Bandcamp), the project of Orlando local Daniel Hanson, will be opening.
The show comes right after a sold-out four-night run at New York’s Night Club 101 and follows an unlikely late-career breakout. According to the official press release, Hall, now 69, spent the last several years driving for Uber near Chicago before “My Skyscraper” made him one of the year’s more surprising critical darlings. The double LP compiles material he recorded and reworked over four decades.
The album earned a 9.0 from Pitchfork, drew features in the Guardian and Fader, and led to festival bookings at Pitchfork Paris, Pitchfork London, and Big Ears.
Hall worked closely with Russell from 1980 until the composer’s death in 1992, and that history heavily flavors the record. “Go for the Night,” co-written with Russell and performed with Arthur’s Landing, appears alongside “English Party,” a dance track originally written for Madonna in the early 1980s, and “Boss Trix (Benny’s Song),” a deep-house tribute to an ex-boyfriend.
The show is the first Orlando event from Humid State (Instagram), a new presenting project led by Amanda Colbenson, who recently moved to Orlando from Brooklyn. According to the official press release, Colbenson is hoping to use the Humid State platform to bring more touring artists into the Central Florida music community.
Co-presenting are two familiar names in Orlando’s booking history: Jim Faherty of Figurehead who has spent decades on DIY promotion, work that was the subject of the History Center’s 2022 exhibit “Figurehead: Music and Mayhem in Orlando’s Underground,” and Pulp Arts (Instagram) curator Steve Head is the other co-presenter.
Will’s Pub is located at 1042 N. Mills Avenue [GMap]. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show starts at 8 p.m. The show is 18 and up. Tickets are $12 in advance and $20 on the day of the show, and available HERE for purchase.
“My Skyscraper” is out now on Ulyssa Records.
