Flower-Corsano Duo, Jonathan Raisin & Nick Branton @ House Show, Liverpool – 17/07/2025

Moving forward, perhaps the most viable option for esoteric music – not just in Liverpool, but for all cities across the world – is the house show.

The location in Liverpool’s inner-city suburb of Toxteth has hosted many house shows in the post-COVID haze. Curated by Ex-Easter Island Head’s Benjamin D. Duvall, this milieu has birthed the ever-spanning Sunday sessions, which has seen a raft of artists from the U.K. and beyond play within this intimate space. Performances from the likes of Fire Nearby, Haress, Yann Tiersen, and many more.

We all know the arts have been shunned by property developers, pushing creative endeavours beyond city centres. It’s why the current QUARRY re-location is absolutely vital for the survival of underground culture in Liverpool, not only for it to thrive in its current guise, but also for that foundation to be preserved for a new generation to lead it in the future.

Chris Corsano Interview: “Collaboration is essential for me.”

While it’s easy to point the finger at developers and capitalism at large, the larger remaining venues haven’t done themselves any favours. Ticket prices are now tailored for a core demographic, while drinks prices are beyond a joke – even before COVID and the subsequent cost of living crisis, venues such as the O2 Academy and the Arts Club were the leading lights on that front. A polar opposite to house shows like this where BYO is the order of the day, feeding into the DIY spirit that makes scenes like this what they are.

And it continues to grow. This, the first midweek event and perhaps the biggest yet, as Liverpool welcomes the Flower-Corsano Duo, who play the final show of their U.K. tour and their first on Merseyside.

Also the founding member of Vibracathedral Orchestra, Flower is an exponent of the shahi baaja (Japan banjo) and together with Corsano – whose work as one of the most frenetic drummers on earth has seen him play and collaborate with everyone from Six Organs of Admittance’s Ben Chasny to Bill Orcutt – the pair have spent years creating urgency and chaos through sound, pulling their audience into an alternative reality.

Tonight, Flower and Corsano are supported by local duo, Jonathan Raisin and Nick Branton. With the audience as silent as a tomb, the pair get to work with a performance of fractured doom jazz seemingly tailored for haunted houses. Branton, emitting fragments of harsh noise through his clarinet, and as Raisin feverishly works across the ivories, pockets of space open up for the pair to lead us into their perilous world.

It’s a notable curtain-raiser, and after a 20-minute break, Flower and Corsano take their positions. Flower, hunched over the shahi baaja, as the sound of Eastern tinged raga emanates to every corner of the room. It’s a sonic bedding for Corsano to launch into his work and launch he does, with a performance faster than the speed of light. All cavalier flourish and rumbling force, he follows Flower’s lead as they weave in and out of flashes from their excellent releases, The Chocolate Cities (2020) and The Halcyon (2022).

While the audience is mesmerised by the level musicianship on display here, it’s the durability from both artists that is equally astounding. Flower, working across the strings like a spider frantically weaving its web. Then there’s Corsano. Does he have to run half-marathons every other day just to maintain this brutal level of stamina? So rapid and detailed as he moves through the gears, it’s a performance that almost defies belief, feeling more like an acidic fever dream than reality.

Ultimately, it’s the magic of the house show: a concept where one is immune from being financially crippled by ticket and drinks prices. And yes, while there are notable contrasts, of course, there is some obvious crossover, too. For instance, I’d imagine some of tonight’s audience being, at the very least, interested in a Bill Callahan show.

It’s this contrast that gets me thinking about the students of this city. One that boasts a rich musical heritage and the reason why so many students move here. However, can people of this younger generation actually afford to learn and discover musical history? Would a student pay £38.50 to see Mercury Rev at the Arts Club? The answer is no, which results in a younger person’s opportunity for education being stonewalled by affordability.

Maybe the answer is on the flipside. Perhaps the broad church of musical education is no longer found in these more traditional spaces? The real mystic, found in secluded parts of the live music sphere, and with performances like the one from the Flower-Corsano Duo in settings such as this, the house show may just be where the future lies.