Bloomington was the last stop for Brooklyn-based band Big Bliss on its tour through the Midwest. It played with Language, a band based in Indiana and Michigan, and was also accompanied by Bloomington bands Sleeping Bag and Jeron Braxton and the Tomogotchis.
Big Bliss performed Saturday at the Blockhouse and played with groups based in each of the previous cities on their tour.
The band is a post-punk band with style elements drawn from two members’ previous experiences in indie bands. It said its style is reminiscent of ’80s-era music.
With the release of its new album “Keep Near” on cassette and digital download this month, the band decided to go on tour. But the road to the musicians’ formation as a band was not a short one.
Members Tim Race and Cory Race are brothers.
“We grew up playing music,” Tim Race said. “We finally decided to do something together after about 25 year of playing in other bands.”
After the two brothers, Tim a guitarist and Cory a drummer, decided to collaborate, they needed a bass player to complete their band. After several trial runs with different musicians, the brothers said they decided on Wallace May.
“We couldn’t find a bass player for forever, so we tried out a couple of dudes, but it didn’t work out,” Tim Race said. “I eventually saw Wallace’s other band playing and finally talked her into playing bass for us after she first said no.”
May’s addition to the band as a lyricist and bass player helped take songs from the process of being created into a reality.
“I hesitated because in my head, you know, I had been playing music with the same people my whole life,” May said.
After May agreed, the band sealed its EP and went on tour.
The group, despite being based in Brooklyn, New York City, has ties to Ohio, so going back to the Midwest for its tour felt like the way to go, Tim Race said.
“The Midwest has so many great cities close to one another, and those cities have a lot of musical history,” Tim Race said.
