Noctaluca is reuniting for the first time in SEVEN years! Saturday night at MVP Sports Bar & Grille is going to be a special night. Don’t miss your chance to see these guys play out again.
Since leaving us as a band, each of the members have stayed in touch with their musical roots. Jason Ludwig moved to Austin in 2012, got married, has written commercial material and continues to release solo work. Donovan (Psycho D) Schlunt has been focusing on his dual role as bassist /guitarist in Kumasi Project. He is also available for producer/engineer roles at Soap Floats Recording Studio. The Ohms still play Ohmstead Music Fests, BATCB, Dark Matters are both on the burner for some new tunes. He also did a front man stint w MBMS. Additionally, Psycho D helped Revenge Pinata and Eyeris Wide at their start on bass, and occasionally hosts Stanley's Pub Open Jam on Sundays. Otherwise he's been traveling, hiking, partying with his girl Erin and their dog Cedric. After the Noc break up and resulting identity crisis, Brandon Schlunt went back to school and got a bachelor's degree, and ran a healthy food delivery service named HealthSavor for 4 years. Recently he decided the path he was on wasn't panning out and has returned full time to music (if you're gonna be broke, may as well have fun). He now records custom drum tracks for songwriters, does drum lessons, and works with 5 different bands. Aaron Almashy has wasted no time racking up an impressive list of appearances as guitarist on multiple projects as well as for theater shows. He also runs his own studio (Almashy Audio) and does guitar lessons on the side. Jay Aronoff plays with Noctaluca's former manager Drew Lanius and Eden Park Band (along with Noctaluca drummer Brandon) full time for 4 years now. Jay is also working in the original music project The Dark Matters with Brandon, Donovan, and Drew Lanius. Jay also enjoys long walks on the beach and the color blue.
What brought about the Noctaluca reunion show?
Jason said Yes. Being that he lives in Austin now, with a family, it's not easy to leave work for a week to do a show in Cincinnati. A few of us had brought it up throughout the years, and it almost happened back in 2014, but the logistics didn't work out. This time, our friend, promoter of this show, and kick ass light guy Tim Butterfield reached out to him, and he was in a place where he felt he could do it, so he said yes. Everyone else agreed to the idea pretty quickly afterwards.
After such a hiatus, what can fans expect?
Expect an energy packed Noctaluca show. We've noticed at rehearsals how we start off at an acceptable volume, but we have a hard time keeping it from getting loud as hell in the rehearsal space. Playing the songs live has always brought goosebumps and adrenaline. For the first time, we will have our lead guitarist from all albums on stage at the same time. We've been hammering it out at rehearsals with Jay Aronoff and Aaron Almashy both on guitar and it's pretty epic. We are missing our brother and founding lead guitarist Mike D Goodwin, who passed in 2014. Kara Livesay (Brandon's fiancé) and Brandon and Donovan's father, Don will also make an appearance on a song or two.
We'd like to mention that Don is battling stage 3 cancer and relatives are throwing a fundraiser the night before our show at Silverton Cafe. We'll be there, as will many of our friends. Hopefully we can all catch up, since the night of the show is going to be so crazy… For those who can’t make it Friday for the fundraiser, here's his story and GoFundMe page.
Then, Saturday night, we'll be right down the street at MVP where we will be playing the vast majority of our catalog. We're only skipping a couple of the really quiet ones.
What is next for Noctaluca after the reunion show?
We will be re-establishing our web presence and getting our catalog up for sale on the download/streaming sites. There has been talk of some unreleased material and a few songs we never recorded perhaps seeing the light of day. Barring any technical difficulties, we will be getting audio and visual footage of the show on Saturday. These things take time to mix and package. We all agree that Noctaluca stands the test of time and should never be "done". Nothing is official... we're just focusing on the show for now.