False Sacrament - "That One" (forgotten song)

For reasons I can't quite remember earlier this week I started thinking about False Sacrament, a local band from the late 80s -- early 90s.  Perhaps it was because my previous review was about jazz fusionist Allan Holdsworth giving a slight nod to metal, and you could say that False Sacrament was a metal band giving a hat tip to jazz.  There's not a lot of information about them online, but after texting with Gregg, Scott, Terry and others, plus some Internet sleuthing, I was able to piece together a little bit of history about this band.

They featured Wendy Niles on vocals & clarinet (!), Danny Frazier on drums, Steve DiFazio on bass (who Gregg says he's still in contact with), and Thel Dominici on guitar.  Wendy, Danny, and Steve were all from Denbigh High School, class of 88 (none of whom I knew, but see my previous post on Tone Deaf and other DHS alumni), and Thel went to high school in Va Beach.  I thought I saw False Sacrament at the Denbigh Jam, but Terry assures me that never happened.  I did see them with Terry at in Norfolk, ca. 1990 or 1991, and it was probably at the (in)famous and now defunct Kings Head Inn but I'm not 100% sure about the location.  Some time around 1992 False Sacrament had moved out to San Francisco to further their career, though they toured all over.  One of the places they toured was Terry's house on Old South High at JMU (previously mentioned in my House of Freaks post), as evidenced by this cool concert flyer that I lifted from Terry's page (and his Corn Rocket video might be from the same show; Terry says Thel went to HS with the guitarist from Corn Rocket).

Why am I featuring their song "That One"?  Well, I found a video of them playing that song (or at least I'm pretty sure that's the song) at what looks to be a record store in California on 1992-07-26 (the source of the screen grab at the top).  I could only find one more concert video from them (at "Photon" in Va Beach from 90 or 91, where I'm sure I played laser tag but I don't recall seeing bands there), but the quality of that video is not great.  Audience/amateur recordings from ~30 years ago are rare (video recorders were $$$), so we're lucky to have the two we have...

Terry says he has their split 10" EP with Schlong, and Scott said he received their 1991 demo tape for his radio show at Elon.  The demo tape in particular holds up well -- heavy, intricate, challenging... and clearly not commercially viable.  Unfortunately, False Sacrament sounds nothing like the Seattle Sound that was about to steamroll the alternative music scene.  If forced to make a reference, maybe a funk-less 24-7 Spyz?  To which you say "who?" and I say "exactly." Or perhaps pre-Rollins Black Flag. 

On the two live recordings, Wendy isn't playing clarinet but you'll find it in the demo tape and other studio materials.  And since Wendy and her clarinet were a big part of their sound, I'm using this post to kick off Women's History Month, where I feature artists / bands with females in prominent roles.

That's the best I can do to reconstruct the history of False Sacrament.  Thanks to Terry, Scott, and Gregg for helping me pull this together, and if anyone else can help fill in the blanks please let me know.

False Sacrament - "That One" (live 1992-07-26), "Cosmic Enchantment" (90/91), 1991 Demo Tape, 10" Split EP,  "Paradigm" 7".  The only entry in discogs that I could not find was their 1993 self-titled LP.


Bonus link: I found the video "Baby Farm - False Sacrament Party 1991", but as far as I can tell it only features Baby Farm (another Hampton Roads band from the same time frame).