Adorns at the Red Party at Mercury Lounge

Vocalist Audrey Ropeburn is the alter ego of D'arcy Rosebrock, best known as a professional New York City-based rope bondage performance artist and kink educator. Ropeburn, guitarist Nicholas Delvin, and synthesizer/bassist Mike Swanson independently followed New York's underground darkwave scene and came together as a band through online classified ads. Delvin introduced a few demo songs, and Adorns was born in late 2018. Adorns released its debut three-song EP, Locked Box, on January 1, 2019.

The monthly Red Party at Mercury Lounge is a most apt stage for a goth, darkwave or postpunk band to showcase and gauge a response from a like-minded audience. Adorns fared well tonight, despite how its mellow and moody electronic songs were not the hard-pulsing and danceable music the audience normally enjoys there. Ropeburn was a gentle yet ominous presence on the dimly-lit stage as she gently sang slow-burn melancholy melodies amidst a sometimes eerie wash of hypnotic soundscapes. Dreamy and ethereal at times, densely layered at other times, Delvin's guitar leads and Swanson's swirling synthesizers were subdued when Ropeburn pierced the flow with her simmering vocal delivery. Adorns is on to something here. Adorns will perform next on March 20 at the Safari Room at El Cortez in Brooklyn.