Concert: Forgetting is Violent by Patrick Shiroishi

Forgetting is Violent, Patrick Shiroishi’s latest solo LP, is his most immediate release yet, expanding the scope not just of his music but of his extramusical considerations. Where his past releases on American Dreams reckoned with racism against Japanese Americans or presented Shiroishi’s saxophone as heard in a parking garage, Forgetting is Violent considers racism as a whole, historical and ongoing, with the urgency it deserves. Here, for the first time, we hear Shiroishi joined by a supporting cast that reads like a who’s-who of heavy music: Aaron Turner (SUMAC, ISIS), Gemma Thompson (Savages), Faith Coloccia (Mamiffer), otay::onii (Elizabeth Colour Wheel), and Mat Ball (BIG|BRAVE). The constant, as ever, is Shiroishi’s patient, probing musicality, marrying heaviness and lightness, acceptance and defiance, both packing a punch and welcoming new listeners into the fold.

This concert is presented with R5 Productions.