House Of Sirens: Clearframe/ Venus Love/ Ghostie
- Phantom Light Media
- Nov 1, 2025
- 3 min read
After a string of shoots for larger touring acts coming through Boise and all the restrictions that come with them, shooting a good local show came like a breath of fresh air. Being able to shoot for bands that you’ve had the chance to actually meet and talk to beyond the usual merch table pleasantries (and who will actually let you shoot for their entire set) means you tend to get more real feedback and see more of an actual impact from your work. Clearframe’s House of Sirens on October 28th was the perfect opportunity for me to enjoy the freedom and creativity that sometimes gets lost for non-touring photographers at larger shows, and the tight, closed-in atmosphere of the Shrine Social Club’s basement stage provided a much needed change of pace.
First up on the three-band lineup was Ghostie. Being a solo artist without a band meant that she was singing along to a backing track, but was also free from having to perform alongside three or four other musicians on the basement’s exceptionally small stage. Her hauntingly melodic voice combined with the metal-inspired instrumentals fit the Halloween theme of the venue quite well. As a very new performer (this only being her third ever live performance), her stage presence left some to be desired, but as her confidence grows and she becomes more comfortable on stage, I can see Ghostie coming into her own as an artist and dominating much larger stages.
Up next was pop-punk “angsty bitch band” Venus Love. I first saw her perform at the Revolution Concert House in September, and after witnessing her trademark energy and presence on one of Boise’s larger venues, I was interested to see how that would translate to a dramatically smaller space. Sharing the stage with three guitarists, a drummer, and occasionally Alex Tighe of Karin Comes Killing meant that there wasn’t much room for her usual stage-roaming, crowd-working antics, but she made the most of what she had. She had the crowd moving and singing along by the time she hit her first chorus, and Tighe’s growling harsh vocals gave the set a nice punch that had everyone on their feet and engaged by the end.
Headliner Clearframe took stage after a brief changeover. Having first seen them perform at the same Battle of the Bands show as Venus Love, I knew what kind of energy they could draw out of a crowd. Lead vocalist Hannah Green’s beautifully melodic range has always been a highlight of their performances, and she delivered in full through their entire set. I think this was another case of the space almost feeling too small for the talent on display. With such dramatic crescendos as Clearframe tends to have in tracks like “Silence” and “Cosmos,” it’s hard not to imagine how those moments would feel on stages with coordinated lighting, haze, the whole nine yards. That being said, they delivered an incredibly fun, engaging set with enough variety in mood and emotion to keep any one part of it from dragging on too long.
Overall, my only complaint with House of Sirens is that it felt like a main stage show crammed into a basement stage venue. I’ve been to concerts where less certainly is more, where too much production value would just end up distracting from the artists themselves. In this case, however, more people, more lights, more space, more of just about everything would have done wonders. But that’s also the magic of tiny venues like these, isn’t it? To cut out the bells and whistles and bring the focus back to the music itself. In that regard, House of Sirens certainly didn’t disappoint.
Photos & Review By: Eric Gibson
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