The Return of Good Night & Good Morning

Good Night & Good Morning. Photo courtesy of the band.

Sahan Jayasuriya can recall seeing the Illinois-based slowcore band Good Night & Good Morning live for the very first time. The room was dark, and hazy video projections washed over the walls. The band’s brooding, atmospheric sound perfectly played off of these visuals – soft melodies mended with patient tempos as guitar and vibraphone worked in gentle unison.

“It was unlike anything I had seen up to that point,” says Jayasuriya. “I was just so impressed by this band that seemed to have such a firm grasp on their identity, both visually and sonically.”

At the time, the band was just a two piece, and had released only one EP. The original lineup was simply Ryan Brewer on vocals and guitar and Pat Elifritz on vibraphone and visual effects. Jayasuriya would eventually become a fan-turned-band member in late 2010 when he became Good Night & Good Morning’s drummer, completing the lineup that would eventually write and record the band’s full length album Narrowing Type.

Good Night & Good Morning would go on to play some Midwest shows in support of Narrowing Type, but the desire to keep the band going eventually fizzled out. The band’s gentle sound was often drowned out by noisy bar patrons at shows. Jayasuriya recalls feeling like the music wasn’t really connecting with an audience.

“We didn’t break up as much as we just kind of put things on hold,” says Jayasuriya. “There was no discussion as to whether we would revisit the music someday, it just kind of felt like one day we just turned off the lights.”

But as time went on and the slowcore genre became a little more popular, Good Night & Good Morning began to build a cult following. Original vinyl pressings of Narrowing Type are now sought after by fans and collectors and can be found on Discogs for $100 or more.

“Starting in 2015 or so, we started to notice people listening to our music on streaming platforms and talking about it on blogs and websites like Rate Your Music,” Jayasuriya says. “The listener base grew slowly each year, and it was around that time that we would randomly get messages from people asking about our band and the songs we wrote. They’d also ask if we would ever re-press Narrowing Type, which at the time felt unrealistic for us.”

But that option became tangible when Energy Crow Records randomly reached out to the band to ask if they had ever considered doing a re-press of the album. The opportunity came at the right time, and in 2023, Narrowing Type had become readily available once again.

After this, the band played its first show together since the 2010s at Pygmalion Music Festival in Urbana, IL.

“To our surprise, some fans flew out for the gig,” Jayasuriya says. “The response was positive, but we all went into it with pretty much zero expectations.”

After the success of the band’s return to the stage, they began discussing playing a Milwaukee date in 2024. Now, the band is set to perform at Cactus Club on Nov. 9 – Good Night & Good Morning’s first Milwaukee show since 2012.

“We wanted this to be a really special evening of music, so we chose to share the bill with Haunter and Apollo Vermouth, two artists from Milwaukee whose music we dig that we also felt worked well with what we do,” says Jayasuriya. “It was really important for us to make the show all ages to ensure that anyone who wanted to come would be able to.”

With the members of Good Night & Good Morning living in different areas of the country, fans of the band will not have many opportunities to catch the trio on stage together. Even a search for live footage of the band on Youtube produces little to no results – even of the band’s earlier years. In a similar fashion to the band’s sound, a slow-burning build of a fanbase has ensured that listeners have the opportunity to catch three friends who set out to create a niche sound with zero compromises – a sound that did not play into what was popular at the time – on stage together once again.

“I missed them a lot,” Jayasuriya says. “I really love those guys and feel very fortunate to be able to call them my friends.”