New Morphine Documentary, Vapors Of Morphine Shows in Brooklyn This Saturday 10-15-16

Oh the joy Morphine has given me! One of the bands I have played the most in various living rooms of apartments I’ve lived in. Always there to create a very cool vibe. As he said near the end of our conversation on Saturday, Dana Colley – with the Vapors of Morphine – is keeping the vibe alive.

Colley, who played baritone and tenor saxes – sometimes at the same time – in Morphine, has brought that band’s music to the stage in a series of projects since the death of Mark Sandman in 1999. Orchestra Morphine was a nine piece band that toured playing the music of The Night. Twinemen – consisting of Colley and Morphine’s second drummer Billy Conway along with Laurie Sargent – put out three albums of original material. Vapors of Morphine was formed to do a show on the tenth anniversary of Sandman’s death and the trio of Colley, original drummer Jerome Deupree, and Jeremy Lyons has been doing it – including a pair of albums, ever since.

Over the past three years or so, Mark Shuman has been compiling material for the documentary Morphine: Journey Of Dreams. Shuman was the proprietor of an Austin nightspot named The Electric Lounge where Morphine performed a handful of times. Colley and Shuman became friends and when the latter proposed the idea of a documentary, the former provided essential cooperation including the tour diaries that he had kept at the suggestion of his wife. The documentary comes to DVD on the 21st and VOD on the 18th of this month.

This Saturday, you’ve got two bites at the apple to experience Vapors of Morphine on stage in Brooklyn. In the afternoon, for free no less at Rough Trade and then down the road at Union Pool at night following a pair of screenings of the film. The 8p is sold out but tickets still remain for the 6:15p screening as well as the performance. Here’s more of the interview with Dana Colley…