Cut Your Losses Rebranding Party

Chicago based band Cut Your Losses — previously known as Skylight Cinema — has made a comeback this past Friday night at Bottom Lounge after having 19 months off of live shows due to the novel Coronavirus global pandemic.

Cut Your Losses is comprised of four members: Isa and Alex make up the vocals and lead guitars, Joshua makes up the bass guitar, and Joseph is on drums. Isa and Alex have been playing music since they were very young, at least 5 years old. Isa specifically has been writing songs with lyrics on piano since 9 and performing since 12. Joseph is actually Isa’s brother so it seems there must be a musical bone in the family as Joseph was able to learn all the drum parts of their songs one week prior to their first show. And Josh is not only a UIC alum, but is also most importantly a former UIC Radio station manager.

In the past, the band was able to compete in UIC’s annual Battle of the Bands and ended up winning, allowing them to open for Spark 2019. Their competition in the Battle of the Bands, however, was controversial with Josh’s position within UIC Radio given that UIC Radio usually hosts the events. This was remedied by none of the judges for the event being from UIC Radio, and he was unable to be in the room when the bands were chosen.

Before their show, I was able to catch a brief interview with the band. We had mostly talked about how the Covid-19 pandemic affected their band and them as artists because globally everyone has been going through just about the same thing for the past year and a half. They had mentioned how before the pandemic they were unsure of where they were going to go as a band because they needed to sit down and think of their future. They had originally planned a short break to plan stuff out and record and release music, but were then forced into a long break due to the pandemic and lock down.

As a band, they were never super connected to their previous name so with the opportunity of the vaccine they were able to — more recently over this past summer — start meeting up again for regular practices; additionally allowing them to sit and think about what they want for the future of their band. They told me that initially the lockdown had really put them through one of the worst bouts of drained inspiration and they were debating whether or not live music would ever come back.

Thankfully it has because Cut Your Losses came out to the Bottom Lounge on Friday, September 10th — alongside three other bands by the names of The Last We Heard, Punch Club, and Killjane. Cut Your Losses gave the audience a groundbreaking and earth-shattering performance; with a new band name and new music, they gave their long time listeners a well-deserved shock to the system as well as new listeners something to get excited about.

Shot by Ed Lines

The setlist was comprised of three songs from their “Get It Together” EP, three debut songs, one currently unreleased song, and a cover. The setlist is as follows:

1. Don’t Faze Me

2. Burn

3. Hard to Find*

4. Sugar We’re Goin Down

5. Love is a Fire Escape*

6. Where My Heart Is

7. NPD*

8. Don’t Talk*

*debut/unreleased tracks

I was incredibly glad to have had this event be my first live show in a public setting because the energy of Cut Your Losses is unmatchable. They have come out with a renewed vitality that was mirrored by the audience being fully enamored with their performance. If you get anything from this blog let it be that Cut Your Losses is a band to watch as they continue their climb to musical stardom.