Friday, April 11 // Door at 7 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $10 // $15-$20 Artist Supporter
Lightweight Champion exact alt-country with an air of orderliness…The melodies are simple but compelling, the rhythm section is tight, and Gabriel Delayne’s versatile piano keys makes for a formidable secret weapon […] Lyrics pair surreal, circuitous metaphorical imagery with plainspoken wills and wishes, the type of writing that’s become a staple of alt-country.” Based out of Seattle, members are Aaron Spieldenner, Gabriel Delayne, Cam Hancock (of The Whags, Coral Grief) and Tom Moskal (of Coach Phillips, High Romantics).
The Spills are the strumminest, pluckinest, bowinest, shredinest, wailinest bunch of sorry sons of guns this side o the land.
Diaphane is an indie-rock band currently in its high concept era, cosplaying as an ensemble of queer cowpokes who make country music… kinda. They give it their best anyway. The band is the brainchild of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kyle Blessing (he/they), a Long Island native who exiled himself to South Dakota in 2020 amidst the urban diaspora of the covid pandemic. Originally forming the band in Philadelphia in 2016, Blessing recorded an EP of noise-folk tunes, the Red Shift EP, which he released in May of 2018, followed by the full-length LP, Portraits, released in 2022. Recorded, re-recorded, and mixed over 4 years with a sprawling cast of Philadelphia musicians, Portraits is an indie-rock epic, spanning everything from free-jazz, to emo, to punk, tied together by the concept of painting portraits of those around us, only to find ourselves in the end, reflected in every facet of what we decide the important details of our muses are.
Moving out West was intended by Blessing as a journey into the wilderness, a solitary search for a voice he felt he had lost along the way in his sojourns with various bands up and down the east coast. This happened to coincide with a self-realization of identity and queerness in a place seemingly hostile to such things. Set against a picturesque western backdrop, it set the scene for the country record he’d always wanted to make.
Calamity Cowboy is the colloquial name given to a group of viscous homunculi believed to have originated sometime in the early 19th century. After aimlessly wandering for a couple hundred years, they decided to start a rock and roll band together. They play a blend of country and psychedelic rock that has garnered tens of fans. It’s the real deal!