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Grayskull Booking Presents

the body

Big ? Brave

Lingua Ignota

18+ // $12 adv - $15 dos // 8:30pm doors

Bowery Boston & Allston Pudding present
Wand
the spirit of the beehive.

doors 8:30pm / 18+ / $12
Tickets on sale now!

Plum is Wand?s fourth LP since the band formed in late 2013 but their first new album in two years. After a whirlwind initial phase of writing, recording, and touring at a frenetic clip, their newest document marks a period of relative patience; a refocusing and a push toward a new democratization of both process and musical surface.

In late winter of 2016, the band expanded their core membership of Evan Burrows, Cory Hanson, and Lee Landey to include two new members?Robbie Cody on guitar and Sofia Arreguin on keys and vocals. From the outset, the new ensemble moved naturally toward a changed working method, as they learned how to listen to each other and trust in this new format. The songwriting process was consciously relocated to the practice space, where for several months, the band spent hours a day freely improvising, while recording as much of the activity as they could manage. Previously, Wand songs had generally been brought to the group setting substantially formed by singer and guitarist Cory Hanson; now seedling songs were harvested from a growing cloudbank of archived material, then fleshed out and negotiated collectively as the band shifted rhythmically between the permissive space of jamming and the obsessive space of critique.

This new process demanded more honest communication, more vulnerability, better boundaries, more mercy and persistence during a year that meanwhile delivered a heaping serving of romantic, familial and political heartbreak for everyone involved. They learned more about their instruments and their perceived limitations. Much else fell apart in their personal lives, in their bodies, and the bodies of those near to them. In this way, Plum lengthened like a shadow underneath a dusking Orange; or rather ?Weird Orange,? an affectionate name given to the color of a roulette-chosen, tour-rushed batch of Golem vinyl?an idiom, an inside joke, a talisman, a bookmark, a mood ring. And meanwhile all the shifting weather, the wireless signals, the helicopters overhead. Weird orange softened, darkened delicately, and rouged itself to a Plum.

The music of Plum focuses teeming, dense, at times wildly multichromatic sounds into Wand?s most deliberate statement to date, with a long evening?s shadow of loss and longing hovering above the proceedings. Plum delicately locates the band?s tangent of escape from the warm and comfortable shallows of genre anachronism, an eyes-closed, mouth-open leap toward a more free-associative and contemporary pastiche logic of that more honestly reflects the ravenous musical omnivorousness of the five people who wrote and played it.

Bowery Boston presents
Charlotte Cardin

doors 8:30pm / 18+ / $12
Tickets on sale now!

At only 21 years old, Charlotte Cardin has already shown promise of being one of 2017's breakout songstresses. Her debut single, the minimal electro-jazz ballad "Big Boy," garnered instant online buzz. Since then, the young singer's career has been a series of milestones. Her long-awaited debut EP was released July 2016 and instantly jumped to number one on iTunes Canada. The success of the EP is being fueled by a 60-date Canadian tour which has so far included stops at the CBC Music festival, Osheaga, and le Festival d'e?te? de Que?bec (the latter of which saw her opening up for Sting and Peter Gabriel). By road-testing her material with her tight-knit three-piece band, Charlotte seems to have hit a sweet spot between the minimalism in the songs' arrangements and the larger-than-life quality of her live show.

Bowery Boston presents
Lewis Capaldi

doors 8:30pm / 18+ / $15 adv, $17 dos
Tickets on sale Fri. 3/16 at 10am!

When Lewis Capaldi?s debut single Bruises exploded in mid-2017 it seemed from an outside perspective to have all the hallmarks of an overnight sensation. How could this 20-year-old with a soul-wrenching voice that sounded like it had been hewn from granite seemingly emerge from nowhere with a song of such emotional depth?

A stripped-back and almost painfully raw meditation on love and loss from a writer who seemed like he?d already lived several lives and had the scars to prove it, within weeks it had racked up an astonishing 20 million Spotify plays and topped streaming charts around the world.
?Once we got to 10 million, I was like, ?Right, I?m going to stop looking at this because I?m happy with that,?? laughs Capaldi, sat in a Soho coffee shop in a rare bit of down time.

?People ask me, ?How do you feel about everything?? I?m confused, I?m like, ?How the hell has this happened?? I was happy to release something and then to just see it explode. People are telling me that they?ve heard it in shops in Thailand, they?ve been in Zante and Magaluf and Ibiza and they?ve heard remixes of it in clubs. It?s absolutely mental. I?m kind of always thinking that someone?s going to turn around and tell me, ?Oh lad, we?re only joking!??

Have a listen to any of the other tunes Capaldi has been stockpiling into a goldmine of songs and it seem very, very unlikely that anyone will be saying that. Capaldi is that rare thing: a writer who can take his own experiences and pain and craft them into deeply effecting, heart-bruised truths that resonate with anyone who hears them.

If Capaldi seems to have a maturity as an artist and a performer that goes beyond his years then that might be down to the fact that he?s had a bit of a head start. In fact, given the years of graft the West Lothian native has put in, he?d probably take umbrage at the notion that it was an ?overnight? success.

?I picked the guitar up at nine, started writing songs at eleven and then was gigging from 12 onwards,? he states matter-of-factly, before delivering a bit of customary self-deprecation. ?I mean, they were awful songs, but it was fun. I was always trying to get in places, playing at pubs. I?d show up and try and blag my way in. I?d have to hide in the toilets and then jump out and do my set as quickly as possible before anyone knew there was a 12-year-old in the pub.?
From then on in Capaldi devoted every spare moment he had to writing and performing. Playing gigs in Glasgow, Edinburgh and anywhere he could find a receptive audience, he was constantly working on songs, finding his voice as a songwriter and honing his craft with unwavering dedication. All the while developing the rough-around-the-edges vocals that would make those songs soar.

?I?m constantly writing. Even now, if I?m not doing a gig or in rehearsals, I?m writing. It?s constant because you?re only as good as your next song,? he says, perhaps forgetting for a moment that he?s got one of the most acclaimed debut releases this year already under his belt. ?A lot of my pals laugh because they?re roofers and electricians and they?ve got real jobs, and I?ll go, ?Oh man, I?m so stressed out trying to write songs,? They?re like, ?Shut the hell up.? I get it, but it?s a slog, man. It can be proper difficult at times.?

It?s a slog that has paid off in spades. With ?hundreds of songs? crafted in the last year alone, Lewis Capaldi is already shaping up to be one of the British Isles? most gifted songwriters. Preposterously, when it comes to the daunting process of picking a dozen for a debut album in the future, he feels that Bruises might not even make the cut.

?An album has to sound cohesive. So if Bruises still to me feels like it should be on the album at that point, then I don?t see why not,? he ponders. ?I?m constantly writing, but then it?s the hope that every song will be better than the last one. It?s just constantly trying to better yourself.?
Not a bad position to find yourself in, but if he feels the success of his first offering might be fading he?s sorely mistaken.

?Yesterday I phoned up the bank and the girl was like, ?I?ll phone you back in ten minutes?? She phoned back in ten minutes and said, ?Oh, I recognised your name, I really like your song?.? He recalls with disbelief. ?Things like that are just like ?? Oh shit, that?s weird.??

Much as he might currently find it strange, Capaldi?s success is only going to grow from here. He?d better get used to it.

Bowery Boston presents
Suzanne Santo of HONEYHONEY

doors 8:30pm / 18+ / $13 adv, $15 dos
Tickets on sale now!

Caught halfway between the dark swoon of pop-noir, the raw rasp of soul music, and the honest punch of Americana, Suzanne Santo's Ruby Red tells the story of a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who, more than 10 years into an acclaimed career, is turning a new corner.

Produced by multi-platinum Grammy nominee Butch Walker (whose Los Angeles recording studio gives the album its name), Ruby Red marks Santo's first release as a solo artist. For the past decade, she's spent most of her time fronting the Americana duo HONEYHONEY, whittling her banjo, violin, and vocal chops into sharp shape along the way. Here, she takes a break from that longtime gig to explore something different, creating a moody, sexually-charged album filled with organic instruments, distorted fiddle, Walker's powerful electric guitar, and Santo's most stunning vocal performances to date.

"I think I started writing songs for this record long before I realized that I was writing songs for this record,? said Santo. ?I?ve identified with a collaboration for so long that the thought of taking a leap into the depths of my own music and having no idea what that would look like, definitely came as a shock. I was getting lazy and not finishing the tasks at hand like I really wanted, deep down, to be able to do. Writing this record was bewitching in a way.?

Before they collaborated on Ruby Red, Santo made multiple appearances on Butch Walker's eighth album, Stay Gold. She joined him on the road, too, singing harmonies and playing violin, guitar, and banjo during a nationwide tour in 2016. During breaks in her touring schedule, she began diving into a different type of songwriting, looking to diverse albums by Erykah Badu, David Bowie, Townes Van Zandt, and the Alabama Shakes for inspiration. For years, she'd always been somebody else's bandmate. This was a time to explore her own identity. To write her own music. To ignore genres and defy expectations. To determine what, exactly, she wanted to say. . .and find out the best way to deliver it.

?Once Butch acquiesced to producing the record, I had an ?oh shit!? moment where I realized that I needed to really show up,? continued Santo. ?I had to have songs that were finished, let alone good enough. I couldn?t stop and I wrote all day every day to finish the songs I?d started years ago as well as the few that presented themselves in the 4th quarter. I took long walks in my neighborhood and listened to demos on my cell phone and worked out lyrics. I would also wake up in the middle of the night with new ideas and would get up and write them down or record them. It felt like the songs were seeping through the cracks of my mind and out of my mouth, without much of my consent. I think art is a channel, connected to something much greater than we are and I feel honored when it picks me from time to time.

Ruby Red is an album about love, life, and lust in the modern world. Moody and melody-driven, its 11 songs range from "Handshake" ? the record's epic opening track, equal parts Southern-gothic anthem and slow-burning soul ballad ? to the driving "Ghost in my Bed," which pairs an explosive chorus with layers of mandolin, fiddle, and piano. Meanwhile, tracks like "Better Than That" focus on little more than Santo's voice: an electrifying, elastic instrument that's capable of both vulnerability and ferocity.

Santo and Walker recorded Ruby Red quickly, pulling long hours in Walker's bright, sunlit studio in Southern California. The instrumental tracks were captured live, with help from guests like pedal steel player Dr. Stephen Patt ? Santo's primary care physician, as well as a former member of the Edgar Winter Group ? and drummer Mark Stepro. Santo kept the guest list small, though, splitting the bulk of the instrumental duties with Walker.

"It was incredible to work with Butch. He facilitates a great time and an artistic environment that orbits solely around what?s best for the song, which is so rare in a business full of egos. Butch and this environment liberated and enabled me to work in a way that I never knew I was capable of."

Although Ruby Red marks the start of something new, it doesn't signify the end of Santo's long run with HONEYHONEY. Santo will join bandmate Ben Jaffe in the television series The Guest Book, whose episodes feature the two musicians in acting and musical roles. The show premieres on TBS during the latter half of 2017, adding another bullet point to the acting career Santo launched years before HONEYHONEY's formation.

Santo's story is still unfolding. This is the newest chapter, bringing with it a track list that doubles down on the songwriter's strengths and stretches her limits. There will be more chapters to explore. More colorful stories to tell. But for now, Suzanne Santo's future is looking Ruby Red.

"This record is so fucking sexy, I can't deal,? said Walker. ?Proud to have been in the room when these songs were going down. Put it on and turn out the lights."

Bowery Boston presents
serpentwithfeet
Lee Mo - Artist Page

doors 8:30pm / 18+ / $12 adv, $14 dos
Tickets on sale Fri. 3/9 at 10am!

After spending years studying as a classical vocalist, 27-year-old Baltimore-born artist serpentwithfeet (a nom de plume for Josiah Wise) spent time drifting around Paris and London before eventually landing in NYC. It was here that his music-a beautiful confluence of gospel and classically-inflected electronica-began to truly take shape.

"I decided in 2012 or in 2013 that I didn't want a band anymore," he recalls, "I was like, "What would happen if I did my R&B thing over this classical shit" It took a while, but I started to wonder if I could make something that satisfies other people and myself. I want the music to resonate with people. I didn't start thinking about that until I moved to New York, to be honest."

blisters is serpentwithfeet's first EP from Tri Angle Records. After spending a few years experimenting-both musically and visually-in NYC's underground queer music scene ("I was basically just posting something new every week on Soundcloud, waiting for someone to take notice," he says), Wise eventually struck on a sound and a sentiment that made sense. On "four ethers," the third single to be taken from blisters, serpentwithfeet wonders aloud what it would feel like to be violently transparent, and finds him in pursuit of a rare honesty. Huge swathes of strings and percussion emphatically rise and crash turbulently against Wise's questioning voice as he ultimately asks: "How can I touch somebody who wont even touch themselves?" "four ethers" might be serpentwithfeet's most powerful and dramatic work to date.

A similar kind of emotional dynamic runs throughout all of blisters. Tracks like "penance" and "redemption" vacillate between hushed intimacy and huge emotional swells. On the EP's title track, Wise's multi-tracked voice plays against gently-plucked harp and syncopated handclaps, the record's gospel affectations and slinky R&B tropes fusing into something unique, exotic, and strangely beautiful. Meanwhile, surrounded by strings, subtle electronics and Wise's restrained piano playing--and buoyed aloft by production courtesy of The Haxan Cloak- the EP's first single, "flickering," is the perfect showcase for Wise's powerhouse voice. "I'm starting to feel the cord connecting us two is made of gossamer," he sings. "I'm starting to feel there's no cord between us two/are we made of gossamer?" The track unspools with a kind of hushed intimacy, the tone and tenor of Wise's voice rising and falling like a breath until the song itself crests and flutters before disappearing completely.

Given that he credits both Brandy and Bjork as inspirations, it's not surprising that serpentwithfeet treads a fine line between emotive gospel and more left-of-centre stylings. With his own gloriously outré personal style and penchant for the dramatic, it also makes sense that the music Wise makes would be so remarkably unclassifiable. "It feels very free because I also feel very free," he says. "I don't feel like being gay restricts me in the same way I also don't feel like being black restricts me. In fact, it only makes me more interesting. Making music has always been about making a space for myself in the world. My theory has always been that if you walk into a room and say, 'This is my room'-it's your room. The End."

Bowery Boston presents
Sons of an Illustrious Father

doors 10pm / 21+ / $10 adv, $12 dos
Tickets on sale Fri. 4/13 at noon!

Bowery Boston presents
River Whyless

doors 8:30pm / 21+ / $15
Tickets on sale Fri. 3/30 at noon!

For many bands, and especially those who?ve been together for several years, recognizing maturation, progress or palpable evolution is a daunting task. Is it continued creative accomplishment that signals progression? Or perhaps it?s profitable commercial endeavors? The answer is often quite unclear. Six years, two albums and countless gigs after first forming as a band, River Whyless, the North Carolina-bred folk-rock outfit has discovered their evolution is a subtler albeit monumentally important one. Deep in the throes of writing and recording their bold new album, Kindness, A Rebel, the four musicians reached a necessary and collective understanding. Namely: this band is their lifeblood, their family and their love. To that end, with unspoken acceptance, the members of River Whyless, each songwriters in their own right, collectively put aside their respective egos, coalesced around each other?s creative vision, and fully embraced the beauty of their enduring partnership.

?It was a feeling of openness and hope and acceptance,? says singer-violinist Halli Anderson of the multi-week sessions with producer Paul Butler (Devendra Banhart, Michael Kiwanuka) that resulted in some of River Whyless? most dynamic, genre-bending and heartfelt material yet. Creatives regularly waver between honoring their own creation and rallying around larger ideas for the benefit of the group. But with every member of River Whyless now charting a life outside the band, and also writing on their own, when coming together to record Kindnessit was never more crucial they be open and honest with each other.

To that end, singer-guitarist Ryan O?Keefe remembers an early brainstorm session that saw all four musicians seated in his living room, each passing around their phones to hear rough sketches of songs the others had written. And while each member acknowledges one of their self-penned songs may not have ended up on the album, working together as a group to land on the best River Whyless songs -- the ones that speak to hope and betrayal, maturation and stalled momentum, the kinds of weighty topics their younger selves could never have taken stock of -- was essential to both create a killer album and, more importantly, move forward as a united band.

?We?ve reached a point where we just understand that the songs are more important than the egos,? says drummer Alex McWalters. Adds O?Keefe bluntly: ?This album gets to a deeper area than any of our others before it.?

Working with a dynamic producer like Butler had already pushed River Whyless out of their comfort zone. ?He pulled out elements of our writing that maybe we were timid about doing,? O?Keefe offers. But it was the experience of working on one specific track, in particular ?the opening ?All of My Friends? ?that best exhibited how much the band had grown. Having scrapped the electro-driven song when Butler took an initial disliking to it, Anderson ?had to do what I call my walk of abandonment,? she recalls. ?I tried to accept the fact that this song wasn?t going to make the record. So I let go of the song.? But a few days later, upon discovering a small burbling tone on a synthesizer, their passion for the song was reignited. Says O?Keefe, ?It was the first time I felt like we captured a song in the moment of creation. Lyrics were changing in the moment. Melodies were changing in the moment. Singers were changing. It was really difficult and emotionally intense but so gratifying when we were done.? Adds Anderson: ?The spirit was revived and the song was reborn in the studio. We were all letting it be.?

Most importantly, the illuminating experience proved to River Whyless that even after many years together they were still making new creative discoveries. Getting to that point, however, was hardly easy. Following 2016?s We All The Light, each member had taken on additional

responsibilities in their personal lives: O?Keefe, recently married, and bassist Dan Shearin, engaged, were busy building their first homes; Anderson relocated to Oregon; and McWalters enrolled in grad school to study creative writing.

And, of even greater consequence, after years of pounding the pavement, the band began to wonder if this dream they called River Whyless was strong enough to keep pushing forward. As each band members? life evolved, however, it was River Whyless, they realized, that served as their anchor and kept them whole. O?Keefe says his awakening on this front arrived spontaneously one night in Santa Fe, NM. Following a tough support-gig tour and just before Anderson was set to move to Oregon, he dropped her off at a motel. ?And as we pulled away it felt like an ending,? he admits looking back. Watching her through the window, as the car drove away, ?it was as if I removed a pair of tunnel-vision goggles and could see the world and my life for the first time since we started this band. I felt incredibly small, fragile, irresponsible, foolish, at a loss for what to do next and very alone. The reality of what we had been trying to do for a decade came crashing down in an almost laughable way. We didn't talk about it and I don't know if anyone felt the same way but, at that moment, I changed.?

Shuttling between Oregon and North Carolina in recent years, Anderson admits she too found herself struggling with her ?core identity? at the time. It was not until she got in the same room with her bandmates last year to writeKindness, A Rebelthat she, for the first time in ages, felt completely whole again. ?It's strange to say but the only place that I felt completely me was in the making of Kindness, A Rebel,? she says. ?There's something about creating music in the studio that allows one to forget the pomp and circumstance and be more present, more instinctual.? Music, and her band, she realized, ?remind me of where I belong.?

A year of change was a sentiment Shearin also shared: in the run-up to recording Kindness, A Rebel, he?d seen his life shifting drastically with a host of significant milestones, and perhaps most significantly, the sudden passing of his father. ?This rocked me incredibly hard and shaped and colored the rest of the year,? he says, noting that his bandmates and manager "were monumental in helping me through this experience." During this time, Shearin found ?a profound peace and beauty in loss -- recognizing the growth that can rise in the place of what is gone.? Later, this was echoed as they wrote the album, as the immediacy of the process forced each member to surrender his/her own vision and trust one another with the bigger picture. As McWalters notes, everybody relied on the collective group to wade through their respective challenges. Trusting each other's creative instinct in the process was a necessary act of ?letting go, an embrace of our weaknesses and a celebration of our strengths." He adds that "it was something of a revelation to me to realize that our weakness can be interesting, that imperfection is as compelling as the talent that surrounds it.?

Simply getting in the same physical space with one another to write new material proved challenging. To combat this, last fall all four members retreated to a secluded cabin outside Boone, North Carolina for several days and began brainstorming ideas for their new LP. ?It allows you to live and breathe the music... even if just for a little bit,? Shearin offers of this forthright method of creative incubation. It was in that cabin the early seeds of what became Kindness began to take shape. The band bounced ideas off each other, followed inspiration where it might lead. They were so focused in fact that all the musicians were loathe to return to their everyday lives. ?We dragged our feet to get there and then we dragged our feet to leave,? says Anderson, who calls the album ?a giant massage for my soul.?

What also became apparent during this getaway was that River Whyless was eager to stretch the boundaries of what constituted their sound. Whereas earlier albums centered on a largely beatific brand of heartfelt folk music ?seen most prominently on their 2012 debut album, A Stone, A Leaf, An Unfound Door?with encouragement from Butler, the band began to experiment with a more aggressive and innovative sonic palate. ?This time it was more like, let?s just see what happens and go with it,? says McWalters, who notes he wanted to embrace ?a more straightforward driving feel? to the album?s highly rhythmic percussion. To that end, the band balances its more traditional harmony-anchored leanings as seen on ?Van Dyke Brown? and the genteel acoustic lament of ?War is Kind,? with more overtly rock leanings like the Middle Eastern-tinged psychedelic scrum of ?Falling Farm? and the guitar-and-piano jangle of ?New Beliefs.?

This musical diversity is a direct reflection of each band member bringing his or her distinct flavor to the fold. Though, as Anderson admits, the band has never been more cohesive in its creative vision.

?It?s always difficult to have differing opinions on songs and try to find a compromise,? she admits, but ?that?s the fun thing about collaboration,? O?Keefe notes. ?It becomes something beyond your own self. ?And honestly,? Shearin adds, ? if not everybody is onboard to give it their all and get behind an idea then it can end up feeling empty in a way.? Simply put: where River Whyless has previously been distinct songwriters operating under a single banner, they were ready to now explore what it mean to be a true collective.

Not that it required much heavy lifting. ?Because we spend so much time together and we live and love one another, even when we don?t think about each other when we?re writing we tend to write about similar sentiments,? Anderson says. ?The same types of things are often affecting all four of us.? Concurring, McWalters says when River Whyless plays music ?we can almost predict what?s going to happen next and can read each other?s mind.?

?It?s so important to always keep an open mind? when writing, Shearin notes, if largely to leave the door open for the band to veer down unexpected and exciting new avenues.

Despite having never felt more unified in their vision for the future, much as they?ve navigated their freewheeling career to date, River Whyless is choosing to not predict what lies ahead. Allowing their creative union to continue guiding them, they insist, remains their only constant. ?It feels like you?re on a journey with your family,? McWalters says of the satisfaction of being in a band like River Whyless. ?It?s a beautiful thing.?