Doors open at 7pm, 21+ . Advance tickets are available in person at Boo Boo Record Store in SLO or print-at-home/mobile tickets can be found online at Ticketfly.com by clicking: HERE. All tickets are general admission. The Siren is a small, intimate club style venue and seating is limited and first come first served and is dictated by estimated show sales.
Birds of Chicago, “This year’s biggest roots surprise” – L.A. Times, is a collective built around husband and wife duo JT Nero (Chicago, IL) and Allison Russell (Montreal, QC). Since forming in 2012, they’ve toured internationally 10+ months of the year.
Their brand of rock and roll poetry can be a little hard to categorize, for people that insist on categorizing… their voices are undoubtedly the centerpiece – Nero’s fractured country soul croon is wrapped in Russell’s silver and gold tones for a harmony blend that is like nothing else in music today. Fired by the band it’s a full tilt revival – streamlined poems, deep grooves, sharp hooks and joyful singing straight from the gut.
Birds of Chicago’s self-titled debut album, released at the beginning of 2013, was a critics’ darling – with glowing praise rolling in from both sides of the Atlantic for Nero and Russell’s evocative poetry and simmering vocals. The decision to put their respective bands (JT’s “JT & The Clouds” & Allison’s “Po’ Girl”) on hiatus and tour together was a pivotal move, applauded by their fans, and growing numbers of new listeners.
After a year of hard touring, and much buzzed about appearances at summer festivals (Strawberry, High Sierra, Kerrville, Hillside, Delfest, Vancouver Island among others) the band decided to record a live album in front of their hometown fans. The result “Live from Space,” released January 2014, captures this rising band in absolute top form. By turns raw, raucous, whispered and hushed, it revealed the bands full dynamic range. Americana UK says, “‘Live From SPACE’ leaves no genre unaccounted for, no touchstone unturned. A Cappella spiritual, soul, acoustic balladry, driving country rock – it’s all there. And that’s only the first four tracks.”
Russell and Nero are most at home on the road, zigzagging across North America and Europe in their family band van, with their new baby daughter, Ida Maeve, in tow. Coming soon to some festival, theater, pub, VFW hall, roller rink or living room near you – dovetailing their voices in songs of hope, despair, love…. and electric seahorses. It’s familiar and strange stuff – the everyday and the magical – light and shadow, shadow and light.
