CANADA / PALEO / CHRIS BATHGATE / BUTANE VARIATIONS Saturday October 6

Canada
Paleo
Chris Bathgate
Butane Variations

Saturday, September 29
8:00 PM
ALL AGES, $5
(doors at 7:00)

Gracing our newly lighted stage for a Saturday evening performance will be the Ann Arbor-based seven-piece rock band Canada, self-described as "a leaf, on a breeze, in a village, near a volcano, smelling of soap, lingering in donut shops at 3am, wool mittened, back bent, shimmering in a cauldron of candied bullets." Sporting two cellos and a battery of xylophones and melodicas to augment guitars, bass, and drums, Canada's war chest includes being part of this year's CMJ showcase, a favorable Pitchfork review(!), and far-flung tours that provide fodder for fairly hilarious tour blogs.

Joining Canada will be the tireless solo artist Paleo, a man on a seemingly perpetual tour whose extremely bare-bones website includes a 365-day song diary-in-progress, marking him as prolific as he is iconoclastic. With spidery vocals and delicately off-kilter acoustic guitar picking, one might draw a Devendra Banhart parallel, if not for Paleo's underlying fin-de-siecle edge.

Also performing will be Ann Arbor singer-songwriter Chris Bathgate, whose recent Quite Scientific release "A Cork Tale Wake" gathers songs workshopped in various live settings over the past year, from backyards to barrooms to gallery spaces such as our own. With an embracing voice and a versatile, gently unpredictable stage show, Bathgate's lyrics wander through dreams and personal narratives, delivering song after song that yearn to be played on infinite repeat.

Completing the evening's bill of music is Brooklyn-based Butane Variations, stylistically dovetailing with their stagemates through deft, slow-spinning narratives that yield unexpected keyboard textures, steel guitar, and inventive vocal arrangements.