Back to shows
ALT 104.9 Discovery Series welcomes

Slothrust

AND THE KIDS
Saturday, March 11, 2017
Duck Room
Doors open at 7PM
Show starts at 8PM
$12 in Advance/
$12 DOS
All Ages / $2 minor surcharge
A PAGAN PRODUCTIONS EVENT

With their long-awaited third album Everyone Else, Slothrust deliver ten riveting anthems that reward repeated listens. The songs grab the ear and pierce the psyche with complex arrangements and lyrical depth intensified by guitarist/vocalist Leah Wellbaum’s penetrating vocal delivery.

Slothrust is Wellbaum, Kyle Bann (bass), and Will Gorin (drums). The trio first staked out their unique strain of jazz- and blues-afflicted rock as students at Sarah Lawrence College. The band’s 2012 debut Feels Your Pain, and its successor 2014’s Of Course You Do, established the band as a breed apart, serving up deceptively clever epics that veer satisfyingly between incandescent riffing and pop hooks, winsome anxiety and powerful heft.

“People have always had trouble comparing us to other bands, but someone recently described us as Nirvana meets Wynton Marsalis, and I loved that,” says Wellbaum. Even the band’s name inspires a beat of thoughtful consideration as the eyes take in the letters and the brain makes its snap judgement: Slo Thrust? Slot Rust? Slo Trust?  Sloth-Rust.

We all studied jazz and blues, so I often use chords and voicings that aren’t quite as conventional for contemporary rock,” she continues. “Certain harmonic movement can get stale, so I try to incorporate colorful notes to give it more depth. The improvisational spirit of blues music is also something we try to always keep with us, even in more composed playing. I am drawn to musicians a bit further outside of the rock tradition, such as John Fahey, Elizabeth Cotten, D’Angelo, and Portishead. Growing up I listened to a lot of R&B and classical music. And musicals.”

While Everyone Else clearly shows Wellbaum fulfilling her early promise as a singer, it’s where she hits her stride as a lyricist: Pulling the listener under the surface to explore a submerged world brimming with exotic creatures. Water motifs abound, detailing oddly off-kilter observations about floating, submerging and drowning that are anything but morose. Instead, they contort and reflect worldly truths about life on dry land.

Nowhere is this vision clearer than on the slow burn of the album’s centerpiece track “Horseshoe Crab.”  Here, with storm cloud riffs and Will Gorin and Kyle Bann’s perfectly calibrated rhythmic undercurrent, Slothrust’s erupts in a geyser of emotional and spatial distance, as Wellbaum observes, “I don’t have anything in common with myself, except that I came from the sea, like everyone else did.”

“Like a Child Hiding Behind Your Tombstone” opens like some bizarre lullaby dispensing sage advice: “Drink seltzer, smoke weed when you can’t sleep. Think about shooting birds, everyone has got a violent streak.”  Then, as the guitars explode, the rhythm section dials into stylish, disciplined groove to set up an expansive instrumental break that gently floats to a close with Wellbaum, at peace: “Hold me under the water. My lungs are filling with plankton. But the lake is not lonely. No need for you to come with me.”

Above all the overriding ethos of Everyone Else is its sense of inclusiveness: all people, every feeling, quiet, loud, any time signature. With a snap of the neck the band launches into the hyper-adrenalized “Rotten Pumpkin” with Wellbaum singing in a rapid-fire vomit burst, “I’ll make you sick because I’m soft water. Reach inside of me, and scoop out my seeds.” This midpoint between grunge and art rock is the aesthetic Slothrust elevates: sharp-eyed individualism, serious musicianship, humble intelligence, controlled abandon.

Keep Me Plugged In

Stay up to date with who's being added to our show line-up each week!

Will I be able to sit down?

Some shows have limited seating (or no seating) on a first-come, first-serve basis. Don't worry, though – you will want to be on your feet once the music starts!

Where can I buy tickets for shows at Blueberry Hill Duck Room?

Unless otherwise noted, tickets for shows at Blueberry Hill Duck Room can be purchased in advance on Ticketmaster.com, at The Pageant's Box Office (6161 Delmar Blvd, St Louis, MO, 63112), and Suite 100 at The Pageant. Tickets can also be purchased at the Duck Room door on the night of the show, an hour prior to door time, unless the show is sold out. Tickets are not available at the Blueberry Hill bar.

Are shows wheelchair accessible?

All shows at Blueberry Hill in the Duck Room are wheelchair accessible via an elevator in the Piano Room hallway. (Please call us 24 hours in advance to coordinate.) A small percentage of shows are in the Elvis Room, which is not accessible.

Whom should I contact about band bookings?

Go to the Contact Us page and select Band Booking from the category options.

Or go to https://blueberryhill.com/band-bookings/

How do I sign up for your weekly concert newsletter?

https://engage.ticketmaster.net/PageantWeb/

Do you do separate checks?

Yes!