Blind Pilot
Friday, October 24th
16+
This show is standing room only.
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The first Blind Pilot album in eightyears, In the Shadow of the Holy Mountainemerged from a period of artistic crisis and the radical transformation oftheir creative ecosystem. “I went through a few years where I wasn’t able towrite—I tried therapy, I read books on writer’s block, I went on writing trips,but nothing was helping,” says Israel Nebeker,frontman for the Oregon-bred band. After stepping back and reimagining hissongwriting approach, Nebeker challenged himself to write an entire album in amonth, then brought those songs to his bandmates with a newfound sense of receptivity.“I told myself that whatever songs came through in that month would be for thelove of the band and music we make together,” says Nebeker. “Instead of beingcontrolling in the studio, I wanted to let the songs live and breathe with theband as an entity. By the time we finished, it was the most joy we’d ever hadin making an album together.”
Produced by JoshKaufman (The Hold Steady, David Wax Museum), In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain brings a potent new energy tothe elegantly composed folk/indie-rock of past LPs like 2016’s And Then Like Lions. In a profound stepforward for the band—whose lineup also includes drummer/co-founder Ryan Dobrowski, bassist Luke Ydstie, andmulti-instrumentalist Kati Claborn—Blind Pilot’s fourth full-length unfoldswith an exquisite fluidity, fully harnessing the undeniable chemistry.“In the past we’ve always been very serious and intentional about the process,but Josh often encouraged us to throw away our preconceived notions of what thesongs were supposed to be,” says Nebeker. “So much ofthe album came from all of us playing live together, listening to each otherand trusting our instincts, and really getting to the core of the song,”Dobrowski adds. The result: the most revelatory expression yet of BlindPilot’s palpable reverence for music as a connective force.
While Blind Pilot intendsto tour principally as a quartet in support of the record, the album includescontributions from longtime trumpeter/keyboardist Dave Jorgensen andvibraphonist Ian Krist. In bringing the album to life, the band worked with arich palette of instrumentation, handling each track with equal partsextraordinary care and unbridled spontaneity. Forboth Dobrowski and Nebeker—whoformed an early iteration of the band as college students in themid-aughts—those moments of ineffably closeness serve as the lifeblood of BlindPilot. “For me making this album felt like celebrating being togetherand still feeling that deep connection that’s been a throughline for our entireadult lives,” Dobrowski says. “One of my very favorite things about music isthe way it not only connects us as bandmates, but allows us to connect to anaudience—and then within that audience, people end up connecting with eachother. It’s this powerful thing that’s unlike anything else, and in a way it’skind of like magic.”
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