Monday 2/14
John K / Marc E Bassy Varsity Theater – TICKETS
John K is an Orlando, FL-based pop singer/songwriter who is known for his break-out hit “if we never met,” and his 2 albums released over the pandemic, love + everything else and in case you miss me. He’s collaborated with names like Kelsea Ballerini, Loote, Don Diabko and ROSIE. He’s performed on The TODAY Show and received praise from places like Rolling Stone, Billboard, Flaunt, L’officiel, MTV and more. He creates a timeless and effortless take on pop, crediting his soulful vocals to influences ranging from Bill Withers and Donnie Hathaway to Jon Bellion, and Ed Sheeran.
Thursday 2/17
Lucy Dacus / Indigo De Souza First Avenue – TICKETS
There are a thousand truisms about home and childhood, none of them true but all of them honest. It’s natural to want to tidy those earliest memories into a story so palatable and simple that you never have to read again. A home video promises to give your memories back with a certificate of fact — but the footage isn’t the feeling. Who is just out of frame? What does the soft-focus obscure? How did the recording itself change the scene?
Some scrutinize the past and some never look back and Lucy Dacus, a lifelong writer and close reader, has long been the former sort. “The past doesn’t change,” Dacus said on a video call during that interminable winter of video calls. “Even if a memory is of a time I didn’t feel safe, there’s safety in looking at it, in its stability.”
This new gift from Dacus, Home Video, her third album, was built on an interrogation of her coming-of-age years in Richmond, Virginia. Many songs start the way a memoir might—“In the summer of ’07 I was sure I’d go to heaven, but I was hedging my bets at VBS”—and all of them have the compassion, humor, and honesty of the best autobiographical writing. Most importantly and mysteriously, this album displays Dacus’s ability to use the personal as portal into the universal. “I can’t hide behind generalizations or fiction anymore,” Dacus says, though talking about these songs, she admits, makes her ache.
“Everything has to be said.” This is the conviction guiding Indigo De Souza’s sophomore album, Any Shape You Take. This dynamic record successfully creates a container for the full spectrum—pushing through and against every emotion: “I wanted this album to give a feeling of shifting with and embracing change. These songs came from a turbulent time when I was coming to self-love through many existential crises and shifts in perspective.”
Faithful to its name, Any Shape You Take changes form to match the tenor of each story it tells. “The album title is a nod to the many shapes I take musically. I don’t feel that I fully embody any particular genre—all of the music just comes from the universe that is my ever-shifting brain/heart/world,” says Indigo. This sonic range is unified by Indigo’s strikingly confessional and effortless approach to songwriting, a signature first introduced in her debut, self-released LP, I Love My Mom. Written in quick succession, Indigo sees these two records as companion pieces, both distinct but in communion with each other: “Many of the songs on these two records came from the same season in my life and a certain version of myself which I feel much further from now.”
Throughout Any Shape You Take, Indigo reflects on her relationships as she reckons with a deeper need to redefine how to fully inhabit spaces of love and connection.“It feels so important for me to see people through change. To accept people for the many shapes they take, whether those shapes fit into your life or not. This album is a reflection of that. I have undergone so much change in my life and I am so deeply grateful to the people who have seen me through it without judgment and without attachment to skins I’m shifting out of.”
Patrick Droney / Morgxn at the Fine Line – TICKETS
Growing up in South Jersey, Patrick Droney’s career began with a bang, at age 13 he won a Robert Johnson New Generation Award as “Best Young Blues Guitarist” and began sharing stages with the likes of B.B. King, James Brown, The Roots, Taj Mahal, Macy Gray, and Elvis Costello. Droney became enamored of New York City at an early age, gigging frequently in esteemed Manhattan clubs and eventually attending the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU. He moved to LA and signed a publishing deal, and in 2018 relocated to Nashville to craft a self-titled EP, also making his TV debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers, performing at Barclays Center for Tidal X, and seeing his song “High Hope” featured on Grey’s Anatomy.
Los Angeles singer-songwriter morgxn has revealed MERIDIAN: vol 1, the first of a two-part EP. An artist who makes truly vulnerable music, morgxn brings that radiant authenticity to a mesmerizing selection of songs and ultimately proves that sensitivity may be a deep source of strength.
We’ve already seen the release of “Porcelain” from the EP with defiant energy channeled in stomping beats and majestic chanting vocals. While on the emotional ballad, “How Do You Hold What Hurts,” morgxn shares a stark but finely detailed meditation on the unbearable weight of deep-rooted pain. Fueled with punchy pop velocity, the album’s focus track “Losing Myself” was the first song written for the MERIDIAN: vol 1 project produced and co-written with NZ trio Thom Powers (of The Naked and Famous), Chelsea Jade, and Simon Oscroft. The song is an admission that the constant touring and pressure morgxn felt was beginning to erode their spirit.
Friday 2/18
Aries at First Avenue – TICKETS
Aries is an artist of many talents: rapper, singer, producer, director, graphic designer, illustrator. Quickly proving himself as a visionary force to be reckoned with, the 23-year-old’s genre-fusing music, blending hip-hop and alternative influences, has gained him a legion of die-hard fans and a notable track record of sold out shows across North America and Europe.
Aries grew up in a musical household in Orange County, CA. He took influence from his Dad as a professional violinist, but his drive to pursue music seriously was sparked as much by his DVD collection as his musical upbringing. “As a kid I used to love watching Linkin Park’s live DVDs. I was inspired by them to be on stage, so I worked backwards from there on how I could do it.” Aged 13, Aries started writing raps and teaching himself to produce beats, spending hours on end developing his artistry while his peers socialized. “I was good with all the cliques around school, I just didn’t feel the need to be part of them,” he recalls. “I stayed home and worked on music constantly, every single day.”
Saturday 2/19
Andy Grammer at the Fillmore – TICKETS
The multi platinum singer-songwriter is known is known for engaging, energizing, and empowering audiences across the world with his chart-topping radio hits “Honey I’m Good,” “Keep Your Head Up,” “Don’t Give Up On Me” and more.
He recently put out the music video for his latest release “Love Myself.” The track follows his single “Damn It Feels Good To Be Me,” which hit Top 15 on Adult Pop Radio, and “Lease On Life,” which Andy created under the inspiration of a newfound perspective he gained during the pandemic. All three tracks will be featured on his forthcoming fifth full-length album due out in late 2022.
