The one and only Pedro the Lion will be returning to The Fine Line on Tuesday, May 21st. I’ve been craving a show from them since I saw them last August so I’m super excited for this one.
In August 2016, during what he now recognizes as his lowest point, vocalist Dave Bazan was touring the country alone in an aging minivan and found himself in his hometown of Phoenix, AZ. In need of a break from the road, he spent a night off at his grandparents’ house. Before leaving town the next morning, Bazan gave himself the gift of a quick detour past the house he grew up in, and experienced a breakthrough – one that would lead him both forward and back to another home he had built many years before.
In June 2018, with Bazan on bass, vocals, and arrangement writing, Erik Walters on guitar and backing vocals, and Sean Lane on drums, Pedro the Lion went into Studio X and Hall of Justice with producer Andy Park to create Phoenix, the first new Pedro album in 15 years.
On opening track “Yellow Bike,” Bazan encapsulates a core ache he’s been exploring since 1998’s It’s Hard to Find a Friend with the line: “My kingdom / For someone to ride with” Phoenix also deals with having to be better to yourself in order to be better to others on “Quietest Friend,” and harkens back to Control’s “Priests and Paramedics” with a story about EMTs facing a gruesome scene, and storytelling as coping mechanism, on “Black Canyon.” It bears witness to both what was around and what was inside, with the signature kindness and forgiveness that lightens Pedro the Lion’s darkest notes.
The result is a twisting, darkly hopeful introspection into home and what it means to go back, if you ever can. It is rock and roll wrapped in tissue paper, its hard edges made barely soft. Every melody is careful, a delicate upswing buoyed by guitar lines that hold each tender feeling together like string before ripping them apart to see what’s inside. It is an ode to the place he still loves despite how alien it can appear to him now. It is the story of a life from the beginning, but not a linear one. This life is a circle, and Phoenix goes back to that first point, to show that when we are looking for home we’ll eventually run into it again, whether it’s in the desert, in a rehearsal space, or on a stage.
I’m super excited that John Vanderslice will be kicking the night off. John Vanderslice grew up in rural Florida listening to Led Zeppelin and The KInks. He has released 11 full-length records on Dead Oceans, Barsuk, Polyvinyl, and Native Cat. He has toured with St Vincent, Spoon, Sufjan Stevens, Death Cab For Cutie, and Stephen Malkmus. As owner of Tiny Telephone, an analog recording studio in San Francisco and Oakland, he has produced records from Spoon, Cherry Glazerr, and the Mountains Goats.
Tickets are still available HERE!
