Bats • Beauty Filter • Bronco
Wed 08/07/24
8:00PM
18+
music
$15
Show Lineup
Bats
(Nashville, TN)
Genre: Indie
Cult favorite Nashville band Bats is the project of songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Jess Awh. Their new album, “Good Game Baby” was released March 1, 2024 and is “country in its core, but also dabbles in long extensions of layers of found sound…and big droning guitar.” (Justin Barney, WNXP Nashville) Since the band’s origin in 2021, they have been appreciated for their eccentric, collage-style arrangements and exactingly poignant lyrics. “Bats has built a reliable reputation as a sincere lens into Awh’s own growing pains and intimate reflections… with her tongue and cheek lyricism, hyper specific anecdotes and country music roots… there is deliverance in her fractured timeline, blending nostalgia with confessionals as she looks back on how far she has come.” (Shea Roney, the Ugly Hug). Her live band skillfully applies traditional instruments like fiddle and pedal steel guitar to a contemporary, stream-of-consciousness songwriting style, peppering in samples, drum machines, and distortion for an ultimately unique blend of Nashville hometown influence and indie rock sensibilities.
Beauty Filter
(Milwaukee, WI)
Genre: Rock
Beauty Filter is the Milwaukee, WI-based trio of drummer Ethan Bailey, bassist Matthew Poulton, and guitarist/vocalist Tom Oeffling
Heavy Bend
(Milwaukee)
Genre: Indie
Heavy Bend is an alternative folk rock band from Milwaukee, WI. In 2024, the band surfaced in the city’s DIY music scene under the name BRONCO. They released their debut project For Friends and Family in early 2025 after amassing a local following. Ephemera at National Aquarium quickly followed, and the live album captured a stripped-back set of songs both new and old. Notes of the Violent Femmes’ emotional drive, The Microphones’ layered intensity, and Big Thief’s sincerity appear in their recorded and live material. The quartet punctuates intimate lyrics with instrumental gut-punches. Following in the footsteps of folk tradition, many of the songs speak deeply, yet directly, about the tension between selfhood and togetherness. As fuzz saturated guitars, blunt drums, and melodic bass lines swash forward, Heavy Bend forges their own path into the contemporary rock landscape, but not without reverence to their sonic forefathers. Vocalist and guitarist Slater Gutierrez, guitarist Noah Skilling, bassist Gage McNew, and drummer Ollie Battista’s performances meld to make something earnest, full, and evocative. After recently releasing two singles, “Scared to Know” and “Sidetracked” under their new name, Heavy Bend is working eagerly on their sophomore studio album.