The Barr Brothers + Jocie Adams December 6, 2011

Brad and Andrew, in search of a new outlet, discovered rock n' roll. It was 1983. They taught themselves how to play, at first on cardboard boxes and home-strung imitation guitars, then on actual, zebra-striped electric guitars and drums. "Wipe Out" and "Johnny B. Goode" were among the first songs absorbed into the repertoire. With the same energy they used to attack each other with boxing gloves, they attacked the popular hits of the day and old blues songs they found in their father's record collection. A healthy diet of classic and esoteric rock paved the way to the discoveries that lay ahead.

The brothers had spent most of the previous decade criss-crossing North America, playing music with their spirited, improv-based rock trio, The Slip. That Spring, the band was playing a small club in Montreal, QC when a fire broke out in the venue. They grabbed a few guitars/drums and rushed out onto the rainy street with the rest of the concert goers. As the club's mezzanine was swallowed by flames, Andrew offered his coat to one of the waitresses from the bar. One year later, Brad and Andrew Barr were living in Montreal. That waitress is now one of their managers.

In his first apartment in the new city, Brad shared an adjoining wall with Sarah Page, a classically trained harpist from Montreal with a propensity for the experimental. As tender and visceral as she is virtuosic, her melodies would seep through the cracks of the wall and into the music Brad was writing. From this nebulous relationship, a friendship developed and the brothers, with Sarah, began recording and performing around Montreal. Soon, their friend and multi-instrumentalist Andres Vial was brought in to lend his wide array of expertise to the outfit, playing keyboards, bass, vibes, percussion, and singing. They called themselves The Barr Brothers. With Brad's songs setting the context for the agile imaginations of the other musicians, a unique sound was born, one reliant on interwoven string arrangements, wide open spaces, and a multitude of musical traditions.
http://thebarrbrothers.com/

Jocie Adams, the wildly gifted multi-instrumentalist and folk mistress will open the show. Accompanied by her lush band, she proffers her songs, from plaintive to elated, as whimsical glimpses of people and places both lost and found. The singing is strange and beautiful. The trumpeting tickles your ears. The bass holds you in its arms. The harmonies surround you like siren voices bouncing off the ocean. The band members are ever in-tune with each other, and they bring you in with them.
http://www.myspace.com/jocelynadamsmusic

Official Website: http://www.jamminjava.com/