Events

9:00 PM, $7 suggested

Elastic Arts
2830 N Milwaukee

Songwriter Showcase w/ Matt Priest and Dann Morr

Matt Priest of Canasta and Dann Morr of Wells-next-the-Sea will be featured at our Songwriter Showcase and Open Mic.

While playing bass with Chicago veteran rockers Canasta, Matt Priest crafts straight forward pop anthems. He avoids the superfluous, but uses careful arrangements and subtle turns to provide depth. Priest, who also plays trombone, seduces listeners through slow developing melodies and a musical exuberance that seems to emerge regardless of his subject matter. Canasta recently performed a tribute set to Belle and Sabastian, and his songs might be understood as an American extension that British indie-pop outfit.

Sometimes, the hardest to write are mid-tempo songs that are void of extreme emotions. But this is where Dann Morr excels. Morr’s songs give the sense of time moving along, indifferent to the lives that occupy it. Morr’s voice never strains or strays, but is firmly lofted above plucked guitar and violin. Notes of melancholy and tepid optimism color his compositions, and strong imagery plants the listener somewhere solid, if just for a fleeting moment.

Photo by Eduardo R. Ortiz Romeu.