On Feb. 28, Mother Falcon and Tom Brosseau will perform at the City of Davis Veterans’ Memorial Theater, presented by the Davis Live Music Collective (DLMC).
At first glance, Mother Falcon is less of an indie pop/rock band and more of a chamber orchestra. Their numbers seem overwhelming — ranging flexibly from 12 to 18 or more members — but every instrument expertly intertwines to form complex and modern melodies accentuated with strong lyricism.
Opener Tom Brosseau is a folk singer/songwriter on tour for his seventh studio LP Grass Punks, released under the Davis-based label Crossbill Records.
The past year has been good to Mother Falcon; their sophomore album You Knew was released last August, with critical acclaim from the Washington Post and National Public Radio (NPR). They subsequently toured and performed for the fourth time at South by Southwest Music Festival (SXSW), their popular show garnering Mother Falcon a spot on NPR Music’s “Bob Boilen’s 15 Essential Moments From SXSW 2013.” They will be performing at SXSW again on March 15.
Tamir Kalifa, a multi-instrumentalist, plays the accordion for Mother Falcon. He is a photojournalist by day.
“South by [Southwest] is always a whirlwind rush of madness and silliness,” Kalifa said. “Once we’re back in Austin, we’re also going to be the backup band for Kelly Pratt for his project Bright Moments. That’s a really exciting project on the horizon.”
Mother Falcon’s newest release, to be available on March 18, is a cover album of Radiohead’s 1997 OK Computer. Mother Falcon’s version, MF Computer, consists of classically-rooted reconstructions of the iconic record.
“I like how different [MF Computer] is from the original recording,” Kalifa said. “Radiohead is one of my favorite bands. We’re very influenced by Thom Yorke’s [frontman of Radiohead] vocals and melodies. It was fun to get a chance to digest it more, on a very subtle and nuanced level.”
Aside from touring, Mother Falcon also hosts Music Laboratory, a summer camp for middle and high school orchestra students. Next summer will mark Music Laboratory’s third year.
“It’s truly the highlight of our career as musicians,” Kalifa said. “We split the kids up into different bands, and the objective is to come up with a song by the end of the week. Over that week, we encourage them to be as bold and creative and collaborative as possible.”
The Davis Live Music Collective, who will be presenting the show, is a nonprofit organization founded in 2011. Run by volunteers, the collective focuses on expanding the live music scene in Davis.
“It’s a great model to encourage bands to stop in between Portland and San Francisco,” said Danny Tomasello, member of DLMC and director of the Davis Music Festival. “It’s got a house show feel in regular venues. We put on four shows a year, one of those being the Davis Music Festival.”
The Davis Music Festival will be held on June 21. Few details have been released as of yet, but many new ideas are in the works for the festival’s fourth year.
“We’re scaling back from last year, we’re shooting for around 40 bands,” said Sara Eley, Davis Music Festival’s second-in-command. “We will still be doing the typical downtown Davis takeover, just like in past years. Something new we’re going to do this year is a Friday Night Kickoff Show series, and on Sunday we’ll be doing a hangover brunch at Delta of Venus.”
DLMC have presented many other independent artists, including Richard Buckner and Elephant Revival.
“I’ve seen a lot of shows,” Eley said. “Mother Falcon has such an impressive presence and sound. It’s really beautiful and overwhelming, at times.”
The concert is open to all ages. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Advance tickets are $12.50 and can be purchased at Armadillo Music or online at davislivemusic.com. Admission is $15 at the door.
