The Messina Group Presents: Neko Case with Deer Tick

Doors 7pm • Show 8pm

The Messina Group Presents

Neko Case
with Deer Tick

Doors 7pm • Show 8pm







Neko Case
Similar Artists: Neko Case and Her Boyfriends | Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins | Gillian Welch | Jenny Lewis | Lucinda Williams


Alternative country singer/songwriter Neko Case won a steadily growing cult audience for her smoky, sophisticated vocals and the downcast beauty of her music. Born in Alexandria, VA, Case moved around often as a child, spending the largest part of her youth in Tacoma, WA. She left her parents at age 15, and three years later she started playing drums for several bands around the Northwest's punk rock scene. In 1994, she moved to Vancouver to enter art school, and simultaneously joined the punk group Maow, who released a record on the Mint label. She also played with roots rockers The Weasles, and eventually formed her own backing band, the Boyfriends, which initially featured alumni of The Softies, Zumpano, and Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet. Case released her solo debut, The Virginian, in 1997, delving wholeheartedly into traditional country via a mix of covers and originals. She went on to perform with Carolyn Mark in the old-timey side project The Corn Sisters, and recorded with the Vancouver indie supergroup The New Pornographers. In 1998, Case completed her studies, and with her student visa expired, she returned to Washington and began work on her second solo album. The lovely, melancholy Furnace Room Lullaby was released on Bloodshot Records in 2000 and won high praise from most critics. Case subsequently relocated to Chicago, home of a thriving alt-country scene, and released the home-recorded Canadian Amp EP in 2001. Its moody, late-night ambiance carried over to 2002's Blacklisted, a darker yet more eclectic affair; it garnered Case her strongest reviews up to that point, making many year-end critics' polls, and landed her a tour slot opening for Nick Cave. In 2004, Case signed with Anti Records in the United States, and that year she released a live album, The Tigers Have Spoken, recorded during several dates with Canadian surf-country band The Sadies. Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, hailed by critics as an instant classic and Case's most realized work yet, followed in 2006. Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino contributed guitar, cello, bass, and drums to the album. On March 3, 2009, Case released Middle Cyclone. It was her first album to reach the top ten's on the Billboard charts in the US. Case now lives in Tucson, Arizona.



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Deer Tick
Similar Artists: The Tallest Man on Earth | The Felice Brothers | Phosphorescent | Langhorne Slim | A.A. Bondy


Deer Tick is a self described rock n' roll band originally from Providence, Rhode Island, United States. The band is John Joseph McCauley III, Andrew Grant Tobiassen, Christopher Dale Ryan, and Dennis Michael Ryan. The band began in December of 2004 as a drums and guitar duo. Within a few years the band developed into a quartet featuring two guitars, bass and drums, with three members singing and writing, and one writing string arrangements.Feeling that monikers were stupid, McCauley imagined that he was in a band and that he should be thinking about band names instead. The town was Bloomington, Indiana. It was the summer of '05. McCauley was now 19. McCauley and Massei went hiking around a state park where McCauley got a deer tick on his head. McCauley discovered the pesky arachnid on his scalp late that evening and, drunk, began freaking out. McCauley grew up in the city, but had taken numerous camping and fishing trips with his pops in areas of the northeast that are notorious for ticks. Still, he never got one until now. The name Deer Tick came to mind once McCauley calmed down and realized that this was really no big deal. From that day forward McCauley was now in a band called Deer Tick, he just had to find his band mates. Playing with several incarnations over the years with help from all sorts of talent (Dirty Projectors drummer Brian McOmber, New Hampshire bassist and songwriter Nat Baldwin, Spencer Kingman of Spenking), McCauley found himself in love with the stylings of Pawtucket, Rhode Island drummer Dennis Michael Ryan. Ryan had played drums in many local bands that McCauley liked. It was May of '07, and seeing that Ryan was not doing much with his time, McCauley asked him to join his imaginary band Deer Tick to help bring his dreams to life. Ryan agreed, and to McCauley's surprise, this Ryan kid was a damn good singer and harmonist. In the past, Deer Tick had featured Dennis' half-brother, Providence native, Christopher Dale Ryan (who will be referred to as C.R.), on bass, and the two wondered if they could rope him in full time. C.R. was one of the few guys around town with an upright bass, he was a hell of a player, and he played left handed, which looks cool. Arrangements were made to jam once C.R. returned from his VW Van adventure to Costa Rica and back (though legend has it that he only made it as far as Guatemala). McCauley was looking for a guitar player to add to the band. C.R.'s new roommate, Florida-born Andrew Grant Tobiassen, played it pretty well and McCauley was curious to see if he could make the cut. The two spent many sleepless nights together playing guitar and working on songs. Like Ryan, McCauley was also thrilled by his singing abilities. McCauley made up his mind and hired Tobiassen just days before Deer Tick was scheduled to start a new recording session. In September, just before the press were starting to talk about the rerelease (which caught 'em all by surprise with shocking new cover art), Deer Tick entered Yellow House Studios in Baltimore, Maryland. So in January '09, with Born on Flag Day bearing a TBA 2009 release date, the band released a cover of the Paul Simon song "Still Crazy After All These Years" over the internet. This little gem, from their latest recording session, was released to keep the fans at ease while Born on Flag Day is given "the treatment". So now, with two records pretty much ready to go, 2009 is shaping up to be what one might call "The Year of the Deer Tick". In 2009 Deer Tick will attack the music industry twice with two dope-ass records, finally as a quartet - the way John Joseph McCauley III envisioned it long before War Elephant. - Cecil Thyme, New York City, January 2009