w/ Elias Hix | 8:00pm | 1200 S. 7th St. | All ages | $20 advance, $25 day of show
Rock n’ roll is a great medium to explore heartbreak, sure, but the genre is often at its best when it’s telling stories of strivers, people who are stuck in a rut and yearn for a better life and even if they’ll never get there, sometimes just dreaming of it is enough.
You can feel that ancestral line in every note of Waving from a Sea, the latest album from Michigan Rattlers, tracing its musical lineage from Springsteen’s Born to Run through ‘80s anthems like Marc Cohn’s “Walking in Memphis” or Bruce Hornsby’s “The Way It Is” to Sam’s Town-era Killers to Idlewild’s Post Electric Blues to Gang of Youths. The quartet comes by their striving naturally: they hail from tiny Petoskey, Michigan (population: 5,877) near the tip-top of “the mitten,” where they formed the band while still in high school. Yet over three albums, they’ve evolved arena-sized sonic ambitions: Graham Young’s guitars and Adam Reed’s bass give the songs of Waving from the Sea stadium-filling heft, Tony Audia’s drums give them a hypnotic War on Drugs-esque groove, and Christian Wilder’s twinkling keyboards give the whole thing an E Street sheen. Young’s voice is particularly worth highlighting, a deep, sonorous instrument that strongly reminds me of David Le’aupepe of the aforementioned Gang of Youths—the kind of warm, enveloping croon that could sing the phonebook and still grab your attention.
Which is all to say that if there’s any justice in the world, Michigan Rattlers will have the kind of big future they yearn for in song. Catch them at the intimate confines of the Old Rock House while you still can. | Jason Green
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit oldrockhousestl.com
Michigan Rattlers on tour:
03.12.25 – Kansas City, MO – Encore at Uptown Theatre
03.13.25 – St Louis, MO – Old Rock House
03.27.25 – Lexington, KY – The Burl
03.28.25 – Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme
03.29.25 – Ann Arbor, MI – Blind Pig
04.08.25 – Hamden, CT – Space Ballroom
04.10.25 – New York, NY – DROM
04.11.25 – Philadelphia, PA – Milkboy
04.12.25 – Washington DC – Pearl Street
04.13.25 – Raleigh, NC – Kings
04.15.25 – Greenville, SC – Radio Room
04.17.25 – Atlanta, GA – Center Stage – Vinyl Room
04.18.25 – Orlando, FL – Tuffy’s Music Box
04.19.25 – Tampa, FL – Skipper’s Smokehouse
04.21.25 – New Orleans, LA – Chickie Wah Wah
04.24.25 – Memphis, TN – Minglewood Hall – 1884 Lounge
04.25.25 – Birmingham, AL – Saturn
04.26.25 – Nashville, TN – Cannery Hall
04.27.25 – Louisville, KY – Zanzabar
04.29.25 – Pittsburgh, PA – The Crafthouse
04.30.25 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
05.01.25 – Buffalo, NY – Rec Room
05.02.25 – Syracuse, NY – Funk N Waffles
05.04.25 – Boston, MA – The Sinclair
05.06.25 – Portland, ME – Portland House of Music
05.07.25 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
05.08.25 – Montreal, QC – Le Belmont
05.09.25 – Toronto, ON – Horseshoe Tavern
05.16.25 – Detroit, MI – Saint Andrews Hall
