MARK LANEGAN with special guest MARK PICKEREL

Wednesday, May 2 – OFS presents

An evening with MARK LANEGAN
with special guest Mark Pickerel
6:00pm doors / 7:00pm show
$25 General Admission / $20 OFS Members + service fees
Online Tickets available now!

With a voice that Pitchfork has called “as scratchy as a three-day beard yet as supple and pliable as moccasin leather,” former Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age vocalist Mark Lanegan draws frequent comparisons to masters like Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen. Lanegan’s voice is one of the most distinct and recognizable in rock, but his talents aren’t limited to his vocal skills. Lanegan’s lyrics are on par with the best of them, exploring with Blake-like insight the stark and scorched emotional terrain that exists somewhere beyond sadness, addiction, trauma, and spiritual longing. With a body of work that now includes seven albums with the Screaming Trees, eleven acclaimed solo albums, three albums of duets with Belle and Sebastian’s Isobel Campbell (including the Mercury Prize-shortlisted Ballad of the Broken Seas), and collaborative albums and singles with the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, Moby, Soulsavers, Twilight Singers, and countless others, Mark Lanegan occupies a singular space in rock music.

“Mark Lanegan’s body of work is one of the most significant, impressive, and criminally underappreciated accomplishments in the history of modern songwriting. His darkly beautiful lyrics are thrilling to hear and thrilling to read. The lyrics are interspersed by sharply drawn and at times morbidly funny prose accounts of the context and circumstances surrounding the writing, tantalizing peeks at a long, hard road. Buy the records. Listen to the music.”–Anthony Bourdain, author of Appetites and Kitchen Confidential

MARK PICKEREL

From the wild and wooly and weird Pacific Northwest, Mark Pickerel has quite the backstory. He was the drummer in seminal grunge faves The Screaming Trees and has played on albums with Mark Lanegan, Brandi Carlile, Neko Case and some band from Aberdeen named … er … um … Nirvana or something like that. He even owned the most culturally and musically diverse record store in Eastern Washington. Independent retail, now THAT’S a character builder.

“Whoa Nelly,” you’re saying to yourself, “a drummer becoming a front man? Is that such a good idea?” Sure, the track record ain’t good; Don Henley, Dave Grohl, Mickey Dolenz, Phil Collins, RINGO STARR. That Peter Criss shit was pretty bad too, the ironic value of “Beth” notwithstanding. It’s a serious stigma to overcome.

Mark’s got the goods, though. He was born to be in front. With his rakish good looks and his tendency to spend more than $3 on haircuts, he quickly endeared himself to the ladies of the office. His voice, alluring and just a little bit sinister, evinces his influences ranging from Leonard Cohen, Lee Hazlewood, the Gun Club, the Stranglers and Nick Cave.  – Bloodshot Records

Pickerel’s vocals carry a Chris Isaak/Lee Hazelwood bottom end to them, or perhaps it would be safer to say he sounds like Roy Orbison on sedatives. It’s Americana, for sure, but via David Lynch. If Blue Velvet were set in a Bakersville dance hall, it would sound like this. — Seattle Weekly