THE MICROPHONES w/ RAGANA

Sunday, February 27, 2022
OFS presents
THE MICROPHONES
RAGANA
7:00pm doors / 8:00pm show
$20 General Admission / $15 OFS member

I used to call my recordings a different name. A small clump of albums from 1997-2002 were called “the Microphones,” including some popular ones. But the essence of this project has never really changed: me exploring autobiographically in sound and words with occasional loose participation from friends. The name it has been called has never mattered much to me.

In the summer of 2019 I played a little local concert under the old name for no big reason. The little flurry of weird attention around this announcement got me thinking about what it even means to step back into an old mode. Self commemoration would be embarrassing. I don’t want to go backwards ever. There is nothing to reunite. So I nudged into the future with these ideas and came up with this large song. It took almost a year to write and record, working constantly at home, digging through the archives, playing the same two chords forever on the same $5 first guitar. In it I have tried to get at the heart of what defined that time in my life, my late teens and early twenties, but even more importantly, I tried to break the spell of nostalgia and make something perennial and enduring. All past selves existing at once in this inferno present moment. The song doesn’t seem to end. That’s the point.

We all crash through life prodded and diverted by our memories. There is a way through to disentanglement. Burn your old notebooks and jump through the smoke. Use the ashes to make a new thing.

– Phil Elverum
May 20th, 2020

Upon entry, all patrons must be 5+ and show proof of full vaccination (card or photo/screenshot of card) with matching ID before entry. Fully vaccinated means 14 days or more after your second dose. No exceptions.

OFS is not accepting proof of negative testing at this time.

Patrons must wear masks at all times. A Thurston County directive effective Friday, August 13, 2021, requires mask-wearing while indoors even if you are vaccinated.

For more information, please see our operations announcement.