Orcas-based Fian will play the Village Green on July 6

||| FROM BETHANY MARIE for ORCAS CENTER |||

Orcas-based Fian will be playing on the Village Green this Thursday, July 6 at 6pm as part of the FREE Summer Concert Series presented by Orcas Center, OrcaSong Farm, Country Corner, and The Outlook Inn.

Fian tends to create songs in linear structures that twist and convulse their way through multilayered lyrical narratives, varying time and key signatures, and musical styles. Fian deftly dodges the various generic manacles that get bandied about but if under duress, they might consent to repose beneath the wide umbrella of the term “progressive” without all the wizards and such.

King Crimson is a clear influence but they are also heavily influenced by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, MewithoutYou, The Mountain Goats, and Sondheim. Contemporarily, Fian shares sensibilities with those frustrating young upstarts Black Midi and have a flair for the dramatic, in kind with acts like Yamantaka//Sonic Titan and Boris. Their latest record, Notes from the Underground, was recorded mainly on Orcas Island including “Joy of the Morning” by Jake Perrine at the Orcas Center (also recently performed at ROTR What Dreams May Come?).

The record borrows extensively from existential philosophy and modernist literature. It is by no means exhaustive on any subject but a major throughline is the deleterious effects and existential implications of digitizing the human experience. We are all engaging to varying degrees in the wholesale commercialization of not only art, but our personal identities. Social media has given everyone a voice which seems, ostensibly, to be an empowering and wonderful thing. However, as we have all seen, this has given rise to a parity between tragedies and trivialities, truth and lies, art and memes. Fortunately for a rock band, live performance is the antithesis of this troubling virtual reality. Concerts are necessarily grounded in the sensory, inherently communal, and (hopefully) spiritually cathartic. Crush the banal, escape the expected, come hear Fian.

Orcas Center’s Summer Concert Series on the Village Green is FREE thanks to donations from local businesses and generous contributors during the Spring GiveOrcas Campaign. More information and full concert lineup can be found at www.OrcasCenter.org.