Event

Uncle Bonsai: Live in Spokane

"Uncle Bonsai, a folk-pop trio from Seattle, performs funny original songs
whose exquisite musical detail and subtle needling wit attain a level of craft
not often seen in pop."
- The New York Times

Seattle super-harmonizers UNCLE BONSAI are the Tim Burtons of folk music dark and hilarious, but with moments of great insight and beauty. With three strong voices and a guitar, Bonsai presents an often dizzying vocal relay of intricateharmony. The trio aligns itself with the underachiever, the dejected, the outsider. Their densely-packed lyrics fly by in a whirr at times, and take a skewed stance on topics such as first-world problems, jobs for America, the creation of the universe, the afterlife, and, whoa!, holidays with family. A little like Stephen Sondheim linking arms with Tom Lehrer with harmonies by the Beatles. Or like Zappa in therapy with Peter, Paul and Mary.

With their soaring vocal harmonies and biting humor the trio delivers poignantly unflinching portrayals of life, love, and self-inflicted loss, with songs that focus on the passing of time, the passing of genes, and the passing of pets -- the truth of everything seemingly buried somewhere under the family tree.

"Singers Ratshin, O'Neill and Arni Adler are pitch-perfect in their delivery of
often complex harmonic arrangements. And if there were an Ella Fitzgerald
Award for Exquisite Elocution in Song, they would surely get it. The trio
officially bills itself as a "folk" outfit, but has none of the naiveté that label
might suggest. These are nicely edgy, sour-sweet songs, written for grown-ups."
- The Seattle Times