Doors: 8:00pm
Show: 9:00pm

Ages: 18+ (note: there is a $5 surcharge for attendees under 21)

Tickets: $17 Advance / $20 Day of Show

* The presale period for this show has ended.  All remaining tickets will be available at the door

Pioneers in the use of cello as the sole instrument within a rock band, Rasputina has been inspiring young string players to commit a number of musical sins since 1996. The group’s concept was written as a manifesto, and manifested accordingly by directress Melora Creager as a wily subterfuge for a plot to open audiences to adventure. The funny, the sad, the heavy, the tender– it can all exist together.

Employing elaborate costuming spanning a number of historical periods, Rasputina brings marginalized historical female figures and stories to light in the pop form, using archetypal characters such as Indian princesses, Hawaiian handmaidens and Medieval queens.  Over the years, Rasputina has performed/recorded with Marilyn Manson, Porno For Pyros, Cheap Trick, Goo Goo Dolls, Les Claypool and many others.  Creager also played cello on the European leg of Nirvana’s final tour in 1994.  Hardened road-dogs, and with more than 7 albums under their belt, Rasputina continues to amaze and amuse audiences across the country.

MELORA CREAGER – voice, cello, banjo
Kansas born & raised, she moved to NYC in the 1980’s. Melora received classical music training as a child, but her performance career began with rock bands and East Village drag/performance artists.  She founded the alternative/ historical cello ensemble Rasputina in 1991 as a way to meet like-minded girls- girls that wanted to rock out on the cello and wear fine costumery.  The sound and visual concepts that began in Creager’s Rasputina manifestos presaged and influenced movements and trends such as Modern Victorians, Steampunk, freak-folk, corsetry, and crafting.  In 19 recordings, and countless public performances, Creager has led a 20 year exploration in cello amplification, recording, and performance.

LUIS MOJICA- piano, beat-boxing
Luis uses the piano to cast, wild narrative spells. His eyes are that of an androgynous monk with rainbow tentacles. Luis loops words, chants, and sounds through a loop pedal AKA beatboxing, ‘Beat-Boxing Baroque’. Luis brings his musical madness to Rasputina today.

CARPELLA PARVO- cello, voice
Cello-fingers in flight and with the voice of a bird, Carpella is from another country, but keeps it a secret which one. She played on Rasputina’s debut album, Thanks for the Ether (1996), then succumbed to the very condition from which she takes her name- carpal tunnel syndrome. Having healed over 20 years, Carpella jubilantly returns to Rasputina in the 21st century.

Band Website: www.facebook.com/OfficialRasputina

Ryder Cooley – Dark Carnival Dream Music

Ryder Cooley is an inter-disciplinary artist and founder of the dark carnival band Dust Bowl Faeries. Ryder performs with a 1940’s musette accordion, a singing saw and taxidermy ram named Hazel. Her eclectic repertoire of songs draw inspiration from circus, post-punk, Gypsy and Eastern European folk music. Weaving together chimeric songs with movement and projections, her work reveals a terrain of lost dreams and phantom memories. 

Ryder has collaborated and recorded with numerous bands from New York to California. In 2018 she released a remix EP produced by Floyd Fisher, and in 2016 she released the Dust Bowl Faeries album featuring Tommy Stinson (Replacements) & Melora Creager (Rasputina). 

Most recently, she has been collaborating with J.D. Urban and Thin Edge Films on a series of videos and multi-media projects.

Website: www.rydercooley.com