Friday To-Do: David Bazan
DAVID BAZAN 9:30 p.m., Sticky Fingerz. $8 adv./$10 d.o.s.
Davad Bazan tours hard. Like 50-dates-between-now-and-December hard. The hirsute singer/songwriter started out a dozen years ago in the Seattle indie-rock outfit Pedro the Lion. The son of a pastor, Bazan didn’t even hear secular music until he was well into his adolescence. That religious background often manifested itself in Bazan’s highly personal songwriting, where he was able to unabashedly delve into spiritual issues. But it’s his work with narrative, with characters trapped deep in the ennui of the alienated, that’s garnered Bazan a passionate following. Now, with the Pedro the Lion moniker retired (it was largely a one-man project), Bazan continues with his acerbic songwriting, with biting songs about drunken hazes and backwoods xenophobia, on his solo EP debut. He’s got a strong, loping voice that always manages to penetrate the din of bleating keyboards, guitars and steady drums. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (mercifully abbreviated to CFTPA by its fans) is another solo performer — Owen Ashworth — masquerading as a band. He specializes in atmospheric keyboard jams that are wry but earnest.
