Name: Casey Neill & The Norway Rats w/ Kaia Wilson at Polaris Hall
Start: 2025-03-07T20:00:00-08:00
Location: Polaris Hall

$Casey Neill & The Norway Rats w\/ Kaia Wilson at Polaris Hall$

TICKETS: 🎟 truewest.info/Neill2025
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This Event is 21+
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Sending Up Flares, the fourth record from Casey Neill & The Norway Rats, is the sound of a band rallying together, turning the genre-bending range of its influences into the group’s most cohesive, cathartic album yet. Created amidst chaos and uncertainty, these songs offer a lifeline to a world in need of balance, shot through with stories about resolve, resilience, wonder, and positive human interaction.

With Sending Up Flares, Casey Neill & The Norway Rats don’t just make themselves seen; they make themselves heard, too. Each of the band’s previous albums explored the evolving range of Neill’s musical interests, from the dreamy Americana songs that filled 2010’s Goodbye to the Rank and File to the electronic textures that peppered 2018’s Subterrene (whose critically- acclaimed songs received praise from Rolling Stone and No Depression). Here, the Portland- based supergroup finds room for everything, turning a wealth of musical influences — including folk, punk, art-rock, atmospheric soundscapes, guitar freak-outs, and string arrangements — into something singular. “I love exploring all of the music I love,” says Neill, who even nods to artistic role models like David Bowie, author Ursula K. Le Guin, and filmmaker Wim Wenders in the song “Meteor Shower.” “Sending Up Flares feels like we’ve reached a point where the band has settled into a natural, nuanced place”, he adds. “This is who we are. It’s what we do.”

The Norway Rats are a band of Pacific Northwest heavy hitters with a longtime roster that includes accordionist/keyboardist Jenny Conlee of The Decemberists, bassist Jesse Emerson of Amelia, and Neill (who, in addition to releasing solo material, often moonlights as a member of The Minus 5). Sending Up Flares also features guest appearances from a number of indie icons. Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker contributes vocal harmonies to the jittery “Jumping Out Of My Skin,” while Slang’s Anita Lee Elliott adds some George Harrison-influenced slide guitar riffs to the song’s arrangement. Scott McCaughey and R.E.M.’s Peter Buck — both of whom perform alongside Neill in The Minus 5 — appear on “The Stars Unseen,” which features McCaughey’s free-time percussion and Buck’s ghostly E-bow guitar lines. On an album filled with musical all- stars, though, it’s Casey Neill & The Norway Rats who shine the brightest. They’ve established their own musical mix — a melting pot of synthesized textures, organic instruments, and sharp songwriting — and they’ve never sounded so resolute.