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Please view our most up-to-date COVID-19 guidelines before entering the show: http://www.tractortavern.com/tractor-covid-guidelines Breaking the Balls of History is Quasis tenth record, landing ten years after their last record, on February tenth. Three tens, which aligns with the thirty years theyve played together. Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss have become Pacific Northwest icons, and Quasi has always felt so steadfast their enduring friendship so generative, their energy infinite, each album more raucous and catchy and ferocious and funny than the last. But we were wrong to ever take Quasi for granted. For a while, they thought 2013s intricate Mole City might be their last record. Theyd go out on a great one and move on.Then in August 2019 a car smashed into Janets and broke both legs and her collarbone. Then a deadly virus collided with all of us, and no one knew when or if live music as we knew itthe touring, the communal crowds, the sonic church of the dark clubwould ever happen again. Theres no investing in the future anymore, Janet realized. The future is now. Do it now if you want to do it. Dont put it off. All those things you only realize when its almost too late. It could be gone in a second.Under lockdown, Portlands streets fell still, airplanes vanished, wildlife emerged. And with the obliterated normal came an unexpected gift: uninterrupted time, hours every day, to make art. Quasi couldnt go on the road, so they got an idea: they would act as if they were on tour and play together every single day. Each afternoon, Sam and Janet bunkered down in their tiny practice space and channeled the bewilderment and absurdity of this alien new world into songs. Janets strength returned and rose to athlete-level stamina. When youre younger and in a band, you make records because thats what you do, Sam said. But this time, the whole thing felt purposeful in a way that was unique to the circumstances. They knew they would keep it to just the two of them playing together in a room. They knew theyd record the songs live and together, to capture a moment.The incredible result of those sessions is Breaking the Balls of History, recorded in five days and produced by John Goodmanson at the legendary Robert Lang Studios in Shoreline, WA. Here are two artists at their prime, each a human library of musical knowledge and experience, entirely distinctive in their songcraft and sound. In Quasi-form, the band becomes alchemically even greater than the sum of its parts: Janets galloping drums and Sams punk-symphonic Rocksichord and their intertwining vocals make something gigantic, anthemic. In the thick of acataclysmic social and political moment, theyve crafted exquisitely melodic songs that glitter with rage and wild humor and intelligence, driven by a big bruised pounding heart.
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