- Be afraid. Be very afraid
Breathe Owl Breathe got their start in 2004, when Oberlin College freshman Andréa Moreano-Beals was on tour with another band. She met singer and guitarist Micah Middaugh, and it wasn’t long before Moreano-Beals was adding her classically trained cello to Middaugh’s warm folk songs. A few years later, percussionist Trevor Hobbs joined the duo. The trio lives together in a Michigan cabin they call Magic Central, a place where they can blur life, work, and art on a daily basis. Their home lends its name to Breathe Owl Breathe’s latest album. Tracks like “Dragon,” “Parrots in the Tropical Trees,” and “Swimming” evoke perfect summer days with childlike grace, all guided by Middaugh’s playful, singsong voice. But there are moments on Magic Central where the mood gets a little dark. “Icy Cave Dancers” tells a sad story of lost love in the city over an insistent beat by Hobbs. And “Across the Loch” features a noticeably gloomy undercurrent of atonal guitar and foreboding percussion. In their woodland habitat, the dichotomy between lovely, lazy summers and harsh, trying winters can be startling. But Breathe Owl Breathe sure know how to make it sound like home. Breathe Owl Breathe play the Beachland Tavern at 8:30 p.m. Tickets: $8. —Chris Drabick
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