Arts & Features
3.28.2012 I The Blue Banner
Photo courtesty of Papadosio
Asheville-based electronic jam band played at a local venue, along with psychedelic pop act Sonmi.
Local band Papadosio headlines The Orange Peel
Emily Kendrick
ekendric@unca.edu - Staff Writer
Local band Papadosio played their first
headlining show at the Orange Peel last
: Saturday as a part of their Awake Inside
tour.
“This is definitely a sign of their rise in
the electronic music scene,” said Robb
McAdams, social media administrator
for The Orange Peel. “They just played
a show during the wintertime at Asheville
Music Hall across town, and I believe it
was a sold out show. I think they’re trying
to take the next step here, opening it up to
even more fans this time.”
Papadosio played their first show in April
2006. The band has since released several
albums and toured in many parts of the
United States, said Anthony Thogmartin,
singer of Papadosio. He said the band is
expanding the tour to cities along the West
Coast, something they have not been able
to do before now.
“The things that are really important to
me are when our music can aid in some
sort of transformation or healing process,”
Thogmartin said. “It’s happened to me in
my life. I’ve been in pretty dark places and
music has kind of lifted me up and taken
me out of that place.”
All five members of Papadosio are origi
nally from Ohio but now, like Sonmi, call
Asheville their home base.
“1 find myself being really inspired by the
beauty of nature here and I think Asheville
is essentially located between all the places
we do really well in and it makes touring a
little bit easier,” Thogmartin said. “Touring
is never easy but it makes it easier.”
Both Papadosio and Sonmi merge live
instruments with electronic sounds. Papa
dosio gathers diverse influences and pro
duces unique and uncategorized music.
“We try to purposely defy being classi
fied. We listen to everything from electron
ic music to bluegrass or anything that we’re
feeling at the time,” Thogmartin said. “We
try to incorporate every aspect into a coher
ent new combination style.”
In addition to performing at many fes
tivals, Papadosio hosts their own festival
called Rootwire in Logan, Ohio. This will
be the third year for the festival.
“Rootwire is four days on purpose be
cause it’s more like an experience. It’s a
lot of ceremonial-type stuff, and we bring
in a lot of visionary artists,” Thogmartin
said. “We basically try to create an environ
ment where people can share in what it is to
make art, whatever that is. If it’s music, if
it’s visual or if it’s dance, we just try to in
spire people and bring them to that place.”
Sonmi accumulated quite a following
Local
Events
Wednesday
SBTRKT
9 p.m.
$20
The Orange Peel
Theatre UNCA:
"Tartuffe"
7:30 p.m.
$5 students/$ 10 public
Through March 31
Carol BelkTheatre
Friday
throughout their performances in the Ashe
ville area. They have been included on fes
tival lineups like Moogfest and Bele Chere.
“They’re solid musicians and solid
songwriters. We tend to find ourselves
playing with bands that don’t really write
songs, they just kind of write jams, but Son
mi writes songs and they have movement in
their songs and it moves us,” Thogmartin
said.
Improvements such as the incorporation
of visual artistry into Papadosio’s musical
performances by Jason Takahashi help wid
en the audience’s experience and grab their
full attention, Thogmartin said.
“We call it the Awake Inside tour because
we feel like that’s what these people are
purposely portraying; not being focused on
the outside world but being focused on the
work of the soul and it’s a beautiful thing,”
Thogmartin said.
Natalie Henson, junior sociology stu
dent at UNC Asheville, said she was glad
to see Papadosio getting recognition at The
Orange Peel along with Sonmi.
“Sonmi did a great job opening for Pa
padosio, and I can’t wait to see more of
them in the future,” Henson said. “I look
forward to seeing Papadosio get more at
tention because their music is so beautiful,
and I’d love to see more people exposed to
them.”
Naked Author Jam
7 p.m.
Free
Humanities Lecture Hall
The Mantras
9 p.m.
$10
The Grey Eagle
Zeds Dead
9 p.m.
$20
The Orange Peel
Saturday
Kovacs and
The Polar Bear
9 p.m.
$10
The Grey Eagle