It’s Curtains for MarsupiaL
Asheville progressive rock band returns to Murphy’s Friday

By Jeff Eason

MarsupiaL, an Asheville band with Boone roots, will perform at Murphy’s Friday. The band just released its third studio album, Curtains.

Western North Carolina has a lot of musical traditions in the bluegrass, gospel and country music. Progressive rock, however, is not the first style that comes to mind when telling your friends about the music scenes in Boone and Asheville.

One of the nation’s brightest stars in the prog-rock scene, MarsupiaL, calls both Boone and Asheville home. The band had its beginnings when several of the members were students at Appalachian State University. The band relocated to Asheville several years ago and has become one of the most popular rock acts in western North Carolina.

MarsupiaL will return to Boone for a show at Murphy’s Restaurant and Pub on Friday, May 23rd at 10:30 p.m. Admission is $5 per person.

In addition to making a name for itself through powerful live shows, MarsupiaL is quickly earning a reputation as one of the most thoughtful recording artists in the prog-rock field, earning comparisons to national acts such as Umphrey’s McGee.

The band features Ian Reardon on guitar and vocals, Forrest Smith on guitar, Brad Mehder on bass and Chris Carter on drums and vocals. The foursome display an intuitive ability to shift gears from performing complex compositions to enter into innovative improvisational passages.

MarsupiaL’s latest album is the sprawling disc, Curtains. It alternately varies from Zappa-esque instrumental tracks to emotional prog-rock, a la Pink Floyd.

The title track to Curtains starts off with the same slow dislocated alienation that made the band’s previous album, Moby Fleck, an introspective favorite. With plaintive vocals and a minor-chord guitar motif, “Curtains” builds into a shimmering prog-rock anthem.

Curtains, the band’s third full-length studio release, has quickly become a favorite on WNCW’s Arc Overnight program. This follows the success of Moby Fleck at the station, an album that landed in the top 20 regional albums for the year 2006.

Find out Friday why MarsupiaL has “created a buzz around the Southeast with an eclectic vision that melds an improv-heavy mix of jazz-rcok and progressive rock with superior melodic content.”

For more information on Friday’s show, call Murphy’s at (828) 264-5117.