Rae Spoon with WARES

Award-winning non-binary musician, author, and hometown hero Rae Spoon returns to Calgary with a new record.

About Rae Spoon:
Mental Health, is Rae Spoon’s tenth full-length album and is being released on their label Coax Records. The album traces their personal journey with mental health through eight indie-rock songs that explore living with depression, anxiety, CPTSD and other challenges. Giving a voice to a perspective not as often heard in the media, the songs are a rumination on pursuing health without the pressure of being cured and the duality of trying to survive trauma and accept oneself at the same time.

Rae Spoon has been open through their writing and the NFB documentary, My Prairie Home, about growing up with a parent who had a, often untreated, mental illness in an unsafe home and the childhood abuse they experienced. The songs play like a follow up to that writing, being about the adult experience of being a survivor. Rae explores living as a trans/non-binary person in communities that experiences oppression and thus has higher incidence of mental health issues and suicide. Being part of these communities means losing friends to suicide more often and supporting each other through unspeakable conditions at times. Rae asks hard questions about how to cope with mental pain, to support friends and to live with trauma in late capitalism.

The album was recorded and co-produced by Jordon Koop at the Noise Floor on Gabriola Island. Rae was joined by the Pack AD’s Maya Miller on the drums and Becky Black on guitar and vocals. Rae’s ever-present electronic elements make an appearance through drum sequences and analog synthesizers and their band was made up of all-female/non-binary musicians. The result is the kind of infectious melodies and intricate pop music that Rae has become known for.

About Wares:
Wares is a musical project engineered by Edmonton musician Cassia Hardy. From teeth rattling electric convulsions to barely-there, reverb-drenched refrains, the musical inflections explored by Wares are as varied as they are enthralling.

Show Disclaimer:
This is the earlier of multiple shows we’re presenting on this date. The next show is scheduled to begin at 10:00 pm. When this show is over, we ask that you please make room for fellow ticket-holding live music lovers. Tickets for the second show can be purchased online or at the door (subject to availability).

Seating Disclaimer:
To accommodate as many live music fans as possible, we offer both seats and standing room at our shows. Seats are first come, first serve. We recommend arriving early if you’d like to be seated during the performance.

Sound production equipment for the King Eddy is provided by PK Sound and Yamaha.