Awesome (band)

"Awesome" were a band from Seattle, self-described as "Part band, part art collective."[1] Although they rejected the "rock band" label, Lane Czaplinski, artistic director of On the Boards remarked, "If they are not rock musicians, there is rock payoff."[2] Czaplinski has compared them to Polyphonic Spree

"Awesome" began as a cabaret act thrown together by seven experienced fringe theater actors. Although they continued to perform in theatrical venues, their identity as a band and cabaret act eclipsed their status as actors.[3] Around October 2003, several future members of "Awesome" played together in a They Might Be Giants tribute to raise money for Seattle's Open Circle Theater.[4] Their very first performance under the name "Awesome" (with just Ackermann, Mosher, Nixon, and Osebold) was in Seattle at Annex Theater's monthly cabaret "Spin the Bottle" On February 6, 2004,[2] and their first full-septet performance as "Awesome" was in the Jewelbox theater at Belltown bar the Rendezvous on June 30, 2004.[4] Brendan Kiley of Seattle weekly The Stranger described that performance over a decade later and how a "privately-skeptical-but-here-to-be-supportive" audience were soon in "a state of shock" from how good the songs were, "sophisticatedly crisp and architectural while staying warm and invitingly poppy."[5]

Their first major production was Delaware (first a multi-media stage production and later an album).[3] Gigs as a band included performing on bills with Harvey Danger,[4][6] A. C. Newman,[4] U.S.E.,[4] The Presidents of the United States of America,[6] and The Long Winters.[6] They also performed at the Sasquatch! Music Festival,[5] and did a large-scale 2010 production West at On the Boards.[5]

Band member David Nixon is a philosophy professor at the University of Washington, Bothell.[6] Band member Rob Pro (accordion, clarinet) is a composer and sound designer for theater productions. Band member John Osebold, who wrote most of the band's songs, won of a 2011 Stranger Genius Award.[5]

Many of the group's theatrical pieces are non-narrative or have only minimal, non-linear narratives. For example, No Signal (2006) was described by Seattle Times reviewer Brangien Davis as "addressing, among other topics, technical difficulties, recurring dreams, cell death, regeneration and bees."[7]