PORT TOWNSEND — Uncle Bonsai is not just one guy.
No, this is a threesome of singers and social commentators, and they’re headed to town for a cabaret-style concert Saturday night.
Key City Public Theatre and Port Townsend’s Toolshed Soundlab studio are the hosts of this Key City Cabaret Series show, a kind of house concert with more room at the Key City Playhouse, where listeners sit at cocktail tables instead of in theater seats.
Plays, stories
In the 8 p.m. performance, Uncle Bonsai — Arni Adler, Andrew Ratshin and Patrice O’Neill — will offer its take on life, love and society in tunes that are much like short plays or stories.
The band enjoys praise from places such as The New York Times, in which one critic wrote that their “funny, original songs, [with] exquisite musical detail and subtle needling wit, attain a level of craft not often seen in pop.”
Uncle Bonsai has been around, collaborating with a diverse range of artists including Bonnie Raitt, Suzanne Vega, Loudon Wainwright III, Tracy Chapman, They Might Be Giants, the Persuasions and the Bobs, according to a news release from Key City Public Theatre.
“The group has achieved an almost cult status,” noted an Associated Press writer, who added that their music is a mix of jazz, pop, reggae, classical and even Broadway show tunes.
Seats at Saturday’s concert are $20 via www.keycitypublictheatre.org and the playhouse box office, 360-385-KCPT (5278). Any remaining tickets will be sold at the door.
Following Uncle Bonsai, the Key City Cabaret Series will bring one more concert: Casey MacGill and Orville Johnson, a duo specializing in Hawaiian hapa-haole music, at 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11. Tickets for that are also $20 and available at the outlets given above.
