This Sunday, Michigan-based noise trio Wolf Eyes will be playing at the Owl in celebration of the late-night watering hole’s two-year anniversary. This show is part of a live music series that’s been going on at the bar since the winter, and has grown exceptionally since its first few shows, which featured mainly local garage acts. In June the bar booked its first big-time event: a “secret show” of sorts with legendary electronic-psych group Silver Apples. Word on the show was spread by passing along plastic apples, painted silver and stenciled with a small black owl. They’ve advertised for Sunday’s show in a similarly oddbal way: Gossip Wolf columnist J.R. Nelson found out about it when he was handed an envelope full of black glitter and an actual wolf’s tooth, engraved with the Roman numeral II in honor of the bar’s birthday.
Wolf Eyes have been on the road a lot in support of their most recent effort, April’s No Answer: Lower Floors. Perhaps their most notable appearance was a headlining set at this year’s anti-Pitchfork party, Rotted Tooth Fest. No Answer finds the band diverging from their harsh-noise past and creating controlled, heady industrial rock.
Also marking the Owl’s transition from 4 AM regret station to a music venue is its just-installed cassette-tape vending machine, which sells releases from the bar’s in-house label, Parliament Tapes. The bar hires local engineer Mike Lust to come in and record most live sets they host, which they then turn into short-run tapes of the shows that you can buy for five bucks each out of the machine by the front door.
The show starts at 10 PM and is free. The Owl is actually a great place to see a band. It’s got an awesome-sounding, comfortable room, and so far the bookings have been solid. If you prefer it more as a meat market than a rock venue, don’t worry: that vibe comes back once the bands wrap up.