MEET THE BAND

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B1g T1me is a Tom Waits tribute act that goes way beyond just playing the songs. They invite you to STEP RIGHT UP!

Tom Waits is one of the most critically acclaimed songwriters and musical stylists of the last four decades whose music career continues today. His persona include a Southern California troubadour (Closing Time 1973), a lonely nightclub veteran (Nighthawks at the Diner, 1975), a Kerouac inspired beatnik ragamuffin (Small Change, 1976) an otherworldly circus ringmaster (Swordfishtrombones, 1983), a steam-punk nightmare weaver (Bone Machine, 1992) a sage soothsayer (Mule Variations 1999) and a fiery machine beat-boxer (Real Gone, 2004). Who knows where his artistic odyssey will take him next?

B1g T1me integrates all of these sideshows into one authentic, whiskey-stinking, growly-howly main-event, including selections spanning the Waits catalogue. Accompanied by sparse mood-lighting of industrial work-lamps and strange, custom instruments such as the Galvan drum and Tankophone, B1g T1me can alter any space into a bourbon-soaked alley with music and ballads of misery and intrigue.

Comprised of Chicago's_ finest musicians, boasting an impressive pedigree in the local and national jazz and rock scenes, B1g T1me has been seducing audiences with their devout attention to every gritty detail of Tom Waits music, ceremony, and spectacle since spring of 2009. From cheap suits to smoky saxophone, squanky spidery guitar to the jazzbeaux verbal interludes of white-lies and tall-tales.

And why is B1g T1me spelled with the number 1 instead of an i?

Big Times' a rundown joint held together by rusty bolts, bailing wire and faded dreams. B1g T1me is it's now broken sign repaired in a burst of human ingenuity when the i's on the sign finally crashed to the earth. It's a metaphor for what the B1g T1me band is. They are not Tom Waits, but through their dedication to performance and interpretive creativity, they can deliver the next best way to skin the cat.

B1G T1ME performs as either a four, five or six piece project with the following musicians:

Zebulun Barnow: Vocals, Guitar, Keys, Tankophone

Neal Alger: Guitar

Jeff Freling: Guitar

Dan Kalnes: Upright Bass

John Tate: Upright Bass

Frank Catalano: Saxophone

Josh Bell: Saxophone

Edward Torrez: Accordion

Chris Anderson: Drums