Saturday, April 8th • 7 pm
When Enumclaw singer and guitarist Aramis Johnson tweeted, “Enumclaw is going to be the biggest band in the world and were going to change music. there i said it pls no more questions!” in February 2021, the Tacoma band had only released a couple of singles. This exuberant manifesting came shortly after KEXP music writer Martin Douglas’ write-up of their video for “Fast N All.” It wasn’t long before music pubs were boarding the excitement train, garnering the newly formed quartet—rounding out the band is guitarist Nathan Cornell, drummer Ladaniel Gipson, and bassist (as well as Johnson’s younger brother) Eli Edwards—a “band to watch” interview in Stereogum.
A decidedly PNW band with its name following in the grand tradition of using local geographic nomenclature like Green River, Sleater-Kinney, and Soundgarden, Enumclaw lands more on the emo side like early to mid-aughts acts Built to Spill and Sunny Day Real Estate. Johnson’s vocal style buries his background coming up in the Tacoma hip hop scene and is more reminiscent of Jawbreaker singer Blake Schwarzenbach. “Free Drop Billy” on their Jimbo Demo EP signals a shrugging off of the Gen X aesthetic with its chorus of “I don’t want to be a loser,” the antithesis of slackerdom.
In short order, they’ve played SXSW, signed with boutique label Luminelle Recordings, and are heading out for a European tour after their Seattle show. Hopefully this early acclaim gasses them up instead of paralyzing them with music industry expectations as they continue the grunt work of becoming “The Best Band Since Oasis.”
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