Brigitte Calls Me Baby at the Raccoon Motel -- October 5.
Saturday, October 5, 7 p.m.
Raccoon Motel 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
Touring in support of their August release The Future Is Our Way Out that NME called "a debut album that seamlessly cherry-picks the best of bygone eras," the Chicago-based, five-piece ensemble Brigitte Calls Me Baby headlines an October 5 engagement at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the band also lauded by Spin magazine as a group whose "music offers a feast of multi-generational cultural cues."
As stated at AllMusic.com, "Recognizable by the passionate delivery of charismatic frontman Wes Leavins, Chicago's Brigitte Calls Me Baby find a sweet spot with a combination of romantic, '80s-inspired new wave and Elvis Presley-conjuring retro-rock. They made waves with 2023's Dave Cobb-produced This House Is Made of Corners, a debut EP that landed them on Dave Matthews' ATO label and which they expanded on their 11-song full-length debut, 2024's The Future Is Our Way Out.
"The Elvis comparison is no exaggeration: Leavins was cast as Presley in a touring production of the musical Million Dollar Quartet, and he worked on the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's 2022 biopic Elvis. Originally from Port Arthur, Texas, he grew up listening to his grandparents' Roy Orbison records and his parents' new wave LPs, including the Cars. His friends got him into contemporary acts like Radiohead and the Strokes, and he took up the guitar and started writing songs at age 13. Leavins was a senior in high school when he won the part of Elvis Presley in a touring production of Million Dollar Quartet, a jukebox musical based on the 1956 recording session at Sun Studios in Memphis involving Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Film director Baz Luhrmann saw a show from that tour and later cold-called Leavins to ask for help in re-creating Presley songs for his film about the King of Rock & Roll.
"In the meantime, Leavins had relocated to Chicago and formed Brigitte Calls Me Baby with guitarists Jack Fluegel and Trevor Lynch, bassist Devin Wessels, and drummer Jeremy Benshish. (The band was named for an actual exchange of letters between then-teenaged fan Leavins and actress Brigitte Bardot.) They were working on their first songs when their singer was called up to assist on the film. It was on the set of Elvis that Leavins met Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb (John Prine, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile) and shared some of his band's demos with him. Cobb gave Leavins some performance tips and ultimately produced sessions for the band at Nashville's famed RCA Studio A.
"The resulting debut EP, This House Is Made of Corners, was released on ATO Records in November 2023 and accompanied by plenty of buzz for their lush, soaring '80s sound along with its yearning, Elvis-like balladry. Brigitte Calls Me Baby performed on the U.S. morning show CBS Saturday the following February and they made their late-night TV debut in July with an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! In August 2024, ATO delivered the group's debut LP, which re-sequenced the five-track EP alongside six new songs."
Brigitte Calls Me Baby plays their Davenport headlining engagement on October 5 with an additional set by Emily How, admission to the 7 p.m. concert is $19.84, and tickets are available by visiting TheRaccoonMotel.com.
