Back to All Events

West art welcomes Cuddle Magic & Tuck Ryan

  • West Art 800 Buchanan Avenue Lancaster, PA, 17603 United States (map)

Cuddle Magic is coming to Lancaster! This band does something totally their own — huddled together in the middle of the room while they weave pop, folk, and experimental sounds into something warm, strange, and beautiful. Their live show is full of surprises in the best way. Joining them will be none other than one and only Tuck Ryan, whose soulful voice and songwriting feel right at home in a room like this. Grab a friend and come hang out for an honest, soulful musical experience! Get your tickets HERE!

A special thanks to our friends at The Row House for helping to bring this show to life!

What to expect at the show:

>> Doors will open at 7, & the show will start at 7:30.

>> Tickets are $15 in advance, and $20 at the door if not sold out. As always, we’re proud to present an all-ages show with discounted tickets available for students. Get your tickets HERE!

>> If you haven't yet discovered the magic of the West Art Coffee⚡Bar, now's your chance! We're open from 7am-10pm daily, with a full and delicious espresson bar menu, along with a lovely selection of beer, wine, and cocktails, plenty of N/A options, and some tasty bites from our favorite local bakeries. Something for everyone, all day long! Come hang out before the show and experience it for yourself!

>> Parking may be available in the small lot across the street. Beyond that, there’s parking available around Buchanan Park and F&M College in the blocks surrounding West Art.

>> Seating: This will be a seated show with some standing room available if that's your preference. Our space is ADA accessible, and we will do our best to accommodate any specific needs.

>> Please note that all ticket sales are final. Thank you for supporting great music!

Get your tickets HERE!

BIO:

Cuddle Magic have been a band for a long time. That concept alone is a contrary one, because bands tend to be fleeting, real bands I mean, with the same anomalous combination of people every time that amounts to a greater sum, a hard-to-pin down easy-to-marvel at perfect storm of individuals interplaying. Cuddle Magic are that kind of band. Scheduling, time, finances, geographies, none of those threats have put a stop to Cuddle Magic. The beast continues to breathe, patiently, and it calmly roars another day with their new record Underwater.

In an intimate recording studio in Los Angeles, I sit in a packed room as Cuddle Magic plays their new songs for a willing crowd, the band clustered in the center of the room, puzzle piecing together, pump organ into bass clarinet, tiny synthesizer resting on organ, a single drum. Kristin Slipp sings. Ben Lazar Davis sings. Alec Spiegelman sings. Christopher MacDonald sings. Dave Flaherty sings. Beautifully. You're never sure what sound is going to come from who, the bass clarinet plays what a bass guitar would normally play, the pump organ drones what might normally be a string quartet, a willing suspension of disbelief dominoes throughout the room. Soon enough, the notion of "normal" is in the rearview, and we're quicksand in the hourglass of the band, chasing them from song to song, feeling to feeling, willing participants in Cuddle Magic's worldbuilding.

It's completely understandable if you read that and ask, yeah but what do they sound like? To which I'd reply, yeah, what do they sound like? There are dynamics, but it's never loud. There's sophistication and unpredictability in the harmony, but the music never tries to be too smart. The lyrics can be darkly funny, but you're allowed in on the joke. In that way, there's an inclusivity to Cuddle Magic's universe, superbly challenging by design but there's always a place for you at the table. Or, in their case, in the bathroom.

Yes, yes, let's get this out of the way, their newest album was recorded in a large, reverberant bathroom in Long Island, a sequel of sorts to their previous record which was recorded in the same bathroom. Jimi Hendrix had Electric Lady, the Band had Big Pink, Cuddle Magic have...this bathroom. If that's not a metaphor for the evolution of the music industry, I don't know what is, but, whatever the case may be, this space became the ideal location to pull all six members from the gravity of daily life and allow them to sink into a creative hyperflow with each other, and boy oh boy has it paid off. Everyone wrote together, piggybacking on each other's ideas and implementing limitations to maintain a productive writing process while everyone could be in the same room at the same time. Those ideas combined and magnified over the course of the session, in the same way that frequencies magnify as they reverberate off a tile floor, and we're left with a visceral capture of a moment in time, as all great records are.

Previous
Previous
July 27

Community Yoga

Next
Next
July 29

Kindermusik class!