The Brewery Arts Center’s Celtic Series continues with more familiar faces. Musicians Marla Fibish and Bruce Victor return form Marin County, Calif., and they added a third member to their band to bring TrèsNoctambule to Carson City on Saturday, Feb. 16.
“We’ve always loved coming to Carson City, and we’re very grateful Joe and Kathy invited us again,” said Victor referring to organizers Joe and Kathy Bly.
Fibish and Victor last performed at the Celtic Series in March 2017 as Noctambule. Since then, they added fiddle player Suzuki Cady to become a trio. Fibish said it allows for a three-part harmony and allows them to layer the music.
“It gives us more instrumental flexibility,” Fibish said. “It’s interesting how three gives you much more options.”
“(A third member) helps in that it produces a melody but also gives you some texture,” Victor said.
Fibish and Victor both say the atmosphere was very inviting the last time playing in Carson City, and they especially enjoy playing in the theater, and credit the Blys for creating a comfortable setting to play in.
“It’s always a treat to play there,” Fibish said. “Joe and Kathy know how to set up the stage to make it feel like an intimate living room in someone’s home — lamps, chairs and table cloths. It looked amazing. We always love playing there.”
The setting is crucial to TrèsNoctambule because it sets the mood for what they want to create.
“We really strive for intimacy at our performances,” Fibish said. “We like to take you for a little bit of an emotional roller coaster.”
Fibish said they’ll include story telling around the songs. Some songs can be joyous and some are melancholy. A newer tune they have is a medley in remembrance of the victims of the Paradise, California, wildfire. Another one is a celebration of a cousin’s daughter.
“It’s death and birth put together,” Fibish said. “We kind of really like to get in close and try to touch people. There’s more than a performance.”
Victor added some of the music can be unabashedly melancholy, and some can be unabashedly silly. Something unique they like to do is cover Motown songs with Irish melodies.
“I’m from Detroit, so Motown flows through my veins,” Victor said. “People love it. Everybody loves Motown, even if you live and breathe Irish music like, I confess, I do.”
Adding Cady to the mix helped with the Motown songs as well.
“The other fun thing with three voices, is if Bruce is singing lead on a Motown song, Suzuki and I can go with backup vocals,” Fibish said. “You can’t just have one backup vocal, you need at least two.”
Fibish and Victor put out three albums as Noctambule, but the band doesn’t have any word on an album as TrèsNoctambule.
“We have enough material for a fourth album, but our question is, what do we really want that fourth to look like?” he said.
The performance will be at 7 p.m. in the BAC’s Maizie Harris Jesse Black Box Theater, 449 W. King St.
Tickets are $12 for BAC members, $15 in advance, and $20 at the door. Buy them through BreweryArts.org or by calling the BAC box office at 775-883-1976.