Bozeman’s Armory Music Hall welcomes indie folk rock band The Takes to its modern space this month. The California-based group’s tour comes to the Gallatin Valley in support of their latest release, Lay Hold. The 18+ show is set for Thursday, February 20th, with opening support from Colourblind. Presented in cooperation with Deco Music Group, the music begins at 7:30pm.
In 2020, Sumner Rahr (guitar/vocals) and Fritz Frerichs (drums) found themselves in Jackson, Wyoming, writing songs together in their living room to pass the time. The result was the High Lonesome EP. The band’s first release as a two-piece rock band that skewed psychedelic, taking inspiration from Pink Floyd and The Doors.
When asked to play their first live set at a friend’s warehouse, the pair recruited high school friend Phoebe Webb (bass) and Sumner’s brother Guido Rahr (guitar) for a show that made the group want to stick together. Between semesters away at school, the four friends spent their summer and winter breaks playing shows and recording new music, culminating in a move to Berkeley, California. They built a studio and rehearsal space from scratch out of their Berkeley garage and began working on music together, finally in the same place.
On their 2024 EP Lay Hold, The Takes delve further into their country/blues rock tendencies, led by Sumner’s raw lead vocal and backdropped by a classic four-piece arrangement of guitar, drums and bass. Drawing from their early psychedelic influences, the band still creates songs the way a jam band would. “Someone comes up with a riff, we’ll start out writing it one way, and as time goes on we’ll change it and change it,” Sumner explains. “We’ll mess around until a song slowly gets shaped out of it.” Similar to the band’s formation, their lyrical themes are organic: the changing of the leaves, flickering lights, relationships that drift apart.
The band’s unbound approach is part of their ethos. Shaped by the Pacific Northwest and its innate rock traditions, The Takes feel most at home in the outdoors, forging songs to soundtrack scenic road trips or nights spent around campfires. “I think our community is less place-based and more so with people who resonate with our same values,” Phoebe says. “Just spending time outside, whether it’s Portland or Jackson or Berkeley.”
Armory Music Hall tickets are available for standing-room general admission and limited VIP packages. A complete list of upcoming performances and ticketing access is available at www.armorymusichall.com. •
