The Grand Rapids band making its final appearance of 2024 on Wednesday at SpeakEZ Lounge has big plans for next year and will give fans attending this week’s show a sneak peek into its new songs.
From Big Theaters to Intimate Venues: PHABIES on stage at Chicago’s Thalia Hall earlier this year. (Photo/Joshua Banner)
UPDATE: The Wednesday (Dec. 4) appearance by PHABIES at SpeakEZ Lounge has been rescheduled to Wednesday, Dec. 11, due to inclement winter weather. Scroll down for videos.
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After a milestone 2024, award-winning Grand Rapids indie-rock outfit PHABIES has even bigger plans for the coming year.
The alt-pop-hued band which won three awards last spring at the Michigan Music Video Awards show later released two singles and opened for alt-rock’s Crane Wives on tour at The Hi-Fi in Indianapolis and Thalia Hall in Chicago.
“They have such amazing fans and it was an honor to be asked to open for them,” multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Laura Hobson said of the June tour stops.
But PHABIES — which plays its final show of the year on Dec. 11 at Grand Rapids’ SpeakEZ Lounge for the Local Spins Wednesdays series — has much more in store, include the release of “The Curse of Caring,” the follow-up to 2022’s “Fire Seed,” which won the critics’ choice award for album of the year at the 2023 WYCE Jammie Awards.
“In 2025, we are eyeing touring for the first time. It feels like the next big hurdle for us moving forward and it’s something we’ve always thought about but never done,” Hobson said.
“We’ve played all over Michigan, in Chicago and Indianapolis, but we are hoping to reach further out regionally as we release album No. 2.”
The band — Hobson, guitarist/bassist Garrett Stier, synth player Max McKinnon and drummer Joshua Holicki — also continues to enhance its visual artistry, something that’s propelled its music videos as well as its live performances.
“We’ve always leaned heavily into Laura’s visual artistry as a band. Most recently we did this for our Spook-O-Ween show at Creston Brewery’s Golden Age in Grand Rapids,” said Stier.
Spook-O-Ween: PHABIES at Creston Brewery. (Photo/Brady Olsen)
“Helen and the team there were so great and let us decorate the entire room, including building a stage backdrop that looked like a monster’s face. There were themed drinks and we had a costume contest, we were thrilled to see so many people show up in amazing costumes. Our release of (the single) ‘No Sharks’ in June was accompanied by a music video filmed by Nick Buwalda that has been shown at Wealthy Theatre and Celebration Cinemas across Michigan.”
As for the Dec. 11 SpeakEZ Lounge debut, fans can expect a little holiday cheer in the form of the band’s performance of “Pink Christmas Tree,” which PHABIES released last December.
The music video for that single won three awards at last March’s Michigan Music Video Awards at Marshall’s Franke Center for the Arts — for video of the year, best alternative video and best cinematography. It was directed by A. Riley, with Jordan Skutar as director of photography. (Scroll down to view the video.)
“We’ll also be playing some of the songs from the album we’re releasing in 2025, so it’ll be a good sneak peek of what’s to come,” Hobson said of Wednesday’s show.
Stier noted that the band’s 2024 singles — “No Sharks” and “Tell Her” — were designed “to show the range of writing style that will be on the album, and these singles definitely do that. ‘No Sharks’ is a summery indie-rock jam, while ‘Tell Her,’ is stripped back and meditative.”
View the video for ‘No Sharks’ below. Wednesday’s show begins at 7:30 p.m. Get details online here.
VIDEO: PHABIES, “No Sharks”
VIDEO: PHABIES, “Pink Christmas Tree”
New Album and Tour in 2025: Laura Hobson of PHABIES. (Photo/Garrett Stier)
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