Sammy Rae & The Friends play a New Year’s Eve show at The Anthem on Dec. 31! Catch this fun, energetic collective headlining the biggest night of the year with openers. Ripe, Juke Box the Ghost, and Oh He Dead!
Sammy Rae & The Friends is a band fronted by breakout queer frontperson Rae, but also a collective of dreamers and artists that consider themselves a family first. That camaraderie ignites their unforgettable and can’t-miss live shows, which serve as a catharsis for both the musicians and their fervent audience. A band of classically trained jazz musicians with incredible energy and no commitment to genre, the shows are often described as attending “a big queer church.”
Singer/songwriter Sammy Rae burst onto the scene with her two EPs The Good Life (2018) and Let’s Throw a Party (2021), and have since become a juggernaut. She’s has had an explosive rise since the release of her two EPs, thanks to a truly singular live show.
Sammy Rae & The Friends have come to represent more than just a band: They are a full-on movement being adopted with a refreshingly diverse clientele. They tour in support of their glorious and highly anticipated debut album, Something For Everybody, out now via Nettwerk.
Ahead of the album’s release, the band shared an incredible music video, directed by Sammy Rae and Emilia Aghamirzai, for their previously released single, the seductive rock ’n roll earworm “Thieves.”
Watch the official music video for “Thieves” by Sammy Rae & The Friends on YouTube:
Sammy Rae on Something For Everybody
“The album Something for Everybody leans into what has previously been a point of confusion and even self-consciousness for this band; what kind of music do we make? Our genre is hard to pin down, there are all sorts of instruments and influences flying around, and arrangement wise no two songs sound too much like each other. After 7 years of playing, touring, and recording, we’ve come to realize that that simply isn’t going away. We won’t wake up one day and decide we are a jazz band, or a rock band, or a folk band. When looking at what we had and wanted to write for this album, our natural process of ‘what songs come, and what best serves the song… not a genre’ came forward. We realized that we had a little of everything. It’s a strength of ours, and one of our best assets. The production, vocals, and songwriting voice are the cohesive thread between all of our songs. We basically thought, ‘if we haven’t landed on one avenue by now, I guess we never will. And that’s our superpower.’ This album is a culmination of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we want to go. It’s the beginning of a new chapter of elevated production (thanks to our producer Fernando Lodiero) and features a level of collaboration we’ve always dreamed of standing in (guest vocals, more writers, a string quartet, gang vocals). No matter what sort of music you like, and what you’re looking for in a band, this album has a little of everything we do. There’s Something for Everybody.”
As a child Sammy Rae had an “aha” moment, while watching an episode of Vh1’s Behind The Music on Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. Though she was already writing songs and playing music at a young age, a different type of ambition struck her — she wanted to be a band leader. It was at this moment that the idea for her musical project was born. She went on to establish a group of remarkable musicians, each with their own unique talent and together an unstoppable collective. In the last few months Sammy Rae has released “No Rulebook,” “I Get It Now,” “Thieves,” and “Coming Home Song,” and together they mark the first three releases of new recorded music since she burst onto the scene with her two EPs The Good Life (2018) and Let’s Throw a Party (2021). Since those early releases, Sammy Rae & The Friends have become a juggernaut. With a live experience that fans liken to church… or communion, however you see it, it’s an exultation and a cathartic release like no other musical act can offer.
New Year’s Eve!
Sammy Rae & The Friends
W/ Ripe, Jukebox the Ghost, Oh He Dead
The Anthem
Wednesday, Dec. 31
Doors @ 6:30pm
$75 GA/ $125 Seats
All ages