Courtesy of The Sleepy Rubies
South City sister act The Sleepy Rubies will perform at Off Broadway this Saturday.
It’s a big weekend in St. Louis for music lovers: The Art of Live Festival returns, bringing a variety of local and national acts to clubs across the city.
From Thursday to Sunday night, bounce between the Old Rock House, Off Broadway, The Firebird, The Demo, and The Ready Room. You can get tickets for individual shows or go all-in and get a festival wristband.
The project is the brainchild of ORH Concerts and the Old Rock House, and it boasts more than two dozen acts. It kicks off Thursday with Tortoise and Hope and Therapy at the Old Rock House. On Friday, Big Thief and Sam Evian play the Ready Room. On Saturday, check out Mvstermind, Looprat, and Anthony Lucius at the Old Rock House. And on Sunday, G. Love & Special Sauce performs at the Ready Room with Ripe.
But that’s just scratching the surface of who’s playing. Check out the full lineup online.
On Saturday at Off Broadway, Smooth Hound Smith plays alongside local up-and-comers The Sleepy Rubies, a South City sister act featuring the rootsy vocal harmonies of Emily Wallace and Ali Ruby. While The Sleepy Rubies project is new, the sisters have been playing music together for 16 years.
“It just kinda comes out,” says Wallace. “We’re really lucky too that we have completely professional band members. We give [new work] to the band, and we have a full, awesome song in a few hours.” (In March, the ladies are headed into the studio to record a followup to their 2016 EP, “Great Big Love.”)
The pair see the festival as a great way for audiences and musicians to shake up their listening habits and encounter bands they might not already know.
“I think there are some really killer bands,” says Wallace. “You’ll be able to check out music that you haven’t come across before.”
The Sleepy Rubies plan to unveil some new tunes this weekend. “We are champions of last-minute," says Ruby. "When we did LouFest, we did a song, like, three days before, and it worked out awesome.”
Half an hour before I spoke with them for this story, they had written an entirely new song, “That Piece of Time,” and last week they wrote another, “The Heaviest Weight.”
Expect to hear both of those songs this Saturday—just two of many memorable tunes throughout the weekend.
