Hear Vaudeville Etiquette at Edmonds curbside concert series

EDMONDS — Seattle folk-rockers Vaudeville Etiquette are taking the stage for the first time since COVID-19 hit.

Vaudeville Etiquette will perform two shows in the Edmonds Center for the Arts parking lot on July 10.

The folk rock band fronted by Bradley Laina and Tayler Lynn has been featured in Spotify curated playlists, iTunes “New & Noteworthy” spotlight and in Starbucks stores worldwide. Their song “Devil’s Daughter” has been streamed about 2 million times.

The band has toured the U.S. and Europe, opened for Richard Thompson and Wild Child, shared the stage with Ayron Jones, Walking Papers, Smokey Brights and the Marshall Law Band, and played the Doe Bay Fest on Orcas Island, Seattle’s Northwest Folklife and the Into the Woods Music Festival near Greenbank.

Vaudeville Etiquette is made up of Laina on vocals and guitar, Lynn on vocals and tambourine, Bryce Gourley on drums, Dune Butler on bass and Matt Teske on pedal steel guitar and synthesizer.

Laina, 42, and Lynn, 36, met at Shoreline Community College. When they realized they both loved the Rolling Stones’ album “Exile on Main Street” — they were in a Stones cover band — they decided to try a duet.

They formed Vaudeville Etiquette as a Hollywood duo around 2007, but turned the band into a Seattle quintet about 2010.

“She was doing comedy and acting, I was doing film scores,” Laina said of their stint in Hollywood. “Then we started writing music, but it didn’t get serious until we moved to Seattle.”

Fun fact: Laina and Lynn are family — they are siblings-in-law. In 2010, Laina married Lynn’s sister, Natalia, who is the band’s merchandise and tour manager.

“We keep it really tight-knit,” Lynn said. “It helps with the other band members, too, because we very much treat it like a family — because it is.”

Within the last decade, the band has released the albums “Debutantes & Dealers” (2014) and “Aura Vista Motel” (2016), followed by the EP “Divisions” (2018) and, most recently, the single “Fever Dream” (2020).

Notably, the band recorded their debut album at Avast Studios in Seattle with Barrett Martin, who worked with Screaming Trees, R.E.M., Stone Temple Pilots and Queens of the Stone Age. Martin’s label is Sunyata Records.

Vaudeville Etiquette’s sound is an Americana mix of psych-folk, outlaw country and classic rock.

In addition to the Stones, the band is influenced by Fleetwood Mac, Wilco, The War on Drugs, Bright Eyes and My Morning Jacket.

The song “Fever Dream” was written while the band was touring Europe in 2018. Lynn said Vaudeville Etiquette was at a crossroads — they didn’t know what was next.

“Everyone in the band had come to a point in their lives where we were getting married, or starting families, or at least thinking about it, or buying houses,” she said. “That song is a beautiful reconciliation of understanding all of the elements that life can throw at you.”

This is the third time Vaudeville Etiquette will perform at the Edmonds Center for the Arts — but the band’s first “curbside” show.

“This will be our first live show back after COVID,” Laina said. “It’s a huge milestone for us to get back on stage. We’re super excited.”

Another fun fact: The band is named after a vaudeville act performed by Avis Bennett and George Lee in the 1920s.

“We were sitting at the bar at The Magic Castle, trying to figure out our name,” Lynn said. “The bar had all of these silent-film era slides, and they were back-lit, so the top of the bar was decorated with all of these. There was one called ‘Vaudeville Etiquette’ — and at the time we were really into the guy-girl duet.”

Bennett and Lee toured the U.S. with “Vaudeville Etiquette,” which newspaper ads described as “an assortment of songs and patter” or “a comedy, singing and talking act.”

The vaudeville duo never made it to the West Coast, so it’s strange that their photograph was found in a Los Angeles magicians club.

“The name encapsulated our willy-nilly genre and the things that we wanted to do,” Lynn said. “We were like, ‘We’re just going to play a bunch of everything. It will be like a variety show.’”

Sara Bruestle: 425-339-3046; sbruestle@heraldnet.com; @sarabruestle.

If you go

The Seattle folk-rock band Vaudeville Etiquette will perform shows at 3 and 5:30 p.m. July 10 at the Edmonds Center for the Arts, 401 Fourth Ave. N., Edmonds. This performance is part of ECA’s Curbside Series — meaning all events are held in the parking lot. Tickets are $25-$35. More at www.edmondscenterforthearts.org.