The indie-Americana-folk-rock group David Wax Museum featuring David Wax and Suz Slezak return to play Flatbread Thursday evening after a successful engagement there last summer.
David Wax incorporates instruments and musical forms from a broad range of traditional styles from North and South America, defying easy classification. Mr. Wax likes to call his blend of music “Mexo-Americana, bringing together a lot of traditional musical things that become new forms.”
At last summer’s show the band’s fusion of traditional Mexican folk with American roots and indie rock kept the crowd dancing through the night to rhythms that inspired members of the audience to break out the tango and samba dance moves.
The band incorporates a wide array of instruments, including Mexican guitars, an accordion, a Cajun drum box, and a donkey’s jawbone. The repertoire usually includes older hits, as well as singles from their newer albums. Knock Knock Get Up is their newest album, released in 2012.
David Wax immersed himself in Mexico’s rich traditional music culture, son mexicano, during trips south of the border, including a yearlong Harvard fellowship, learning from the form’s living masters.
Suz Slezak was homeschooled by her father on a small farm in rural Virginia and reared on old-time, Irish, classical, and folk music. The two met in 2007 and began blending their unique musical perspectives to form the band.
David Wax Museum has released four albums: Its first in 2008, I Turned Off Thinking About; its second, Carpenter Bird in 2009; and the critically acclaimed album Everything Is Saved in 2011, featuring the song “Born with a Broken Heart,” which was named Song of the Year at the Boston Music Awards.
The band, which is often featured on the local folk music station WUMB, won a contest for a spot at the 2010 Newport Folk Festival and was the winner in the Americana category in the 2010 Boston Music Awards.
Island musician Nina Violet is the opening act, and blues harpist Natalie Lurie will also perform. The show is produced by TPS Presents.
David Wax Museum, Thursday, August 14, 9:30 pm, Flatbread Company, M.V. Airport, Edgartown. 21+. $25; $18 in advance at ticketsmv.com. For more information, visit flatbreadcompany.com.