Sonic Light Brigade

We do all kinds of shows: concerts for mainstream entertainment venues; alien abduction returnee celebrations; wineries (a particular specialty); cattle serenades; music for corporate events and dinners; fundraisers; sock puppet shows; house concerts -- long as it's in good taste and legal, there's a good chance we'll be willing to play it. We will travel pretty much anywhere in the United States and Canada.

Our basic charges depend on the nature and length of the event. As a frame of reference, for a 90-minute mainstream concert our fee is $500 plus expenses. House concerts are a specialty––our audiences and we love the intimacy––and we have special rates that benefit the host as well.

Sonic Light Brigade (SLB) is a quintet of really nice people who play really nice music. How many bands can say they meet both of those criteria?

SLB consists of the core duo of Lou Marzeles and Leslie Geatches, who perform what they call “classy, mystical, neo-groovy folk rock.” The two play guitars, mandolin, keyboards, the E-flat kazoo, and a lot of Wii Tennis. Indispensable members of the band also include Meagen Moody (keyboards, ukelele, vocals), Aaron Israel (drums, guitar, vocals), and Chris Sattem on bass.

Lou is winner of several national and regional songwriting and performing awards and performed on the same bill with Mary Chapin Carpenter a couple hundred years ago at the famed Birchmere. He and his band had a folk-rock record contract in New York City with renowned producer Tony Valor. He's recorded and/or performed with such people as Donn Godward (The Association tour band); and Bill Dannoff (co-writer with John Denver of "Country Roads") and Jon Carroll (Starland Vocal Band, writer of Linda Rondstadt's "Get Closer") on a song Lou wrote commemorating the Challenger shuttle crew. He’s composed and recorded soundtracks for film. Among his other honors, he's been informed he may also be winner of a valuable prize from Publishers Clearing House. Leslie is a relative newcomer to professional music and is a mighty fine string plucker and warbler in her own right. The two have been known to enchant audiences in one moment with lovely tunes and rich arrangements, then have them in stitches at their goofy and family-friendly humor.

They have a strong following in their home area (the Pacific Northwest) and increasingly in other parts of this vast live-music loving nation of ours. Here’s what one upscale and hugely popular venue in Washington State and winner of the 2014 International Winery of the Year said of them: “Maryhill Winery has been pleased to present Sonic Light Brigade to our guests for several years now. They are not only complete professionals and a pleasure to work with but they are talented, uplifting performers and friendly and engaging to our guests. They play a wide range of songs and appeal to many age groups and musical genres, which makes them a perfect fit for any venue.”

So true. But don’t just take their word for it…

Sonic Light Brigade uses the amazing Boze L1 sound system, making for very easy and quick sound setup and fantastic tone quality. That allows us to travel light and nimble and keeps our tech needs very simple.

We will play either as the full band or as the core duo of Lou and Leslie. The full band's biggest footprint is, of course, the full drum set, but we've managed to squeeze into some pretty tight spaces if really necessary.

Lou and Leslie travel pretty light -- usually two acoustic-electric guitars, a direct-line mandolin, and a variety of tech toys such as the Beat Buddy (foot pedal drum machine), a looper, vocal harmonizers, and a particle accelerator. Okay, we're kidding about the last thing.