Local Band Earth Radio Shatters The Senses at Milliken Auditorium

Jacob Dodson

Photographer​

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This last Thursday, the band Earth Radio (their name alluding to them being the “voice of the Earth”) made an appearance at the Milliken auditorium for a psychedelic show, along with openers Sosohifi, and visual projection artist Super Nuclear.

 

Hailing from Grand Rapids, and composed of bassist and vocalist Justin Avdek, the quasi-angelic frontwoman Hannah Laine, Dutcher Snedeker on keys and synth, and percussionist David Ward.

 

The show was beautiful and loud. Hannah, armed with her pedal voice created layers of tonality and resonance that reverberated throughout the room without being overbearing (though it helps that the sound engineer, Maria X, did a great job with the audio mixing as well). In line with the name Earth Radio, the sounds were organic, calming, and resonant; sounds had the quality of Tibetan singing bowls, natural movement, and Jimmy Hendrix. At one point, Hannah used her pedal to stack multiple layers of her tongue clicking in her mouth, and managed to create a sound nearly identical to the one of flowing water over rocks. It was truly something to behold, both audibly and visually.

 

A projectionist, seated in the sound booth above, mixed bowls full of dyed water and oil, and projected them across the walls. In the middle of the show, you could actually see the ripples of water from him blowing on the surface with a straw. Of course, the projection of this was many feet across, like real waves.

 

“We formed in 2017, and it was kinda a combination that I knew Justin from other groups, and he brought in Hannah and our first drummer, Mario, and we cut a record in a week,” Snedeker explained, “it was basically like ‘oh, you’re Hannah, I met you at that wedding,’ and then we wrote a bunch of music.”

 

Midway through the interview, someone called out to him “Dutcher, somebody wants something from you!” It seemed like everyone wanted something from him.

 

An element of uncertainty loomed over the show, as it was their second to last show with Justin Avdek.

 

“We’re figuring it out. We’re always a flexible group, so there’s people we’re thinking of,” Snedeker commented.

 

Dutcher is indeed a popular man. Right after this question, a woman approached him and thanked him profusely, before confessing that she had driven up from Saginaw just to see them. Earth Radio seems to strike a chord in people, and honestly, I haven’t seen a more unique show.

On the topic of touring, Snedeker piece of advice is this: “It’s important to have personal space during a tour, and be able to do your own thing.”

 

Their newest album, “If Earth Could Speak,” was created and recorded on a trip to Vermont, based around the question in the title: if Earth could speak, what would it say? The album was written and tracked in 7 days and has been released publicly since April 2024 in physical and Bandcamp formats, and was uploaded to streaming services in July 2024. The last show of their tour will be at Bell’s Brewery, opening for Dopapod on December 27th at 8PM. This will also be their final show with Avdek, who formed the band, and who is now moving on to other projects - a bittersweet departure, though with lots of love and kindness between the members.

As Snedeker mentioned, this is not the end of the band: Earth Radio plan’s to continue playing shows, and bringing their transformative and healing music to the masses. As Dutcher stated at the show “We’ve always been a very transformative band,” It’s not a goodbye from Earth Radio, but more like a “see you soon.”