Bandits on the Run bring their subway-born show to the Discovery Theatre Friday

The Brooklyn trio that started out busking underground plays the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, Oct 30, an Anchorage Concert Association booking.

Picture a cello, an accordion, a suitcase pressed into service as a drum and a scatter of toy instruments, all on the stage of a 700-seat theater on Sixth Avenue. That's the kit Bandits on the Run are bringing to Anchorage tomorrow night.

The Brooklyn trio plays the Discovery Theatre at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, Oct 30, at 7:30 p.m., presented by the Anchorage Concert Association. Tickets start at $49.50 through CenterTix, the center's own box office, and the listing puts the run time at about 110 minutes.

As far as our records go, this is the band's first Anchorage date. It comes at the end of a short Alaska swing that had them in Juneau and Southeast Alaska earlier in the week.

If you don't know them, start with where they started: the subway. The band's own story is that the three of them got going busking underground in New York, and that's still how the show works. There's no fixed frontperson. All three sing lead, and they pass the songs and the instruments around: guitar, cello, the suitcase drum, accordion and the toys. Expect folk and indie-rock songs played with the kind of give-and-take you only learn by trying to stop commuters in a hurry.

Three lead singers, a cello and a suitcase drum: the subway-platform show, scaled up for a proper theater.

That's why the Discovery Theatre is a good fit. It's the center's mid-size room, big enough to feel like a night out and small enough that a three-piece doesn't get lost in it. A band that learned to hold a crowd over train noise should have no trouble with a quiet, seated house that's actually listening.

A few things to know before you go. The center lists the show for ages 6 and up, and anyone under 16 has to come with an adult who is 21 or older and has a parent's consent. Drinks bought inside the building can go to your seat, but outside food isn't allowed in the theater. The center is at 621 W. 6th Ave., and its events page has the rest of the season.

If you want a taste first, the band's videos page is the quickest way to see how three people get all those instruments into one song.

It's the last weekend of October, the dark is coming in early, and a band whose whole act is about getting strangers to stop and listen is playing downtown. You could do a lot worse for a Friday.

Sources: Bandits on the Run — CenterTix (Alaska Center for the Performing Arts box office) (centertix.com); Anchorage Concert Association — CenterTix (centertix.com); Events — Alaska Center for the Performing Arts (alaskapac.org); Bandits on the Run — official site (banditsontherun.com); About — Bandits on the Run (banditsontherun.com); Music Videos — Bandits on the Run (banditsontherun.com)