Casey Smith Project and Wash Your Hands Bring Down the Roof at The Pub

By Maggie May

Photo by Manuel A. Melendez

There’s nothing quite like tromping through the snow for a night of good music and good times at The Pub. Casey Smith Project’s double-header with Wash Your Hands, was absolutely worth the expedition. The night started with psychedelic feel-good vibes and dove into eclectic headbangers that had every Pub-goer up on their feet.

We began with Casey Smith Project, welcoming the group back to The Pub for one of their signature sets. Eric Barker, Morgan Hough, Luke Ponchione, and Casey Smith form the Fairbanks crew when Casey Smith Project is in town. The band kicked off their Saturday night performance – their latest in a more than 50-show tour across Alaska and beyond – with energy and personality, alternating between soulful chords with laid-back keys and rock-your-socks-off heavy hitters reminiscent of “Foster The People’s” early albums. 

Casey Smith Project took us through favorites both familiar and new, like their 2024 single, “Confess My Love.” It’s a match made in heaven between Casey’s powerful vocals and the band’s jazzy, genre-bending instrumentation. With a sound Casey himself described as “always changing, soulful and bluesy indie rock,” the band whipped out the keytar as they meandered into ambient, psych and good old hair-thrashing rock-and-roll.

You’d think they’d try and save some energy for their appearance at the Iceland Airwaves music festival in Reykjavik next month, but Casey Smith Project left it all on the stage with their constantly-evolving set. By the time they made way for the Anchorage-based three-piece Wash Your Hands, Casey Smith Project had reminded us why they’re the pride and joy of Fairbanks. 

Led by Sara Jean Larsson Greenberg on guitar and vocals, the band Wash Your Hands took the evening on a sideways leap into bluegrass and honky-tonk. Sara’s frenetic vocals, energy matched by James Daggett on drums and the always-smiling Josh Zullo on bass, jumped off the stage into the perfect kind of chaos: concert-goers at The Pub, already jazzed up on Casey Smith Project’s stellar set, hit the dance floor for a head-bopping, laugh-filled good time. 

Wash Your Hands is one of those bands that has to be experienced live. The electricity in the room just a few minutes into their set was nothing short of addicting. All the best parts of a jam band – rollicking beats, wrist-breaking guitar riffs – met vocals that brought both Melissa Etheridge and Modest Mouse to mind (with a little yodel thrown in, as a treat). Drummer James Daggett summed up their live performances as “a fun heart attack on stage,” a perfect descriptor for a set that had me laughing and hollering as much as I was dancing in my seat. 

Photo by Maggie May

Their sound defies description: one venue has Wash Your Hands in their booking system under the genre “anxiety rock.” Greenberg herself calls their sound “ratjäzz,” a term that fascinates as much as it confuses (but the umlaut, I’m told, is very important). Whatever you want to call their sound, no one can argue that Wash Your Hands has a damn good time on stage. “I just love playing,” Greenberg told me before the show, gesturing to her bandmates. “And I think they do, too.” 

All in all, it was a great night to be in Fairbanks. Alaska’s collaborative music scene, built on community and explored with gusto, found another home at The Pub – and if the grins on every face in the crowd were to be believed, it found another set of die-hard fans in Fairbanks, too.