Singer/songwriter goes electric for solo show

Pete Cassani describes himself as an anti-folk singer.

"I’m not your typical guy with a guitar playing ‘Kumbya.’ I’m really a rock musician," said the singer/songwriter of The Peasants. "If you go around playing tours by yourself, people just figure you’re a folkie. Anti-folk implies punk."

Cassani will bring his electric guitar to Brewed Awakenings, 2636 W. Central Ave., Oct. 15.

The free show will start at 8 p.m.

He’s touring to support The Peasants’ Love Your Enemy, released in August.

The CD starts rockin’ with "Take ‘Em Out": "Can’t find Osama, crank up the drama/ You were not elected, better keep ’em distracted/ Daddy couldn’t kill him, what’s another trillion ... "

"That song came right before the United States invaded Iraq. George Bush was constantly harping in every public address about how Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction were a great threat to America," Cassani said last week from Boston. "A couple months before the invasion, the CIA came out with a report — I saw it in the paper — saying he didn’t have any. It pissed me off that Bush was going to invade this country that had nothing to do with anything."

Politics, sex and love gone wrong are a few things Cassani writes about.

"And anything that gets me mad," he added.

"Day Job" on the new disc features a nod to the Mamas & the Papas and some searing guitar: "Monday, Monday, what have I become?/ I used to think I’m gonna be someone/ Standing in line, punching a clock/ Buying a bagel, buying a stock ..."

"I was trying to think of a way to get into that heavy metal riff — have something funny and light at the beginning to conjure up all the happy stuff," he said. "Then all the miserable stuff comes leaking out."