O.A.R., Maroon 5, Matt Nathanson
Moore Theatre, Sat Nov 9.

Both of these posters were designed and printed at the by now excessively famous Hatch Show Print in Nashville, Tennessee. Hatch is one of the oldest letterpress printers in the country (and letterpress means, for crying out loud, that wood or metal letters in movable type are pressed right against the paper--no negatives, no film, no chemical-resist process), and it's been making posters since the turn of the last century (for minstrel shows, abolitionists, country music stars, and others).

Hatch has been doing what they're doing for so long, you can't call it retro--it's something else altogether, a style you recognize as both current and anchored in the past.

I like the Brad poster best, for its Coney Island feel (the stacked type that takes visual precedence over the amusement park images), but the O.A.R. poster shows you how more contemporary posters are seen through the lens of Hatch history. I wondered why both were done in orange and blue--not the most obvious poster combination--so I called up Delaney, Hatch Show Print's assistant manager.

"Ah," she said, "orange and blue is our second most popular combination. Black and red is more classic." Hatch is currently doing quite a bit of work for both the Showbox and House of Blues' Bellevue office, as well as the Hank Williams Wednesdays poster for the Tractor (a match made in heaven, no doubt, and a bit of poster history reaching back past the punk era, gracing our very own telephone poles). EMILY HALL