Frank Orrall is the founder and frontman/songwriter/producer for the rock & soul group, Poi Dog Pondering. He is also percussionist and singer for the D.C. based Thievery Corporation. His other side projects include Palm Fabric Orchestra, 8fatfat8, Soft Explosion, and The Mourning Doves.

His solo shows are an ever evolving combination of acoustic & electronic textures, edited video, songs, prose, and stories. 

"The inspiration behind the current Solo ‘Suitcase Show’ is two-fold; Initially, because I wanted to build a show that I could put in a suitcase, and with a guitar in the other hand, travel with. So I built some video backing tracks, as visual accompaniments to the songs, and collected some poems and stories to give other songs another layer of dimension. 

The second fold of the suitcase show is inspired by my father, who, as an astronomer, used to travel to some exotic places (Africa, South America, Polynesia etc.) as part of a solar eclipse expedition/research team. As a kid, I used to love to see what he pulled out of the suitcase upon returning… always some exotic handmade curio from a far off land. So, for these shows, I’m adding a few ‘show and tell’ items in the case to bring along."