Gig: The Hoa Hoa's

The Hoa Hoa's (Bad Cop / Sandman Viper Command)

The Silver Dollar Room. Friday, October 1, 2010.

Arrived to this one with Sandman Viper Command already on stage, so I only got to catch about three-and-a-half songs — not really enough to get much of an informed opinion. And certainly not enough to really appreciate their aesthetic — your basic two guitar rock and roll, and from what I saw a sort of modern take on meat-and-potatoes rock. The last song sounded a bit like "My Generation" as filtered through "Are You Gonna Be My Girl".

This is, however, a busy young band, and I see them popping up at a lot of shows. I didn't form a strong opinion, but I'd probably check 'em out again when our paths cross. They are obviously doing something right, as they had a good turnout of enthusiastic friends dancing up front.

I hadn't researched anything about Nashville's Bad Cop, so I wasn't particularly alarmed to see just two guys setting up. It turned out, though, that they weren't quite at full strength, as announced by guitarist Mikey E: "Usually we're a three-piece... our singer was denied entry. Apparently drunkenness and DUI's aren't allowed in Canada." Uh-oh. "We're just going to do anything we can to entertain you guys."

So what we got was a short instrumental set from the pair. It's probably better for the two who made it to stick with what they were good at rather than to have a non-singer sing, but it certainly made it hard to get a measure of the band. In this configuration, it was at times not unlike an instrumental Japandroids stuck on Stooges/Sabbath mode. Mikey E, rocking a sort of Fubar look with his moustache, did indeed proceed to give'r, cranking out riffs and occasional shouts.

And so the duo did what they could, playing for twenty-five minutes. The crowd on hand was enjoying it, including Femke Berkout of The Hoa Hoa's, who was a bit of a playful troublemaker here, dancing along, spraying beer, going up to twiddle with guitar pedal knobs. All told, it wasn't dull, at least. But obviously less than a whole package, and hard to get much of idea of what Bad Cop might be like as a band.

So fair it had been an incomplete feeling sort of night, so it would be up to The Hoa Hoa's to set things right. Which, from my perspective, is an everyday task for one of the city's best live bands. There was a comfortable amount of elbow room as the band took the stage for a set balancing, as usual, older material from last year's Pop/Drone/Pedals with their as-yet-unrecorded newer stuff. There was a relatively up-front vocal mix on this night — all the better to hear Richie Gibson ad-libbing some new lyrics to familiar songs here and there. From the older stuff, there was an extra-tasty version of "Postcards", but the real rewards came with the newer material, including "The List", with vox from Lee Brochu, who was decked out in some snazzy vintage pants. There was also the fantastic "All the Time", sounding like the wedding song that I never realized was missing from Screamadelica. I wonder if, after they finished putting that one together, the band looked at each other and realized they'd have a stack of cash if it were in a commercial.

That was followed by the slow-dance "Going Out" and the band closed, as if often the case, with the psych-garage barnburner "Blue Acid Gumball". Not usually one for encores, the band lingered and did one more, chilling things out with the Femke Berkout-led "Waves", a song that doesn't make it into the setlists that often. It seems like some of these songs will make it on to the band's forthcoming EP, which should be pretty stacked. I hear that the band is busy right working in the studio, but stay tuned for the next chance to go on a trip with 'em.

Listen to a track from this set here.