Gig: The Hoa Hoa's

The Hoa Hoa's (Ostrich Tuning)

The Boat. Friday, April 29, 2011.

Originally slated to feature a headlining set by Philadelphia's The Asteroid #4, this psych night at The Boat — complete with an installation by General Chaos visuals — turned out to be a local-only affair when border trouble interceded. Sad news, but there were still two of my fave bands on hand, and the silver lining was that there'd be a bit more time for them to stretch out.

That'd definitely be true for Ostrich Tuning, who played the longest set I'd ever seen from 'em. Since I'd started following the band, they've always been pushing forward and shifting their arrangements, but now seemed to be settling into a bit of a more durable shape. Their signature sound — a slow, lengthy buildup of hazy guitar texture — was certainly in place for the new-ish "Psychic Kids", with three guitars up front.¹ The band's vocals are usually more a part of the texture than right up front, but sometimes a phrase here or there ("feels like I'm fading") registers.

A balky bass amp slowed things down a bit, but the band covered up with a stripped-down segue while things were being adjusted, dipping back into the stately "Gender Trouble" — a song which has hints of "Venus in Furs" gone to grad school.

Ian McPhedran and Ami Spears switch off behind the kit, and I'd always considered the songs to fall into two groups depending which of them was up front and singing more. But some of the band's newer material is breaking past that sort of division — especially one song that was new to me that featured guitarists Jeremiah Knight and Scott Harwood trading off vocals while McPhedran added some extra percussion.

Some of that extended set-time went into an excellently blissful version of "Floor" to close things out, the music's lulling drone hitting just the right frequency. Alongside the shifting lightscapes being projected onto the band and the custom psychedelic Texas flag², it felt like gateway to some temporary higher consciousness.³

Listen to a track from this set here.

It'd been a few months since I'd seen a full set from The Hoa Hoa's. So, once Lee Brochu launched the set with, "let's have a nice dream", I was more soaking in the vibe and taking fewer notes about the unique features of the set. Starting off with the Ocean-ic slow "Waves" (bassist Femke Berkout providing the stately, reflective vocal), the set mixed a couple of the band's more recent songs (the magnificent "Falling in Love is For Young People" and "Heaven") with older stuff ("The List", "Vinyl Richie").

As was so often the case at a Hoa Hoa's show, the band was testing new material, with one from Brochu that was new to me. That was countered with the "All The Time", which, as I've mentioned before feels like a hit that you've loved for years. There was a pause for breath with Richie Gibson's slower "Going Out With Her" before things stretched out and headed to the stratosphere with "Postcards" and velocity blast of "Blue Acid Gumball".⁴ Tasty stuff, all told. It was sad that Asteroid #4 couldn't make it to join the party, but I left feeling that I'd gotten what I came for.

Listen to a couple songs from this set here.

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¹ That'd be three guitars and no bass, for those trainspotter-ish types who care about such things, although Ian McPhedran's custom "McPhedran Dronemaster" adds a lot of bottom end to the sound.

² An icon of Spears' homeland, it evokes that other Texas, one that often gets ignored in favour of easy stereotypes — where dynamic individualism and a sort of open-hearted, freak-freedom libertarianism are gateways to expression. I think keeping this in mind helps to hint at where Ostrich Tuning are coming from.

³ Ostrich Tuning have set down some new recordings of their "experimental psychgazedelic drone rock", available in the form of an EP on their bandcamp.

⁴ Like some of the band's other songs, this one's title is subject to a bit of flexibility — when it was ultimately issued on the band's final EP, it had lost the "Acid" from its title, though it's still there in the execution.