Locally sauced quartet Wolf Harbor brings some prog-punk-pop slurry to the 9. Drums, bass are onstage while two singing guitarists inhabit the space in front of the stage. Friends for at least 13 years of the band’s life, the singers couldn’t appear more different. Blond, clean cut, in a sweater, thing one could have been an assistant manager at Staples. Thing two had aqua hair, large grandma earrings and maroon overalls. He was the guy you told your daughter “not to get too serious” with. Together, they have a potent yin yang assault. Their bio lists them as “shovin, swingin, Americana punk”, which I agree with.
The Yawpers are a tight quintet from Denver. Drums, bass, synths, lead guitar, and a front man singer. The singer has a Fanny pack on one hip, and what looks like a tascam equalizer on the other. While singing, he is able to fiddle with the knobs to distort the vocals, at one point he moves to the back and his singing assumes a percussion role. The group had matching outfits, sneakers, white exercise pants, and tshirts with a small message “words on shirts”. The music was excellent, they were at home with breezy tropicalia or in your face danceable ragers. The singer was a hoot, he looked like John Leguizamo but spasmodically moved like DEVO or David Byrne. The guitarist had a large hollow body guitar which lent its sound to loungey and jammy sections. Synth player added some nice counterpoint vocals. Bassist was integral, but kind of hidden on stage. The drummer was out front, and I could see why. His kit was standard but had a set of bongos fixed to the top. When struck with sticks, the bongos made a nice tribal racket. While drumming, this dude was in a trance, he stared at one point on the ceiling. He didn’t look at his drums once during the set. Some guy in front of me started jumping around, trying to dislodge the trance, not happening. The set leaned on a new record, Teething which showcased the full range of this group. Kind of sad that the crowd consisted of the opening band, their friends and me. I see an opening for me as manager of The Yawpers. The name sounds like an incredulous exclamation from an octogenarian, the uniform made them look like triage nurses, and “words on shirts”, really? As manager, these items would be tweaked. As for the music, no change was necessary, excellent show.
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