Eugene’s own Egotones and Snow White joined Seattle’s La Luz for an impressive lineup of Pacific Northwest-based surf-rock bands that played the W.O.W. Hall last night.
The instrumental-heavy genre has some basic ingredients — bass, guitar, drum and organ/keyboard — which is a short checklist, but the different approaches that the bands took was really what made it rich.
Egotones, a self-described “Japanese cowboy surf spy rock from Mars” group, fits the bill well. It’s an underrated quality for bands to brick-layer their sounds one at a time into a loud, tight collage, then pull them all away to focus on one element, like the organ’s wobbling chords, before bringing it back.
Snow White really delivered. Lead vocalist Lauren Hay is intense. She has an frayed, chaotic stage energy as she swings her blonde mop of hair around, slams on the keys and belts out the words.
Lauren Hay of Snow White at W.O.W. Hall on Thursday, August 11. (Emerson Malone/Emerald).
The entire band is excellent. Bassist Max Knackstedt leaned up against the W.O.W. Hall speakers for a languid bass solo before guitarist Tim Khadafi reeled him back in by scraping his guitar with a pick. At the set’s end, Knackstedt’s calamitous bass feedback combined with Hay’s frenetic screaming in joy for a distressed, awesome finish.
Seattle’s La Luz has been playing shows around the West Coast this summer, with stops including Pickathon Music Festival last weekend and Sasquatch! Music Festival in early May.
Almost immediately, guitarist and lead vocalist Shana Cleveland came out and apologized, croaked into the microphone that her voice is shot and tonight would be a very short set. In the next half hour, the band ran through roughly ten tracks. (Sometime that evening, Cleveland posted on Instagram that she “lost about 5/6th of my voice due to a nasty combination of sudden illnesses and now I’m gonna try and play this show. I’m sorry for whatever is about to happen Eugene. I’ll try my best.”)
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Hey, we’ve all been there. Who among us hasn’t fallen ill, had to slog ourselves through our daily obligations, and wanted to open the window and tell the town: “I’m sorry for whatever is about to happen, Eugene”?
Shana Cleveland of La Luz at W.O.W. Hall on Thursday, August 11. (Emerson Malone/Emerald).
But damn it, La Luz brought the light to the W.O.W. Hall. Literally — Egotones and Snow White were basically playing in the dark.
Since Cleveland’s voice box was out of commission, the set was largely instrumental tracks to give her a break. It was sweet to see keyboardist Alice Sandahl and bassist Lena Simon step in to assist Cleveland with some lush, vocal harmonies.
Allusions to surf-rock titans like Link Wray or Dick Dale are inevitable and nostalgic, but totally miss the mark. The La Luz sound is inventive and sublime in its own right. Lyrically, the band’s got nothing to do with surfing. No chance you’ll hear a “Surfin’ Safari” cover anytime soon. There are times when the drum rolls mimic a tidal wave crashing, but no one’s screaming “Wipe out.”
Cleveland cuts some proverbial rug at W.O.W. Hall on Thursday, August 11. (Emerson Malone/Emerald).
Just listen to La Luz’s second album Weirdo Shrine, which was produced by Ty Segall and literally recorded in an abandoned surfboard warehouse. Dark and heady, Weirdo came out almost exactly a year ago. It’s a declarative statement that the band isn’t just rehashing an old trend; it’s a profound subversion of what you’d expect from the genre.
After the show, La Luz’s Instagram posted a picture of the band taken from the mural outside Sundance Natural Foods.
“We’ll come back and make it up to you. I promise,” the post reads. “Also your food coop is delicious.”
Eugene still loves you, La Luz.