Osees – Hollywood Avondale: February 21, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)
Perchance! In this scribe’s (13th Floor Reviewer – Simon Coffey) opinion, tonight’s show at The Hollywood in Avondale, by lauded California entity Osees may have achieved ‘Gig-o-the Year’ status, whilst we are barely 14% into 2025.
13 years since John Dwyer was here in Tamaki Makaurau (as Thee Oh Sees at Whammy bar February 7th 2012), with new band members, a new name, a new album Sorcs 80. Osees slammed into suburbia, in an all embracing venue, with the favoured, relentlessly lauding for ever more.
Osees instigator John Dwyer lives in a fluid world, since 1997, he has in flux, constantly changed his band name (Orinoka Crash Suite, OCS, Orange County Sound, The Ohsees, Thee Oh Sees, Oh Sees) and seen multiple line-up changes (though the current one of John Dwyer -vocals, guitar & keyboards, Tim Hellman – bass, Dan Rincon – drums, Paul Quattrone – drums and Tomas Dolas – keyboards & guitar has lasted quite well) Then there’s the tones, the strains, the music, John Dwyer is not one to compartmentalised, as over 28 albums, his vehicles have delivered laments, dirges and fight-songs, spanning multiple genres including psychedelia, hardcore punk, folk, no wave and garage rock.
Thus, tonight there is a plethora of band t-shirts: CAN, Minutemen, Throbbing Gristle, Dead Moon, Soundgarden, The Cure, and our very own Blood Bags on show, visually displaying an eclectic splinter of Tamaki Makaurau’s counter-culturalists’ The queue to enter is not to long, the security are friendly and polite, the doorperson flustered, yet focussed, and the merch table pressed, however, the crowded bar and courtyard is not inhospitable, there is a flow in effect
Kraus
Is one person, Kraus, Pat Kraus or Prince Krauss, (he/Him) who claims that he makes music for freaks, outsiders, losers and weirdos. Kraus performs not just as himself, but also in a multitude of bands that inhabit the fringes of art. Tonight he sits alone, with a table of trinkets (some home crafted) creating an eclectic neo-electronica composites some of which may or may not feature in his 20+ releases. Kraus quietly offers a soundtrack for a filling room, for those in anticipation, via hypnotic rhythms, constructed sounds and ambient electronica. You could try and dance to Kraus’s mahi, but your outer inhibitions might override your inner circadian flamboyants.
Half-Hexagon
Half Hexagon are a Tāmaki Makaurau supergroup, a combination of Yolanda Fagan (Na Noise, Echo Ohs), drummer, producer & visual artist Julien Dyne and James Milne (Lawrence Arabia). Since 2022 they have used a combination of live drums, synth, keyboards, magik boxes and vocals (Fagan), to co-construct post rock, neo-EDM and dub-vibed tunes that draw on likely influencers from Neu to DAF and onto ESG. Onstage, Fagan is in command, in a blase manner she drapes the stage, as Dyne and Milne are focussed on allowing those with inner flamboyants to override the outer inhibitions.
Half-Hexagon have two Bandcamp EPs out (the latest dropped about a week ago), polished, unblemished, perfected. live, this evening, realism adds elements of error and ornament. In a filled room, a theatre of past glories, as the sun sets, Half-Hexagon are harsher, gloriously a little more dangerous. Like the Berlin club scene from Wim Wenders ‘Wings Of Desire’, there is fascination, fascination created as the trio synthesised post-goth, krautrock, and synthed electronic beats, and the people danced.
Osees
There’s no pause onstage. John Dwyer (and band mates) are straight into it, with local crew, setting up, adding, minusing, checking, meanwhile the music blasts, it blast a song I haven’t heard for years: Rock ‘n’ Roll MacDonald’s by Wesley Willis. There is a rush to the front as soundcheck excitement erupts, when Dwyer and others create havoc in volume checking all is well. It is and without nothing more than an “Evening Kiwis” Osees are back!
It’s loud, fast, there are two drummers side by side, upfront, keyboardist Tomas Dolas is relegated to the back, a safe spot perhaps?. Dwyer at one point has his guitar in mouth, he is manic onstage, twisting himself and knobs at every turn, there is a perfectionism inherent in this artist. Songs Plastic Plant and Tidal Wave display the diversity of sound: monsters of rock versus psych-garage rock, as this well-oiled, I have to say this again, well-oiled machine, pumps out flawless (well almost) reinventions from the manuscripts.
On stage John Dwyer is a bewitching figure contorting himself (this is my James Chance reference) and his highly strung guitar, drawing out from it everything from hardcore, 60’s riffs to post-punk melodies. Standing stage right, he is undoubtedly the maestro, the others, in moment(s) following his lead. In a precisian manner, Dwyer battles onstage sound provocations, and the minimalist punk rock lighting (his quip about supermarket lighting is mirthful), he is polite (unlike some others we could mention) but robust in his efforts, and for the audience it pays off in terms of show sound and vision.
Visually the two-drummer setup is stunning (I remember seeing The Fall and Melvins do the same) thankfully, fears that drummers Dan Rincon and Paul Quattrone will mimic rather than buttress each other are quickly allaid. Playing in-tandem since 2017, they are in-tune, each bringing something different to the table, and with Tim Hellman in on the act on bass, there is a resolute back-beat creating texture and coarseness in the room. There is frenzy, mid set I swear to you that I could’ve been at a Half Japanese or Black Flag hall gig in the 80’s heyday of punk, though the moshpit centre stage is perhaps a little less macho.
They play my song: If I Had My Way two-thirds-ish into the show. I abandon the front row crush to grab a comfy upstairs movie seat, the change in perspective is a metaphor for the Osees. Throughout the night, brashness and energy are in ascendancy, notwithstanding, within this aura, Osees jump across genres, as well as creating time-checks throughout the night. In the comfy chair, as neo-hardcore, post-punk fade into psychedelic garage-rock, I evanesce in the moments, muse that with the theatre stage vision in front of me, could this be what going to see The Psychedelic Stooges, or Grateful Dead or MC5 back in the 60’s in San Francisco? Osees are achieving, again and again, taking their audience on an escapist (bus) trip.
A trip that seems to never-end, as Dwyer goes off stage and brings beers back, carefully placing them by his bandmates, he’s in this for the long hall. As psychedelia fades, the harshness of hardcore and eclecticism of experimental returns, Some songs work, others don’t, but we, the passengers don’t care (Sex Pistols reference) as no-one is wanting to get off the Osees Freedom Bus while the devil in a blue singlet, John Dwyer, is in the driving seat.
Simon Coffey
Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Chris Zwaagdyk:
Osees:
Half-Hexagon:
Kraus:
