In-store: The Hoa Hoa's

The Hoa Hoa's

Sonic Boom Records. Friday, December 4, 2009.

Although I knew I'd be heading over to see their proper show later in the evening, had nothing keeping me from heading out check out The Hoa Hoa's make an in-store appearance downstairs at Sonic Boom. Interestingly, a rare all-ages show for the band — not that I'm guessing that they have anything against the youth of today, but what with usually appealing to a bit of an older crowd, they're just not in that circuit that includes very many all-ages shows. But taking advantage of this opportunity, there were lots of friends out, some with kids in tow, and before the show started, guitarist/bassist Femke Berkhout was making the rounds, passing out candy and earplugs to the young'uns.

With a nice crowd built up, the band started with "Hey Joe", and moved into a nice run through "Thinking About Today"¹. And then, excitingly, "Waves" — a vocal spotlight for Berkhout and a slowburner of a tune that's a close acquatic cousin to the VU's "Ocean" — and the first time I'd heard them essay this one live.

Although the band was celebrating their album's release, they still have a surplus of unrecorded material that's been kicking around in their setlist for awhile. "This one's gonna be on the next one," was the comment as the band introduced the dreamy yearning-adolescence ballad "Going Out".² And then, fully warmed up, the band ended by putting their new release in the best possible light with the scorching trio of "Grew Up on the Seeds", "Vinyl Richie" and "Postcards". The whole set ran a generous nine songs and thirty-five minutes — actually a hair longer than the "proper" set they'd placed at Rancho. One would hope that at least a few of the assembled were there out of curiosity and seeing the band for the first time, and thinking to themselves, "If this is the warmup, what are they saving for the main event?"

Check out a track from this set here.

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¹ A cover by the Outsiders that the band also performed at their Rancho gig. "Hey Joe", in contrast, is an original on their Pop/Drone/Pedals album.

² The song even manages to nick a few lines from Sam Cooke at the end.