BRONCHO (not their touring lineup)
BRONCHO and Low Litas played their Boston stop last week. A decent crowd turned out for a gig 1,500 miles away from their home-state of Oklahoma and without a local opener. Good thing. I like a two-band show––my ears get tired.
Low Litas played a tight opening set. Their locked, straight-forward bass and drums laid a solid foundation for the fuzzy guitar parts and washed-out vocals. They put out a big sound for a three-piece. Low and dirty instrumentation juxtaposed nicely with sweet, cooing vocals. The vocal harmonies of Mandii larsen and Penny Pitchlynn were a highlight, as were the big, galloping choruses.
Low Litas performed from within their bubble. They didn’t gaze down at their shoes, but neither did they work the crowd. Instead, the crowd watched them work. No problem there––the songs don’t require lifting up guitars or coercing the crowd into cheering or dancing or praising Satan or whatever the kids are doing nowadays. And they kept things engaging with some surprisingly timed song-endings that really pulled the musical rug out from under you.
Low Litas
Then, with the addition of singer/guitarists Ryan Lindsay and Ben King, Low Litas became BRONCHO. It was like watching Diglett become Dugtrio. The member overlap didn’t make the show repetitive––BRONCHO is fundamentally different, poppier and punchier. Despite BRONCHO’s extra guitar power, Low Litas is the heavier band.
The Ramones are a larger ingredient in BRONCHO’s live sound than in their recordings. With the slamming riffs and vocal hooks front-and-center and less reverb/delay than in their studio output, the craft of their songwriting shined. The band dug in enough to make the songs rock, without endangering any of their coolness or their bizarre, millennial feel-goodness.
Lindsay shook out his extra energy through bouncing feet and knees, dripping sweat in an oversized sweater. He cracked a couple jokes, about low Litas being the less-broke band, about their drummer being pissed to come back inside for an encore. But for the most part, both bands followed a talk-is-cheap philosophy: they didn’t drive here from Oklahoma to chit-chat.