It’s a rare occasion that a new band blows me away the way Montreal’s Ought did this past Saturday night at Church. After a full day basking in July sun I wasn’t sure I could even muster up enough energy to go to the show (put on by local promoter Illegally Blind) but damn, I’m sure glad I did. They’re a band out on their first national tour, with a critically acclaimed debut album and enough influences to fill a record store, but if you can get past the inevitable comparisons you can hear they have to be one of the most original sounds to come out of Canada since, should I say it, Arcade Fire? As a music geek, I live for the moments when I get to witness a band showcase themselves on their first national outing and because I was right by Fenway, I’ll say Ought was like a minor leaguer who got called up mid summer and hit it out of the park up at their first at bat.

Ought is a dynamic and artsy four piece post-punk rock band. Their influences are worth mentioning but don’t get hung up on them because they don’t neatly fit into any summarized genre, and they didn’t really match up with the rest of the half local bill that featured Dinoczar, New Highway Hymnal and L.A’s Dub Thompson. You can’t help but hear Sonic Youth, Modest Mouse, Talking Heads, B52’s, Violent Femmes and Velvet Underground when referencing their sound and influences that make up the eclectic hints-of list, but these mostly capture the spirit and energy this band brings to the table. An impressive list of influences nonetheless, I’m not sure Ought is even aware that they might be mirroring them as the oldest member of the band is merely 23 years old.

A rack of bones, lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Tim Beeler is unique a rare talent that does need to be compared to David Byrne, and what a musician you have be to even yield that judgement. He’s got guitar chops; plays with a clean, non-distorted sound and flicks quickly peddled chord strokes that ring and die out quickly only fill holes in between the bass and keyboard lines his buddies lay down. He also took two or three impressively possessed guitar solos, broke a string on one, but didn’t skip a beat, or change a guitar the rest of the show. His skill-set is highlighted by spoken word stream of consciousness-like lyricism that captures an unsuspecting young man that seems to have been chomping at the bit for the perfect time to release his fury of observational, quirky introspective thoughts to the world. His voice is sharp and clear; the spoken work style is mixed with yelps and cracks, and every song had a lyrical peak. You couldn’t help but be solely focused on Beeler not only because of what he had to say, but also because he commanded you to listen, often times with one finger in the air like “oh ya, one more thing”.

They played all eight songs off of their debut record Today More Than Any Other Day, and I think today you should immediately go and listen to this entire thing. It’s psychedelic punk rock gold and easily one of the best records of 2014. The singles, “The Weather Song” and “Habit” are great introductions but dig deeper and check out the heart-stopping peak of Gemini with Beeler breaking down to a manic shout of “Wanted! Wanted! Wanted! Wanted!” which got the biggest applause of the night from the small 30 person crowd. The show closed with an epic song called “Beautiful Blue Sky,” the only track not on the record and was jammed out for about eight minutes and showed you that this band has more to offer. Their follow up is bound to be a monster, especially if the right producer gets behind the controls. In the end though, the bouncing youthful energy of Ought is a sight to see and if they come back to Boston you definitely 0ught to be there. Fuck, I knew a cheesey “ought” line was coming sooner or later.