Oh, please see Osees (The Oh Sees)!
It all went down at Warsaw on Driggs Ave, the perfect venue. What was once a Polish club has been converted into an awesome general admission live music venue laden with history. And now, as time continues, and more iconic music passes through the building, the space is haunted by past shows, people, and communities. Seeing Osees and their openers on October 26 made all the hauntings feel alive again.
LEILA BORDREUIL
First up to the stage was solo act Leila Bordreuil, announced by a sudden darkening of all houselights and an intense crescendo of earth-shattering bass. Leila made no introduction, no self promotion or acknowledgements of the audience, she simply began. I think there is no other way to describe the experience she presented other than “performance art”.
Self described on her website, the musician is a cellist and “sound artist”. Using a P.A. system, a keyboard, and what seemed to be a heavily used cello, a genre of deeply experimental music came forward. The duration of her opening act, that night in Warsaw, was almost embryonic. The artist’s sound was dissonant and ambient, as she performed with a somber intensity. She felt scholarly, she felt like she knew something I didn’t. I felt like I was on drugs.
DMBQ
Next up was Japanese psych-rock band, DMBQ, who most definitely continued the drug motif, but on an entirely different end of the spectrum. The stage, illuminated by shining blue and purple lights, highlighted the three members positioned on the same line of latitude across the stage: a singer, a drummer, and a bassist. I would describe their music as experimental as well, though leaning into a playfulness of experimentation that Leila did not. This was acid rock.
The lead singer jumped around and shook his guitar, kicked and ran and squatted—it was incredibly entertaining. Throughout the entirety of the drum solo, I watched a man in the audience dance in a trance, eyes closed, arms levitating, he was absorbed by the music. Performatively, DMBQ more closely resembled Osees.
OSEES
And then came the moment I, and the sweaty masses around me, had been waiting for — the headliners. If there is one thing to know about Osees, it’s that their shows are highly anticipated, talked about in the punk community with a kind of holy grail-ness. Dare I say, and I do, this band is legendary. Playing together since 2007, the group presents a genre fluid sound — somewhere in there is new wave, garage punk, prog and metal.
Osees music was invigorating and exciting, an ode to the mosh pit. I watched through the whole set as audience members pushed and jumped around, teenagers climbing up the shoulders of those around them to surf the crowd. From the pit, the show was an exhilarating array of arms and legs- feet placed vertically in the air and hands pumping fist held high. Onstage, the group performed with a ridiculousness that I am so glad I got to see. Notorious frontman, John Dwyer hiked his guitar strap up to his armpits and danced with strange rigid limbs. He felt alien, reptilian, as he stuck out his long tongue and slobbered and spit.
And then the show was over. The band packed up their instruments and walked off stage and didn’t come back for an encore, and the audience didn’t ask. The experience of their set was a living thing that died on the last ringing guitar note, never to be replicated again.
OSEES | WEBSITE
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MORGAN SALZER | INSTAGRAM
