Concert Review: Osees Slam Hotel Vegas for Night One of Levitation Music Festival
Osees, otherwise known as Thee Oh Sees, delivered an enthused, frenzied concert at Hotel Vegas for Levitation Music Festival on Oct. 31. Supported by Kairos Creature Club, Osees swept through unrestrained guitar solos, controlled drum rudiments, and spirited basslines.
Written by Rachel Joy Thomas
Photos courtesy of Elina Carrasco
Experimental rock devotees are no stranger to Osees —- John Dwyer’s passion project that’s existed in some way, shape, or form since 1997. With releases spanning from freak folk to outright garage punk, the ever-shifting band refuses restriction. Rather, feverish mixing of hardcore and punk-progressions form an abstract duology in the band’s work, especially from its 29th and 28th studio albums, SORCS-80 and A Foul Form. Dwyer’s mercurial band — currently comprised of Tim Hellman (bass), Dan Rincon (drums), Paul Quattrone (drums), and Tomas Dolas (keyboards, guitar) — played Levitation Music Festival for four apotheotic nights, but had an especially eventful start on Oct. 31 with support from Kairos Creature Club.
As doors opened to audience members on Halloween, an entourage of misfits stepped into the venue. Assortments of yellow and blue Halloween clowns laughed and ordered purple prickly pear margaritas, to the opening jangle-rock tracks blasting through the speakers. The crowd grew to 70 fiendish music aficionados, right in time for Kairos Creature Club to take to the Hotel Vegas stage wearing buzzy bug costumes.
Kairos Creature Club, an anti-capitalist supergroup duo composed of Lena Simon (La Luz) and Glenn Van Dyke (BOYTOY), started its scintillating set with “Exile” at 8:02 p.m. The dual vocalists harmonized in an experiential, psychedelic groove. Other tracks, like the soft and melancholic “Strangers,” leaned heavily into gentle psychedelics and occasional dark fantasy synth notes. The group finished off its set with an interesting rock-twist of “Fly” by Sugar Ray, featuring Simon’s higher vocals that echoed across Hotel Vegas before stepping off the stage to join the crowd to meet with a costumed venus fly trap.
Osees, the main act, happily climbed on the stage by 9:01 p.m.. Dwyer wished the crowd a “Happy Halloween,” laughing to himself as ominous music from The Caretaker’s Everywhere at the End of Time faded into the group’s soundcheck.
“Are you ready?” the frontman asked, before quickly running through an opening diatribe to start the show. “Good evening welcome, fucking thank Levitation and Hotel for having us … this one’s for y’all. Dig in.”
The beginning snap of “Plastic Plant” rang into the venue to kick off the show with a frenetic surge. Rincon and Quattrone fused in harmonious synchronicity, matching every slam of the crash cymbal or rudimenting crackle of their snares. Aligned in a relentless rhythm, the two met one another like two halves of a heart beating blood into the venue. From that thunderous beat, the beginning rumblings of pinball-like moshing began to brew as brash crash cymbals ignited the crowd. Moshing slowly swallowed and entrapped nearby onlookers like a vortex until it found its edges in unwilling participants. Those on the periphery peered toward the bruising dance while lightly pushing scampering bodies back into the pit.
“Tidal Wave,” popular for its brief runtime on Breaking Bad, crashed into the crowd like a sweaty tsunami. The October heat contributed to an overwhelming, runny abyss of sweat colliding off costumed men’s backs and women’s slip dresses as Dwyer cried and yelped in an almost hypnotic trance.
Dwyer remained in his mesmerizing element throughout the night. The prolific album-dropper swung and rattled his rhythm guitar in a spiral-like motion before returning to enthused, screeching vocals as the crowd swirled in a restless, raging maelstrom. Evoking Newton’s third law, every force required an equal and opposite reaction, usually resulting in body slams, pushes, and occasional soft tugs. When someone fell onto Hotel Vegas’ artificial grass, a fellow crowd member eventually reached out a hand to pull them back toward moshing salvation.
Crowd surfing floated into commonality at the end of “The Dream / The Daily Heavy” — dancing devils, the character ELF, and a man dressed as a bag of potting soil took turns riding the wave. One crowd surfer, caught in the chaos, fell into the crowd like a modern Icarus when a mosh pit developed underneath him, landing painfully as his body crumpled like paper. Unphased, however, the comically dressed costumed renegade bolted to join the thrashing audience and slammed himself into various fleshy forms.
The crowd tightened and squeezed, pressing bodies against each other in a friction-filled crush by the time the band rolled out “Gelatinous Cube." Sweat from various torsos provided a modicum of coldness despite the friction, an electric undercurrent of adrenaline keeping crushed victims sane while gliding through the crowd’s tension. Finally, the crush slowly dissipated, returning to a mosh as limbs forced bodies away for breathing room.
“Withered Hand,” an alien track with synthetic technological overlays, cooled the crowd off momentarily. The slightest reprieve left some costumed slammers — a man dressed as Donald Trump and a bloody clown — panting before frying their vocal cords with loud wails directed at the band. However, that momentary pause in energy only remained for a few seconds before abruptly shifting back into a cataclysmic, almost dangerous psychedelic crescendo toward the track’s middle point. Dwyer’s voice climbed like the audience who clambered over the barricade toward the stage, fighting for the right to surf along held-out hands.
Osees’ most popular venture, “Toe Cutter - Thumb Buster,” featured a touch of intrigue from Dwyer’s higher-pitched warble: “Sun, we live on a cloud / Cry, sounds from far below / Run, 'cause it's far away / Drums, cover up the sound.” The leading man’s voice emanated before he added high-strung surf-rock strumming, closing out the song with improvisational additions that melded it with the band’s newer discography.
The show picked up again after closing out with the more heightened version of “Toe Cutter - Thumb Buster.” Within moments, photographers clung against the stage’s metallic frames, dodging cahooting zombies while taking quick photos with the flash on. Dolas’ face lit up with bright bursts as he played along to “Animated Violence,” which featured controlled yet passionate breakdowns and fortuitous percussive rudiments.
Dwyer managed to stuff an entire microphone head in his mouth for the penultimate song, “Drug City,” screaming fanatically before walking toward the barricade to deliver up-close refrains. Masculine figures in ballroom dresses reached for the singer’s drenched, sweat-stained blue tank top before shifting back toward the crowd, desperately vying for the frontman to recognize them.
The group segued to “C,” the night’s final sonic ride, with a Halloween-themed bang. The doomist punk track bellowed through the venue with five gravitational minutes of improvisation, radiating with science fiction chirps, blissful percussive elements, and haunting guitar solos. Sirens howled from each side of the venue, transitioning into soft tonal ambience. Hypnotic, transcendental chants climbed until the deafening roar of Dwyer’s guitar joined the mix, slamming into the track’s sound like an energy blast. The track collapsed in on itself once before grinding into its studio sound and playing out with a vivacious riff.
Osees dominated Hotel Vegas for its scorching Halloween concert, howling with distorted guitar riffs, screaming jargon, and grooving psychedelics. Science fiction met garage rock, titillating even meek crowd members into a rock-fueled frenzy that left listeners with a sonic hangover the next day. With no catchy strings or added frills, Osees put on a euphoric performance unmatched by many other bands of this generation.