The Lonely H with a Night in the Box at Uptown Bar and Café on 4/5/08

By: David Rachac

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The Lonely H at the Uptown - Photo by David de Young

Virtually every interview or review of a show by the Port Angeles, WA band The Lonely H comes down to two things: “Damn, these guys are young” and “Damn, these guys sound like Queen/Zeppelin/Skynyrd/Creedence/All of the above.” So let me get it out of the way early – yes indeed, these four guys are barely in their college years, and yes indeed, these guys have strong melodic underpinnings to what is now called “classic rock.”

But the labels end there – after seeing them at the Uptown Bar on Saturday, I was blown away by their intensity and commitment to playing balls-to-the-wall rock like bands used to play twenty years ago. If you are younger than 30, you probably don’t remember when dudes used to actually PLAY guitar and engage the audience rather than moping and staring down at their shoes. Granted, the potential excesses of that type of showmanship is legendary – we’ve all had to sit through the 10-minute, twin-axe guitar solo before the song kicked back in – but The Lonely H’s Eric Whitman dials the sizzle back just enough to stay within the meat of the song, while vocalist Mark Fredson amps up his frantic performance with hand claps and tambourine when he isn’t pounding the hell out of his keyboard.

Even if you hadn’t heard any of The Lonely H’s songs before, you couldn’t help but feel a warm coat of familiarity cover you from the moment they started. While any of the bands I mentioned before would be appropriate to compare them to, The Lonely H mostly reminds me of the early years of Canada’s The Tragically Hip, another band who wore their influences proudly and melded them into a new sound. They played a mix of songs from their CD Hair, which was released last year, and a variety of new songs, including a Mick-and-Keith-at-the-piano song they wrote for their moms while they were on the road, which elicited a few “awww”s from the crowd. But it was the harder rocking songs like “Hair” and “Yeah Yeah” that got the crowd moving, giving Whitman a chance to shine, while his brother Johnny on bass laid back with his eyes closed and a half-smile on his lips, blissed out by the music. The Lonely H will be back in town in June, and they are definitely a band to catch.

A Night In The Box - Photo de Young

After The Lonely H, I stuck around to hear a little bit of A Night In The Box, smugly self-assured that these young 20-somethings dressed up in their old-timey costumes and playing a combination of punk and bluegrass music would prove to be more fluff than anything. I thought it was weird of the Uptown to pair them with a rock band like The Lonely H, and I was just imagining the length of the trainwreck that was going to occur once they started playing.

Boy, was I wrong! Not just “Oh, I was a little inaccurate there” wrong, but “Holy crap, these guys are amazing!” wrong. This is “O Brother” for the Black Sabbath set – bluegrass, for sure, but played at ear-splitting volume and power. Travis Hetman plays his banjo as hard as anyone plays an electric guitar, with Clayton Hagen on acoustic guitar playing the goofy, dancing foil. It was interesting watching the two of them and violinist Kailyn Spencer on interact– you can tell that they really enjoy the music they make with the way they would play toward each other, trying to get a smile or a rise out of the others. They played several songs off of their forthcoming album which will be released in early June, an album that I will definitely be picking up.

See more photos from this show here.

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Location Info: Uptown Bar and Café
Artist Info: A Night In The Box, The Lonely H

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