What might have been forgotten in the wake of the insane amounts of jumping around to skuzzy synth-pop at Matt and Kim’s show at House of Blues was how freaking good the opener was. Openers rarely get credit, I said to myself in my post-show euphoric state. Therefore, I thought, Oberhofer had killed it so much that they had deserved their own review.
Oberhofer is the Anthony Davis of opening bands: they’re obscenely young, full of promise, and possess the ability to jump really high for extended periods of time. Led by eccentric frontman Brad Oberhofer and his gang of similarly-dressed bro-sicians, Oberhofer ripped through their set with little regard for prolonged musings on life. When they do muse on life, it’s while they’re playing loud, crazed noodles at the end of the set. I don’t have an exact recording, but I’m fairly certain that Brad yelled out, “Take this moment to thank everyone you’ve ever loved, ever” while snapping all of his finger bones simultaneously on a relentless G chord.
Like Trevor Powers of Youth Lagoon, if there’s an adequate way to explain how Oberhofer differentiates themselves from other pent-up alternative rockers, it’s in the creation. Oberhofer’s first record, Time Capsules II, is a largely self-conducted disc that encapsulates, as he told Halley Bondy of MTVIggy.com, “those ten days I start recording the record. It’s a time capsule of those ten days and nothing more.” Brad is the motor of this record, and he proves it onstage. The tracks, some spurred on by a xylophone, are simple melodies that benefit immensely from the energy, skillful pauses, and overall musicianship of the band members. Though the former NYU student is normally hesitant to talk about his prodigious talent, it becomes apparent as soon as the opening finger-picking of “Haus” and “Away Frm U” starts blaring through the house speakers.
I had the good fortune to meet Brad before the show, where we talked about the Matt and Kim tour (“It’s been an absolute joy,”), his appearance on Letterman a few months ago, and most pressingly, where to buy gloves. I felt legitimately bad when I didn’t have an answer for him, and just pointed him in the general direction of the CVS. Apparently he went to Marshalls, and got gloves from the women’s section. Ladies, let’s just pretend that I meant for him to do this.
Others will talk about the meat of Friday night, Matt and Kim. Heck, I want to do that too. But there are bands like Oberhofer that, while maybe not at the same level of exposure as their following acts, certainly have enough drive and strong live acts to merit a positive review. While we reviewers have to maintain some sort of journalistic neutral stance in order to assess the quality of shows, I do think that the band’s willingness to give people hugs at the merch table (as opposed to simply receiving them) may have contributed to their overwhelmingly positive response.
By Marc Finn.
Photos by Charlotte Holley in Photo Gallery.