Hands, an LA indie band signed by Kill Rock Stars, put on a show with an exuberant energy at the Echoplex on Thursday night. The singer, Geoff Halliday, restlessly bouncing around and the quartet seemed to be more than happy to be there. There was a feeling of freedom and joy exulting from their electronic-pop open soundscapes and honestly with Halliday running around the stage, it looked as if they had let their wilder animal run free in all directions.
The music was going in many directions too, with layered hazy synths and keyboards, some stamping dance beats, a funky bass, an exotic vibe coming from some guitar solos, and Halliday’s soaring voice, the ensemble producing some infectious and catchy songs like ‘The Game is Changing us’ or 'Lonesome Body'.
They are about to drop their debut album ‘Synesthesia’ next month and have already supported Foster The People, had shows at SXSW and were on TIME magazine’s 'Bands You Don’t Know (But Should)' list. This means they are obviously on the radar of many news outlets and they surely didn’t want to disappoint anyone on Thursday night.
Let’s see, Hands have named their forthcoming album after this poetic and neurological condition that allows some people to associate a color with a smell or a sound or any other sensual perception, you know the Nabokov-Rimbaud ‘disease’, the condition of the poets,… so may be this is what they intended to do with their music, to trigger synesthesia in our brain, although the singer’s lively kinetic moves seemed to remind us how important it is to keep dancing.
Setlist
Lonesome Body
Videolove
Nothing But Animals
House of jars
Elegant Road
Brave Motion
Trouble
The Game Is Changing Us