Ty Segall may be a member of Fuzz, but don’t let anyone deceive you into thinking this just one of his “side projects.”  Oh no. Fuzz is an entirely separate entity, a holy trinity of distorted minds and contorted fingers. Three masters at work toward the ultimate goal of amplified enlightenment. And the natural culmination of the rock and roll “power trio.”
Obviously I was quite excited for this show. Yes, Ty Segall may have the name recognition and the “indie-fame” (whatever that means), but Fuzz is very much a band of three. Chad Ubovich, worthy of much attention and praise for his band Meatbodies, plays the bass. Charles Moothart, affectionately nicknamed “MOOT” by the crowd, plays the guitar. And Ty Segall, taking a seat from his usual frontman status, plays the drums. But all three members of Fuzz do much more than simply play their instruments. Ty unleashes hellish fills with staggering rapidity. Chad frequently moves up into unison with the guitar, bashing on his fuzz pedal to conjure inhuman thickness. And Charles… “MOOT” has garnered something of a legendary status amongst my friends and me for his brazen guitar playing, abusively overusing vibrato and wonkily winding his way through hackneyed blues licks, ultimately arriving at an entirely unique position in guitar wankery. It’s incredible. But enough praise for what Fuzz is. Let’s talk about the show.
I spent basically the entire day in New Orleans, watched the Saints lose in overtime then worked my way over to the French Quarter, met up with friends to grab a bite from the Napoleon House, and passed the venue just as Fuzz was pulling up around 7 PM. I caught a bit of chatter between Ty and members of the opening band Walter as I passed and discerned that traffic had caused them to arrive later than expected. I had hoped to catch them for a few questions before the show but decided with show time just a couple hours away that it would be best to let them load-in in peace.
After a couple hours more of wandering and sitting around, we returned to One Eyed Jacks. We entered the still lightly-packed venue just in time to catch New Orleans locals Bottomfeeders’ set. Glancing at their guitarist’s setup was a great indicator of what was to come. Three fuzz pedals in a row, two of them Death By Audio “Fuzz Wars”, fed into an ancient looking Silverface Twin Reverb. The sound was of course, magnificent. Bottomfeeders sound is definitely quite Californian, despite being a New Orleans band, which explains why they’ve had opening spots for bands such as Thee Oh Sees and Meatbodies in the past year. Their songs move at breakneck speed, driven by repetitive bass grooves and motorik drum beats, providing an empty canvas for the guitar to paint on delay-drenched leads. The members of Fuzz watched from the back, their applause granting the set a statesmanlike seal of approval.
After Bottomfeeders had finished, a quick drum set change brought Walter onto the stage. Walter is also from L.A., their frontman Patrick Nolan having played in Meatbodies with Chad on their recent tour. However, from their first note, it was clear that Walter didn’t just get this opening slot from knowing the right people. Nolan’s Musicman HD 130 was terrifyingly loud, forcing each crystalized note into the inner-workings of your brain. When he stepped on his Fuzz War, minds were turned to jelly. The songs featured strange, unexpected chord changes which absolutely delighted me. And even more delightful was Nolan’s bizarro guitar work, constantly clutching his tremolo arm assuring that no note would remain unbent. His theatrical, circus clown antics also made his performance even more enjoyable to watch. Their set ended with a nearly ten minute long guitar solo jam which remained engaging due to his nearly bottomless bag of guitar playing tricks. “Fuzz is next, so that’s gonna be sick,” Nolan said as he put down his guitar. I didn’t doubt his words.
Soon after, Fuzz was on stage. Faces smeared with black and blue makeup, they looked like they had just finished some sort of pre-show Pagan ritual. Maybe they had. Ty’s drums were unusually close to the front of the stage, allowing all three members to stand in a line, a unified mammoth of wattage and power. The stage was set for an unrighteous slaughter. Four deafening snare shots counted off. The first note of “Rat Race” struck, and quickly it became apparent that Chad’s bass was way out of tune. He looked around, smiling, and the song came to a screeching halt. Ty immediately stood up and bowed. “Thank you everyone that’s our show,” he jested as Chad fiddled with his tuners. Soon he was back in tune and the music started again. The gods were humanized, but it only served to make me further appreciate the otherworldly riffing. Ty Segall, Chad, MOOT, they’re all just dudes after all. Dudes who love to rock and bring joy to their fuzz-loving compatriots. And joyous were the next sixty minutes. While the crowd was somewhat subdued at first, lead single “Pollinate” got the moshing started. Soon after the crowd surfing began in true One Eyed Jacks tradition. While it didn’t quite reach the peaks of Ty’s sold out solo show last year, there were still plenty flailing arms and legs moving above my head throughout the set. Though I tried to stay near the front to soak up the sounds of the band as much as possible, every now and then I was drawn helplessly into the furor, tossed around and spit back out again in a new location. All the while the music raged on. In a highlight of the set, Ty called out, “this next one’s an Oingo Boingo cover,” before launching into a short drums and vocals rendition of “Little Girls.” The band were clearly having a ton of fun. Their set closed with a ultra-distorted rendition of King Crimson’s “21^st Century Schizoid Man”, before the usual one-more-song chants brought them back to perform the song “II”, the 13-minute riff odyssey off their new album of the same name. The band thanked everyone for coming out, said goodnight, and soon everyone was back in reality.
After the set, I checked out the merch table and bought a tape and shirt from Patrick of Walter. I talked to him for a bit about the perils of being a left-handed guitarist and complimented his unusual style. Walter had left me with a feeling similar to Wand’s opening set for Ty Segall last year. Wand, another band from L.A., is featured basically weekly on my show and I can’t praise them enough. That’s the coolest part about going to shows like this for me. Of course everyone knows Ty Segall. But there is something absolutely magical happening for rock music in the entire city of Los Angeles, and it was all on display Sunday night.
CHECK OUT
FUZZ – II from In the Red Records
FUZZ II
WALTER – GET WELL SOON from Burger Records
https://waltergreatband.bandcamp.com/
http://burgerrecords.11spot.com/walter-get-well-soon-cassette-pre-order.html
BOTTOMFEEDERS – NEON NIGHT on Bandcamp
https://bottomfeedermusic.bandcamp.com/album/neon-night