Sweat, Spit, and Stage Dives; Osees @ Union Transfer

Follow WHIP TwitterFacebookInstagram

Photos By: Tom Didomenico

Written By: Tom Didomenico

Guitar knobs replaced with assorted Dungeons & Dragons dice. A near two-hour, sold-out show
with performances spanning across twelve of their twenty-eight studio albums. Not one, but two
drummers.
Osees, ordinary? Anything but.
And that’s exactly what the fans adore.
In the final stretch of the group’s anticipated 2024 conquest of the United States, the esteemed
California garage punk outfit have come to take the stage by storm once more, this time for their
sixth Union Transfer takeover since 2018. Their recurring appearances have created a beloved tradition for local fans.

Preceding the show, John Dwyer (Osees’ frontman and all-around musical wizard) ritualistically
blessed the stage, pacing around with burning incense. After that, the band jumped right into the
action with an instrumental cover of the intro to Pink Floyd’s seminal hit, “Interstellar
Overdrive”. From then on, Dwyer and his band would command the audience like an army into
battle. Dwyer’s primal, guttural screams felt like war cries and his chord strikes resembled rapid
gunfire.

The band continued the set with “Plastic Plant”, a space-y energic track that immediately had the
crowd jumping with the first strike of guitar strings. The two drummers, Dan Rincon and Paul
Quattrone, were so perfectly in sync at times, that they seemed almost robotic. Yet, at times, the
duo would deviate from their (seemingly programmed) parallel drumming and perform these
incredible asynchronous accompaniments that left me utterly dumbfounded. The next song, “The
Static God”, showcased the full capabilities of the band’s doubled percussion. This song leaves
no room to breathe. All of the typical empty space expected in an ordinary song is packed with
drum fills and screeches (whether that be from Dwyer’s guitar or Dwyer himself). But, as I
mentioned before, Osees are anything but ordinary.

Later in the show, the band performed “Drug City”. This song was chock full of Dwyer’s aforementioned war cries and blood-curdling screams. The raw energy produced by this song had everyone jumping, even Dwyer himself. Dwyer stage-dived into the crowd, narrowly missing me and others with his sneakers.

Shortly afterward, he apologized, saying: “If I did hurt
anyone, you can kick me in the balls after the show. I’ll take
my punishment, dude.”

Next, he jokingly remarks “This next song we haven’t played
here since last year… we play it every night. If we don’t play
it, then I have a fourteen-year-old on Reddit being like
‘Dude, what the f***!’. You know those fourteen-year-olds
can be…” What immediately followed his short declaration
was an extraordinary combination of two lively tracks, “The
Dream” and “The Daily Heavy”.

“The Daily Heavy” was held down with an incredible bass performance by Tim Hellman. Although it was one of the grooviest songs of the night, it did not stop the audience from moshing and crowd-surfing. There was more crowd surfing that night than I could count on my fingers and toes. It should also be mentioned that not all crowd-surf attempts were successful; Bodies dropped, and shoes flew, but everyone got back up, eager to keep dancing.

Osees ended the show with the perfect comedown song, “Minotaur”, the closer to their 2013 album Floating Coffin. Keyboardist Tomas Dolas infused the song with a peculiar, psychedelic ambiance, adding a soothing layer to the performance. Dwyer’s closing remarks were “Thank you Philadelphia. See you next year!”

The band’s live performances are well-regarded for their high-energy unpredictability, so my
expectations were already sky-high. But from the very first note, they blew past my highest
expectations, delivering a performance more intense and electrifying than I ever could have anticipated. Osees’ cohesive yet chaotic cacophony of experimental rock is an inimitable live experience and is, without a doubt, one of the most incredibly impressive performances I have seen thus far.

SETLIST:

1. Interstellar Overdrive (Pink Floyd Cover)
2. Plastic Plant
3. The Static God
4. Tidal Wave
5. Funeral Solution
6. A Foul Form
7. Chem-Farmer / Nite Expo
8. Blank Chems
9. Gelatinous Cube
10. I Come from the Mountain
11. Withered Hand
12. Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster
13. Animated Violence
14. Drug City
15. The Dream / The Daily Heavy
16. Intercepted Message
17. Encrypted Bounce (Jam)
18. Tunnel Time
19. C (Jam)
20. Minotaur

Compiled By: Ava Mosby