Tempo No Tempo, maus haus
November 5th at the Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco

My Thursday of this week was punctuated by some excellent local music. I made it out to the Rickshaw to finally see maus haus—I’d caught the very end of a set some time back, but knew they were well worth seeing again. And again and again. maus haus is a six-piece art-rock band that layers and loops glitchy fractured beats to create tracks that make you move, but mostly make your ears perk up to uncover the elements that make up their off-kilter sound. Citing Brian Wilson, Kraftwerk, and surrealism as influences, maus haus occupies a similarly cerebral space, sonically and thematically. An array of instrumentation is implemented into their songs; on this night, they opened their set with a small selection of horned instrumentalists, apparently on loan from SF band Battlehooch (known for setting up impromptu shows outside of supermarkets or on gritty urban sidewalks).

The rest of the set was manned by maus haus alone, trading off on an assortment of instruments, including two drums, synthesizer, Hammond Organ, saxophone, flute, keyboard, and guitar, all spilling in and out of each other to mold their arty, seamless compositions. Backed by a dizzying projection of colors and disparate film sequences, from old black and white 35mm images to psychedelic spreads, maus haus proved to be of a caliber unmatched by most of their musical contemporaries, the kind of artistic act that earns San Francisco its reputation for breeding eclectic and inventive new music.

Headlining band Tempo No Tempo was celebrating the release of their newest album Waking Heat, and the trio, oft compared to Q and Not U, create danceable, angular rock that transformed the area in front of the stage to a full-on mosh pit. In fact, 75 percent of the crowd there to watch the end of their set was front and center, taking part in the dance party that resulted from the explosive sound they were emitting. The deep bass-y grooves that sat alongside the tinkering of the snare drum fed some of my song favorites, but Tempo No Tempo’s set as a whole was clearly one for the crowds… kids were eatin’ it up. A fantastic and well-received show, which delivered me on this Thursday night to a humble and appreciative realization of the sort of talent that’s brewing on the very same streets on which I live. Sometimes I need these kinds of reminders.

Watch: maus haus, “We Used Technology” [at youtube.com]

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