Ola Podrida officially launched its July tour in support of 2009’s Belly of the Lion at the Mohawk last Thursday night with a satisfying 12-song set. It was raining outside when Ola Podrida took the stage in Mohawk’s cozy wood-flanked indoor space. David Wingo opened his mouth to pour out his first inciting words of the evening: “Let’s go raid your father’s basement.” The visceral images of prank calls and nudey mags set to blankety guitars were clean as ever as Wingo led us into his friend’s father’s basement with his soft somber nostalgia. The audience was full of people slowly nodding their heads to the lush music, adults indulging in memories from the narrator’s youth, who were unknowingly attesting to how evocative Wingo’s use of detail is, both musically and lyrically.
Wingo playfully twanged into the stellar “The Closest We Will Ever Be,” and mounted steadily into the deadslung dare to “come cast one on me.” Perhaps the most poignant moment of the night was when the band performed “Donkey,” the title track from Belly of the Lion. Wingo’s drawl cracked with honesty as he confessed “in the belly of the lion, I’ve been tryin’ to breathe through his nose” and then the band broke into a series of anthemic, crushing lalalala’s. David Wingo seems to have an understanding of music so deeply felt, it can cause movies that don’t exist to happen in one’s mind. On “Jordanna,” Wingo practically burned a hole in his guitar from strumming so hard. His poetic sensibilities were undeniable as he crashed his voice into the microphone with rhythmic undulations of exaggerated middle syllables of each word.
Between songs, Wingo was relateable, once prematurely switching to banjo and realizing it said, “fake-out banjo alert, just keeping you on your toes,” as he slung his guitar back on again. Wingo played guitar for 11 of the 12 tunes in gray new balances and a Cleveland Cavaliers t-shirt. He remained in the same outfit but switched to banjo for the closer “Cindy.” Backboning the stage in a cross-array of pearl snaps and rolled sleeves were David Hobizal on drums, Andrew Kenny (American Analog Set) on bass, and Colin Swietek (Corrina Corrina) on guitar. Other set standouts included the slide guitar landscaped “Sink or Swim” and the tenderly picked “Photo Booth” off of the band’s self-titled debut.
Before Ola Podrida came on, Wingo stood amongst the audience and watched the vinyl-crackle-voiced Bosque Brown perform, one of the band’s openers. Dana Falconberry opened as well. An acoustic guitar, a drum, and the crinkling of a newspaper page complemented her performance. Ola Podrida heads to Houston tonight and from there will continue east.
–Lauren Hardy (photo by Stephan Laackman)