Live Review: Jascha Hoffman at the Make Out Room

Less than a week before Christmas, San Francisco gathered a showcase of local artists to perform both holiday anthems and new musical endeavor at The Make Out Room. The club was sparkling for the season; its ceiling dripped with tinsel, silver stars and colored lights, and its floors graced with decadent Mission scenesters sipping cider and sampling miniature winter-themed cupcakes from a local bakery. Among the several artists on the bill, emerging indie rock crooner, Jascha Hoffman gave one of his only performances this year in the city, debuting a new LP of work to be released in 2012.

Despite the uplifting premise of the evening, the thematic influence of Hoffman’s latest work centers on death, telling tales of life by examining man’s passing. Based on a series of obituaries he uncovered through his research, Hoffman chose to focus each track on one unique account, and while the ultimate result may seem dark in nature, the music proved more inspiring and introspective than somber. 

The San Francisco-based singer-songwriter took the stage solo, playing keyboard with an accompanying musician on guitar, and experimented with just over a half hour’s worth of new material from his recent songwriting retreat in Santa Cruz. It was hippie meets intelligentsia with a splash of retro cool, and the intimate crowd took to Hoffman’s new alchemy of sound.

The set began with a track about the first man to fly a radio-controlled airplane across the ocean. Jovial in spirit and composition, it was one of the more conventionally pop tracks of the evening,. As Hoffman played on however, he eased into his comfort zone, exploring more complex arrangements with a garage-tinged effort midway through, and additionally testing the waters of alternative grunge towards the end. He further jumped fields into country folk with a song about a man who spent four decades making balloon animals at Disneyland, and another about a Maoist from the Manhattan Project.

Hoffman’s strength as a musician lies in his ability to transcend personas and challenge genre conventions, surprising his audience with a variety of song sensibilities. At times, he was Michael Stipe with his soothing melodic chants; other moments, he tapped into the revelry of a singer like Colin Meloy from the Decemberists. Assuredly, there may be kinks to work out as songs are customized and mastered, but the evening demonstrated Hoffman’s power to creatively imagine the world and relay such impressions to a crowd of some of the Bay Area’s more elite musical adherents. With blurred distinction, he interpreted history, music, drama and understanding in a live show, making him certainly one of the city’s emerging acts to follow in the new year.

–Courtney Garcia