We Went There: Horse Lords and Ka Baird at Icehouse

Tuesday’s Horse Lords show had me reeling a bit, juggling in my brain a monologue that ultimately ended with a fairly simply conclusion: time is weird.

When I saw earlier this winter Horse Lords were playing in Minneapolis this week, I thought to myself “I haven’t seen them in a few years.” Then, leading up to the show I saw a the band announce they hadn’t played a show anywhere in North American in *four years.* And then I looked back and realized the last couple times I saw them were in 2014 and 2016, which is a lifetime ago. Much like the band’s music, my brain seems to slide gingerly along the space/time continuum in a way that defies logic. But standing there watching the band Tuesday I was glad to be there in that time and place.

These last few years have been a blink of an eye, and also a grueling slog, but when the band’s hypnotic polyrhythms hit Tuesday from the Icehouse stage, it all stood still for a glorious 75 minutes. To me the band have always been part of the “you have to see them live” variety, even while they’ve dropped some serious heat on their studio LPs. But Tuesday proved that thesis true again, with the four piece showcasing time has only refined their sound and sharpened their edges. This tour is behind their recent (outstanding) live LP, which is as much of a greatest hits as an instrumental band will have, and saw them entering some truly commanding heights.

It was all there: the circular, part Tuareg/part math rock guitar riffs; the galloping bass lines that hold it all together and caused spastic dancing in the crowd; and a mix of either dual drummers or drums and sax (which would go toe to toe with the guitar in snaking melodies through the marching beats) that send things spiraling into ecstasy.

Horse Lords music defies time, in the sense of it never locks in a four on the floor, but also in the sense that each song is its own universe. The pummeling, hypnotic repetition begs the question: did that song last 3 minutes or 17? Is the song over, or is this a dramatic stop to then showcase the band’s tight precision and ability to drop right back into the notched groove? Is this 1960s free jazz, 2000s post rock, 2010s funky math rock? The answer Tuesday night was: yes.

And it’s all exactly how it should be. As I get older, I’ve realized what I assume every other person who is lucky to make it this far finds out: time is slippery. Horse Lords get it. Just ride the wave.

Opening the night was another artist on the always-great RVNG INTL label, sound sculpture Ka Baird, who played a set that balanced sound collages with some mild performance art. It was a one person show, and they had crackling ambient playing from a laptop while they created sometimes lush, sometimes sinister effects from a heavily processed microphone that they pounded on their hip, scraped on the floor or shouted into. At one point they solicited the crowd (who they asked to sit in the semi circle around them while they stalked the floor in front of the stage, at times laying on the ground) to make sounds, which were then added into the mix. There was beauty in the chaos, and it was a welcome introduction to set up their label mates.

You can see Jon’s whole photo set from the evening HERE.