Photo by Mickey Pierre-Louis
Day three of Gov Ball had already hit the ground running after a hot plate performance by the School of Rock Brooklyn, leaving Oklahoma City surf-rockers, Husbands, with the heavy responsibility of keeping the show on the road. “Looks like a lot of people going to the Chappell [Roan] later on," Danny Davis, lead singer, chuckled out into the early afternoon crowd. The audience was already dressed in Chappell cosplay and sweat stained merch bought earlier in the weekend, but that didn't seem to bother Husbands, as they quickly dove headfirst into "Can't Do Anything," from their 2023 LP, CUATRO.
Husbands were just the right band to bill to help open the most anticipated day of the weekend. They were unfazed by the already impatient crowd that was clearly queuing up for artists later in the day, happily moving from song to song, chord to chord, like nothing else mattered outside of their 30 square foot bubble up on that stage, like nothing could have been more important than hitting the next note with the same intensity as the last. That, I think, is what made the Husbands set so special. There were no fancy theatrics, no catered and doctored outfits, none of that; just four guys, four instruments, four minds and bodies acting as one to put forward something with a little positivity. Husbands is a band of regular guys, the everymen, the guys that know what we need to hear because they need to hear it most.
Alberto Roubert, Husbands' drummer began to beat that kick drum to death, signaling the intro to "Used To Surf," intriguing and firing up the crowd as the band calmly swelled into the first verse. The sun was beating down on all the Chappell fans in the audience, mixing perfectly with Husbands' sweet summer sounds, compelling every unsuspecting onlooker to dance about the main stage dust bowl. It was like watching street busking, the drumming and bass playing from Roubert and bassist Ethan Wilcox could be felt deep in the soles of tour feet, you could see what little grass was left in front of the stage jumping in time with the hypnotic rhythm section.
By the time the fellas moved into "Vangelis" and "Must Be A Cop," the crowd was already well on board with the spell Husbands was casting, but several fans had yet to start dancing; perhaps still on the fence about them or just too tired from the previous days. But even the most skeptic of Chappell fans were finally broken down as the band grooved through their last two songs, "She's a Betty" and "Mexico," from their 2020 record After the Gold Rush Party. These are two of the most summery sounding summertime songs, two songs so beachy that they would have made The Beach Boys proud, easily winning over the still hesitant crowd, producing outbursts of joyful laughter and Stevie Nicks-esque dance moves across the sea of Chappell campers.
It was the perfect ending to a delightful set, playing the songs the way they're meant to be played, with the passion a thousand OKC Thunder fans for a lawn trampling crowd with smiles tattooed across their lips under the hot summer sun. But don't just take my word for it, check out our backstage interview with Husbands' lead singer, Danny Davis, down below.
Let's start it off easy, how are you feeling after your set today?
Feeling great man, its always kind of a euphoric feeling after finishing the set, because before then, you have all these concerns and you sort of feel like you're being neurotic about things, or at least I'm being neurotic about things. Once you're done, it's like, 'alright, who am I going to see?' We love music and now we just get to have a good time. SZA's tonight, we saw Beach Fossils earlier, they're great.
Oh, we're huge fans of Beach Fossils
Love those guys, man, they're hilarious; huge inspiration for us, great to see them. I saw half of them and half of Chappell Roan after that.
She was just excellent, wasn't she?
She's like a superstar, man!
Out of nowhere, superstar!
Out of nowhere, superstar! It's fun to see it as its skyrocketing.
Can we expect a cover of "HOT TO GO!" soon then?"
Maybe, man! We got a lot of covers, really. When we do covers, we kind of go back in time, but respect to that song, incredible songwriting.
You started off early in the day, second on the bill. That was a real hard act to follow coming up after School of Rock Brooklyn.
Dude, they killed it! That School of Rock went through Fleetwood Mac songs, they were playing these bangers across the ages. And their instrumentation, they were really, really good. Incredible.
They put a huge emphasis on not only technical ability, but also on showmanship at the School of Rock, they play it like the movie.
Let's rock today, let's rock today.
Exactly! But as far as being billed so early in the day, do you think there are some drawbacks to that slot or do you find thats the best time to pull up new fans?
I think we're sort of in the 'happy to be here' camp. It's cool to dream of being later on in the day, but as it stands, we're just stoked, man. We're just an indie band playing surf songs. We had a good time, it was a fun crowd, there were people out there with Thunder jerseys on, which was cool. I was vibing with that Thunder guy out there. But honestly, it's cool to think about being later on in the day, but we're just stoked to be here.
And we're stoked to have you. But speaking of being landlocked Krautrockers--
Oh, yeah!
What advice do you have for young listeners and young artists, or people looking for new genres that they may not normally be exposed to in their area?
I think just being curious is a thing that's inside you, so if you're not curious... (Davis raised eyebrows and shrugged his shoulder) Just be curious, focus on the value of just a curious mindset; go out and talk to people, listen to things that don't immediately land with you as it relates to just expanding horizons. Just be curious. I think being curious and being intentional about curiosity is a cool thing to think about, because otherwise you can just coast through and not really think about engaging with life around you. If you start to think, 'oh, yeah, I should engage with all of this,' it kind of comes back to you and rewards you for it.
Yeah! Chase, don't attract, a little Ted Lasso action!
Yeah! Exactly, chase, don't attract. Believe, man, believe!
My last question, my favorite question, what are you listening to right now?
Oooh... alright, this is sort of a deep cut because it was on the Spotify radio after I listened to Being Dead; we toured with a band called Being Dead from Austin, so I will shoutout Being Dead, love that band. But the radio gave me an album called Girls in the Grass by Steve Hiett. It's an instrumental guitar album that was obviously recorded on tape but I love that record.
Husbands will be on tour this fall supporting Cold War Kids.
Rob Lucchesi
Husbands
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