Hovvdy at the Sinclair, 4/29
It took a while for The Sinclair to fill up for Hovvdy, but by the time opener Molly Parden was hitting her stride on stage, cracking jokes about her self-described “sad songs,” the floor was a tight squeeze and the mezzanine was packed with onlookers. Eventually, Parden got into some “really, really sad” stuff to close out her portion of the show, and by then, not only her comedic exploits, but her graceful guitarwork and powerful vocals, had brought the crowd firmly to her side.
It all made for a smooth transition to the headliner hailing from Austin, Texas. Hovvdy, known for their signature country-tinged brand of laid-back, lofi indie folk, were a wild card for me as far as live performers go. Going in, I had checked out their 2021 full-length album, True Love, which I enjoyed, but I had no clue what to expect when hearing the band in their live iteration.
I was blown out of the metaphorical water. The band captured every dimension of their songs and expanded them plenty of times over, bringing a crystal-clear sense of fullness and vibrancy to every track. This isn’t exactly what you’d expect from a band known for their gentle and sweet ear-catchers, but when they came out playing their new single “Town,” guitar tones fresh and full of energy, with the occasional addition of a gorgeously worked pedal steel, they had already won. As Martin and Taylor closed out the song singing, “You say maybe a break could save you / Could save you / Could save you,” the building roared in approval.
They followed that up with a couple of tracks from previous releases, “Mr. Lee” off Heavy Lifter and “Petal” off Cranberry, before returning to their True Love collection with “1999,” which highlighted the band’s vocal strengths. The crowd’s enthusiasm only grew over the course of the night, and the band’s interactions with everyone between songs fueled a feeling of shared joy and warmth that swept over the room. They kept going with True Love’s light and tender “Junior Day League,” which pieces together thoughts of love against a country backdrop. They followed that with “Lifted,” during which they called on the crowd to sing the chorus with them—a hypnotizing moment of collective harmony.
Given enough time, the crowd started to really get moving. After playing “Runner,” Hovvdy moved to “Blindsided,” a clear favorite among the audience, and a track that came together with plenty of excitement and head bouncing behind it, both on stage and on the floor. It became apparent to me, by that point in the set, that if Martin and Taylor were really getting into performing a track, they’d meet up around the center of the stage and jam out together, jumping around and letting loose with the crowd’s encouragement behind them. This happened pretty frequently at this point in the set: “In The Sun” and “Feel Tall” kept them moving, the live versions adding uptempo enthusiasm and bounce. After a run of four songs that were performed on the quieter side, including “Joy,” “Pretend,” and “One Bottle,” Hovvdy brought out another one of their new singles, “Everything,” with an infectiously warm melody that signaled the show’s peak was about to arrive.
At about this stage in the set, everyone was brimming with the sort of anticipation that only exists with simultaneous recognition of the end that soon awaits and the great songs about to boom through the sound system. This perfect close to the night began with the tune “Cathedral” from 2019’s Heavy Lifter, which built up slowly, all its moving parts coming together and synthesizing into a climax where the drums rise and start crashing as the guitars mesmerize. Eventually, it all folds for the lines “Maybe never come back here / We could stay with our friends / Maybe never come back here / Baby we better hover,” which repeat until the song fades out. They pushed on to “I Never Wanna Make You Sad,” which, with its gentle and genuine outro, got the whole venue singing along in a chorus of voices that played with the vocals coming from the stage, alongside sweet sounds coming from the pedal steel. As the song came to a close, the whole of The Sinclair erupted, and the band ran off stage.
After a short while spent hydrating, they ran back on stage to an extended applause. Two more songs were left to be played, and the first, “Around Again,” brought some more of the lovely pedal steel and a great guitar rhythm at the core of it all. Showcasing the vocals of both Martin and Taylor by allowing them to hit the sweet spot of their range, the track’s harmonies held warmth like a breeze on a summer’s night, and felt a fitting pre-closer. They rounded out the night with “True Love,” the title track from their most recent album, and for good reason: the song carries a lively energy the whole time, and ends with a repeated outro refrain of “Do you believe what I said / That I am the man I say I am?” that the crowd rapidly latched onto, belting it back at the band in full voice. A fitting culmination of everything the band had put into the world that night, this questioning of a lover still left no questions to ask—Hovvdy is, without a doubt, a band to hear live, bringing their softness and sweetness to new heights on stage.