Artists: Dave Hause, Northcote
Venue: The Satellite
Date: Thursday, February 27, 2020
Last Thursday brought Philly’s Dave Hause (of our #5 Album of 2019 fame) to Los Angeles’ The Satellite in Silverlake.
95% of the time, I make a point of arriving to a venue early to catch the opening act. Unfortunately due to a work engagement, I wasn’t able to arrive at the venue until part way through opener Northcote‘s set, but I was grateful for what I was able to catch. Belting out emotionally rich, piercing folks songs, singer/songwriter Matt Goud brought grace and humor to his opening set, and easily converted me into a fan by his set’s end. 
With little time in between sets, Dave Hause came on stage with his backing group The Mermaid (which includes his brother and co-songwriter Tim Hause), and launched into the energetic “Eye Aye I” from Kick, and kept things steadily rolling from there, pleasing the crowd with streaming-hit “We Could Be Kings”, and then the anthemic “Saboteurs”. The next highlight was single “The Flinch” from 2017’s Bury Me in Philly, which retains it’s empowering pull in a live setting.
Hause’s amiable banter and interaction with the crowd was a good blend of humility, pathos and irreverence. As the drummer and bassist took a break, the Hause brothers showed off their slowed down, acoustic version of “Paradise”, with Dave admitting his disappointment in himself for not realizing how much better the song sounded in that stripped down form. Prior to the hefty “Bearing Down”, he gave a heartfelt reminder about the importance of maintaining mental health and asking for help when needed, which resonated strongly as the song referenced Robin Williams and Hunter Thompson in its lyrics.
After returning the rock to the rock show with the moodier “Civil Lies” and rager “Dirty Fucker”, Hause skipped the normal “stage leave” prior to the encore, and used the time to take an ardent fan’s request for “Jane”, from his original band The Loved Ones. Taking the request in good humor, Hause proceeded to play the song while also taking swipes at its lack of a chorus, at one point telling the fan something along the lines of “it’s not as good as you think it is”. To prove this point, Hause proceeded to insert choruses from other songs into “Jane”, including The Bouncing Souls‘ “Gone” and a snippet of Menzingers to show how much better it would be with an actual chorus. The fan was simply happy to hear the song in any form.
With that lark finished, Hause finished with a strong trio: the honest adulthood ballad “Fireflies”, the thoughtful “Time Will Tell” from 2011’s Resolutions, and closed things off powerfully with Kick‘s lead single “The Ditch” (our #3 song of 2019). It’s a song I’ve been waiting to singalong to in a live setting since first hearing it, so the performance of it felt cathartic and jubilant. It was the perfect way to conclude a satisfying show of memorable punk rock goodness.
Check out some of the excellent music by Dave Hause and Northcote below:
The Indy Review 