Hana Vu gave a resounding reminder of the rip-roaring sonics that rumble at the heart of her growing raw alt-rock catalog at the Lodge Room in Highland Park on Friday night. As the final U.S. stop on her tour, the hometown show saw the live debut of songs from her most recent record, Romanticism, and crowd favorites from her last album, Public Storage.
The last time we caught her was at The Moroccan Lounge, a similarly intimate venue, one that Vu and her band left a smoldering wreck of virulent but earnest angst. The Lodge Room suffered a similar fate as it was filled with the soaring laments of “Hammer” and the soul-baring bittersweetness of “22,” her music an ever-sincere translation of a deeply rooted, youthful unease.
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It helps that—when performed live—her songs carry a fearsome sonic weight. The bass charges the very air as roiling waves of guitars rumble through the crowd like shockwaves, propelling her dire but rousing wails right through you. It doesn’t take much for Vu to have fans raving, dancing, and hopelessly caught up in the fiery melodrama of her music.
Even songs like “Aubade,” a lively track that always gets the crowd moving, were rendered into ecstatic head-bangers as its melody became a riveting hammer of scorched riffs. “April Fool,” the slow-burning intro to her last LP, had its poignant but gutting lyricism accented with a fittingly clamorous finish.
Babebee—a close friend of Vu—opened the night with an immersion into the alt-pop dreamworlds of her whatislove2u? EP and A PROPHECY LP. Ebullient yet moody, her lush melodies build toward rapturous climaxes that are just as sure to leave you a chaotic mess of emotions as they are to have you in a whirlwind of cathartic release on the dancefloor.
Words & Photos: Steven Ward
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