A music legend -- on the hipster scene -- played Iota last week, but you wouldn't necessarily know it. That's because you weren't there, but also because Neil Michael Hagerty chooses to step only slightly into the front. If he wasn't the one standing center stage and acknowledging the band between songs, and if his singing and guitar playing weren't so familiar, he could have been anyone. After decades in the great noisy punk band Pussy Galore and the slower-paced, stoned, disjointed-groove group Royal Trux, Hagerty remains happy to be merely a member of a band, albeit the remarkably talented member, and all of his Howling Hex mates took on equal roles.
The Howling Hex was more up tempo than Royal Trux, but Hex still plays in that country and R&B territory that Trux used to trash. The band played a cheap trick with their opener/closer -- part one and part two of the same song bookending the set -- but it was a great mood setter to start the show. Saxophone gave it a '50s swing, but the distorted guitar takes it right into mid-'70s CBGB.
The books in between mostly leaned toward the grit of the gutter. The Rolling Stones is the obvious reference point here, but The Howling Hex has that rough, lo-fi, slacker sloppiness that keeps a band far away from arena stages. Thankfully. A warm, soulful set like this is best heard in much smaller, hearthy environs like Iota's. At times there's also a kinship with Brian Jonestown Massacre. Like that band, The Howling Hex will take a Stonesy song and run it through psychedelic distortion.
The band ignored its sunnier songs as well as its experimental noise, so the mood was consistent: haunting, twisted, steady-foot-stomping roots rock. This lineup lacks a bass player, but Hagerty more than compensates with his baritone guitar, and when he takes the lead the music comes together and really drives. He and percussionists Phil Jenks and Andy MacLeod make the songs while the saxophone and lead guitar wander about. "Hammer and Bluebird" sounded like some of the funkier Royal Trux stuff with fewer quirks. It's got a beat worth a hip-hop ripoff, and like most of the newer material, it holds together better and rambles less than it does on record.
Everyone in the band takes their turn singing -- Jenks' near-rap, speak-sing thing was engaging -- but probably the worst singer was the most entertaining. MacLeod stepped out from the kit to sing "Live Wire," a swamp country rocker with cool, weighty grooves and Mike Saenz' distorted freelancing on guitar. MacLeod wailed, compensating for his untrained voice with playful energy. But as much as it was a collaboration, Hagerty's presence still commands the stage, and his influence directs the music.
Opener The Scourge of the Sea also plays roots rock, but keys and a cellist allows the band to dabble in chamber pop, like the first half of "Hookers," which eventually builds to a set-closing-worthy crescendo. The band is at its best when its rocking out, but it never approaches the snarl of The Howling Hex. One of their best songs was their prettiest, the mellow, alt-country of "Chasing Roses."
