USS had people jumping in Ottawa

On the first show of their new tour, USS got people jumping at the Algonquin Commons Theatre Monday, where their unique blend of alt-rock and electronic effects made for a memorable show.

The band made an immediate impression with their first song “Ying Yang”, where DJ Jason Parsons hyped up the crowd by showing that he could jump-kick almost a metre in the air in time to the music and lights. The man had astounding energy for a guy who has been touring with USS for 10 years now, literally cartwheeling across the stage at one point. At another, he scratched records in time to a song while doing a headstand, facing away from the turntables and kicking his legs. The light show was very impressive throughout, as eight sets of 3-by-3 light grids rotated 360 degrees in time to the music, spelling out “USS” or words from the songs.

Ashley Buchholz’s gravelly vocals and his acoustic guitar work gave the songs a beating heart. On tunes like “This is the Best”, lines like “I don’t care / Party anywhere” were sung with a detached air that gave the fully impassioned singing in the chorus more heft. Some of the songs had a down-to-earth sensibility to them, like the newish “Work Shoes”, about coming home after a long workday, where Buchholz kicked off his own shoes. A brand-new song also fit the mould, which Ashley said is about when you don’t want to get up in the morning but you have to anyway, and you have a remarkable day.

“We’re gonna go hard now, as hard as we can on a Monday night”, shouted Parsons, before launching into another high-energy track that got people moving, often cheering more loudly than the band. These little nods to the realities of working life kept the songs from getting lost amid the drums and pre-programmed sounds on the DJ’s laptop.

But the most remarkable instrument onstage was Ashley’s acoustic guitar. It was nice to hear the humble instrument as high in the mix as the other loud effects, something that smaller bands struggle to get right. Sure enough, with a suitable distortion effect, his acoustic could rumble the room just as well as the other audio effects, but it could also play gently. When Buchholz ended the song “Shipwreck” by playing it solo on acoustic without effects, calmly singing the chorus once more, it felt fitting, because the guitar work had kept the song feeling grounded the whole time.

Simple moments like these gave a break to the crowd between high-energy tunes. At one point Buchholz got out of his comfort zone, as he put it, and played a few songs on piano by himself. Singing “2 15/16” and covering Metric’s “Gimme Sympathy”, the man did seem a touch nervous, lending the performance an intimate charm.

The band was proud to be starting this new tour, 10 years after they began performing live and their songs were first added to rotation on Live 88.5. After asking the audience’s permission to swear, Buchholz said “if you’ve made it to ten, you’re f***ing free,” predicting a long future for the band.

Opener Shotty Horroh effectively mixed rap and rock, with high-energy bars, sung choruses and the occasional guitar solo. The Elwins followed up with exciting indie rock, as lead singer Matthew Sweeney moved effortlessly from high falsettos to baritone crooning. He demonstrated impressive range over catchy hooks, and it’s always nice to see a band make tasteful use of cowbell.

USS, by and large, does not make music for poetry slams at coffee houses; the band makes music to rock the big stage. But with catchy hooks, an energetic set, and the ability to get down to earth when needed, they made a good case for why they belong there.

Written by Aaron Nava

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