Relative newcomers Moon Hooch have been getting a lot of recognition recently from the hosts of NPR Music after their discovery last year at SxSW. Earlier in the week, I happened to look up their tour schedule and discover that they would be at the Square Roots Festival in a few days. I decided to stop by the outdoor street festival, held in Lincoln Square, for this one set. I arrived as they were just about to start but a couple hundred people were already gathered around the stage, though it was still easy to walk to the front of the stage.The band consists of three members, dueling saxophonists Mike Wilbur and Wenzl McGowen backed by drummer James Muschler. Other than the occasional chant/spoken word bit, Moon Hooch is a purely instrumental act without any vocals. Nonetheless, their sound is quite modern and unique, kind of a blend of jazz and house music, house music on jazz instruments. The band describes it as “Cave Music, like House, but it’s more wild, more jagged, more free, more natural to live in.” The music is infectious; it’s hard to NOT dance along to the beat. Judging by the crowd; I don’t think I was the only one to feel this way.
The two saxophonists are both amazingly talented musicians, very technically proficient in their craft. They manage an impressive breathing technique in which they are breathing in through their nose and out through the horn, though I couldn't tell if it was happening the same time as per the circular breathing technique.
Mike Wilbur played the tenor sax exclusively, while Wenzl McGowen switched between various saxophones and saxophone-like instruments including the tenor and baritone saxophone as well as the contrabass clarinet. The clarinet sounded like a dubstep didgeridoo; I’m not sure if that’s the natural sound or if it was altered through some type of effect. For one song, he also added a large traffic cone to the bell of his saxophone horn to deepen the sound.
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