Baus

If a rock song can't speak through just guitar, bass, and drums played together live on a stage, then adding extraneous racket, projecting disorienting visuals, or donning garish outfits probably isn't going to help. Good performances from a core few musicians will engage more than whatever supplementary gimmicks rock bands rely on. For that reason, trios have an especially strong pull on me, and Oakland's BAUS is a prime example of the small-band format. It's rock, demystified, where the players' gestures correlate directly to the music: The athletic motions of BAUS' fretting hands look like the disjointed riffs sound; the drummer's anxious strikes correspond directly to the skittish grooves. Watching a performer whose movement is divorced from the sounds takes us out of the gig, but BAUS forces concertgoers to reckon with the minutiae, nuance, and physicality of rock performance like only a trio can." - Sam Lefebvre, SF Weekly

Founded in January 2012

Mike Morales
Thomas Jackson
Sierra Wendt

Oakland, CA