“Where’s my ginger ale?” guitarist Jason Shaw asks, looking around for the redhead waitress. It’s midnight at a sports bar in North Hollywood and HRVRD just wrapped up their first-ever L.A. show to a sold-out crowd at Bonnerhaus. Now everyone is starving. “Where’s my bacon?” drummer Tim Cossor chimes in.
Ever since HRVRD rolled into NoHo last night at 3am (September 13th), there’s been a sense of urgency in the air — and rightfully so. The Charlotte, North Carolina quintet are in the midst of their first full U.S. tour, and they’ve been playing to crowds of kids singing every lyric to their 2009 album The Inevitable and I. A timeless debut record within the ranks of Glassjaw’s Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence, the members of HRVRD are in disbelief by such positive reactions from fans.
“Dude, I can’t believe kids on the West Coast are singing our songs,” Shaw says, taking a puff of his electronic cigarette.
A band that has shared the stage with Minus the Bear and opened for Hopesfall’s reunion shows last year, HRVRD (formerly Harvard) are the generation’s destroyers of stale sub-genres ending in “core.” Recently signed to Equal Vision, the group’s forthcoming sophomore album is due early next year — and we have a preview of things to expect.
Over the past few months here at Ryan’s Rock Show, we did some ridiculous renovations to our home/studio in North Hollywood (known as Bonnerhaus). We spent weeks sewing curtains and knocking down walls, and invited some of our favorite bands over to play intimate house shows. And we filmed them all in HD.
The first in our new, ongoing performance video series, we proudly present to you your HRVRD education.
HRVRD Bonnerhaus Set List:
01. French Girls
02. Cardboard Houses
03. On with Disease
Photo by Dorothy Gilbert. Video by Asa Fox.