Last weekend, Panther Hollow delivered candid lyrics and distinctive melodies on-stage in the LES.
It’s Saturday night and in Pianos, the showroom is crowded. The audience, dipped in deep purple by the stage lights, waits in anticipation as the night’s final act maneuvers on-stage. Following performances from fellow Brooklyn-based bands – including Modern Diet and Abraham King – the members of Panther Hollow pluck guitar and bass strings, patter a snare drum, and finger trumpet keys in preparation for performing.
Composed of Bernardo Ochoa, Matti Dunietz, Dan Hemerlein, and Evan Lane, Panther Hollow formed after the members met at NYU. As the frontman and songwriter of the group, Ochoa views the band as an opportunity to offer listeners an intimate view of himself, while bringing together a diverse range of sounds through the percussion, bass and trumpet contributed by his fellow band members.
Last Saturday, the band opened with a track titled, “Jamie.” In terms of Ochoa’s promise of intimacy, this song delivered; the frontman sang of daydreams and frustrations, of blooming crushes and missed opportunities. The musicians merged his dreamlike lyrics with soothing rhythms and harmonies. Over a mixture of tender and textured sounds, lines about record players and cigarette ashes rooted the song in real experiences of being young, smitten and even a little lonely in the big city.
Midway through their set, Panther Hollow ditched the tender tones, instead offering riffs closer to the sounds of garage rock. These sounds particularly registered in the song “Coffee Cups” and later in “Office.” In both tracks, Ochoa’s vocals and dynamic guitar riffs mixed with tight percussion from Dunietz and easy bass by Hemerlein. All the while, Lane’s bright trumpet-playing cut through the traditional sounds associated with indie-rock, providing audience members with a killer, fresh performance both lyrically and sonically.
Panther Hollow’s music seems tied together by the stories embedded in every song. Each track performed at Pianos shared the memory of a person, a moment, a feeling. From the opening songs of “Jamie” and “Paranoia,” to the closing songs of “Office” and “HannahLee,” the narrative threads guided listeners through growing-up and figuring it out; what was harbored and what was left behind by the artists; and how any moment can become art, as long as it leaves you with a feeling worth remembering.
On May 31st, Panther Hollow are self-releasing their debut EP titled People Synesthesia. Characterized by Ochoa as “a stylistically diverse collection of portraits and transient feelings, recorded in basements, bedrooms, and professional studios for academic projects,” People Synesthesia guarantees to extend the band’s inner-world to a wider audience, capturing and sharing auras from Panther Hollow’s past and present.
Panther Hollow’s music is available to stream on Spotify and Soundcloud. It is available to download on Bandcamp and iTunes.
For upcoming tour dates, events, or just to get in touch with the band, check out their Facebook page.
Featured Image Credit: Camille Petricola (via Panther Hollow).
Concert Photography Credit: Peter Slattery.
