There are bands with a coastal sound. Bands that only seem to play in either California or New York. Bands that you don’t expect to see in the middle of Ohio on a Monday night. La Luz is one of those bands.
From Seattle, La Luz plays the kind of psychedelic and fuzzy surf rock with guitar that catches you by surprise in the best ways. If you listened to the music alone, without any knowledge of the band, there’d be little shock if you were told they were a band from the 60s or 70s.
It’s not exactly the music that fits an outsider’s view of Columbus or Ohio. Perceptions be damned, that’s exactly the music that boomed out of Ace of Cups Monday night.
Columbus was the final stop on a three-week East Coast tour, that followed a two-week European tour, before going on a two-week West Coast tour. What reads like an exhausting endeavor didn’t mean La Luz phoned it in playing in what likely felt like a random Midwest city. Well, they did phone one part of it.
At 11 am, Zac Little of Columbus’ own Saintseneca received a call from the band saying they needed a last-minute opener. With Mia Joy unavailable for the Columbus date, Little stepped in for a solo opening act. Armed with a 12-string guitar, bass and no guitar pick, Little, who was jokingly on stage with all his friends, gave the crowd a more intimate sounding Saintseneca set.
Little added effects to make the sound match closer to the full band set, and even debuted a new unreleased song for the grateful crowd, which seemed to keep coming in through the duration of his 40-minute set and up through the first couple songs of La Luz.
Look around the crowd as it hit near sellout capacity and it wasn’t your usual small venue audience. La Luz’ ageless kind of sound attracted folks from all age ranges. There were the usual 20-year-olds alongside folks who made someone like me in their late 30s feel closer to the former.
After La Luz and their sound tech, all in matching white lab coats, set up their equipment for the evening, which included a blowup alien, flowers wrapped around the microphone stands, the four-member band hid behind a giant googley-eyed shining silver and gold sun and made their way onto the stage.
Swaying from right to left to Roy Ayer’s Ubiquity’s “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” La Luz, which is Spanish for “the light,” made it to their stations and brought a 20-song effortless set to life.
Touring for their new album “News of the Universe,” La Luz didn’t stick with the new stuff. They added a diverse mix from six different releases over their 11 years.
The second song of the night, “I Wanna Be Alone (With You),” started with drumming from Audrey Paris Johnson felt like you were part of the drum set, in the best way. A reverberation that helped you begin to drift away into the song before lead singer and guitarist Shana Cleveland drives through a guitar solo that comes out to snap you back.
For the few up-tempo tracks of the night, they were leveled out by what La Luz does best with their instrumental-driven songs that fills the space with what can best be described as an aura.
Then they threw aliens into the crowd for the only crowd surfing of the night.
During “Strange World” from the new album. Cleveland tossed the green alien from the stage and another appeared from the back, getting bounced around through the “ba ba baaahs” harmonizing from the band’s front three.
After requesting their safe travel back to the stage, with an ominous Cleveland saying things have happened to them at previous shows (I don’t want to know), La Luz kept the night progressing.
Through choreographed spins from Cleveland and bassist Lee Paige, it was impossible to not move while listening to them play. On keyboards and synth, Maryam Qudus did the tough task of creating live the same sounds she produced on “News of the Universe.”
Between songs, Cleveland shared how her grandma graduated from Ohio State, which elicited an unfortunate “O-H” and responding “I-O” from a part of the crowd. Also, how Monday was the first time the band played in Columbus, despite some in the audience trying to lump Nelsonville into Columbus despite being 60 miles away Ace of Cups.
Geography issues aside, it didn’t feel like a band who’s been touring around the world for months. There are nights at concerts where the grind is evident. If La Luz was battling with the road, it felt like the band was winning. Small hiccups like a guitar effect mistimed or the whammy bar clunking onto stage didn’t slow the band down.
La Luz left the stage after 17 songs but quickly returned for their encore, running onto the stage because Cleveland wanted to give a little extra umph on a Monday. The spins and moves for Cleveland and Paige were traded for a game of chicken as the night wound down. Each taking a different side of the triangular stage and bolting past each other.
Fortunately, their pace still didn’t slow down the music. Then, after almost forgetting to bow at the end of the set, La Luz left the stage, weird fans broke their ribs diving on stage to get a setlist and the city of Columbus was a little better for it all.