Twenty years ago, Devendra Banhart and Noah Georgeson recorded a loop somewhere in Venice Beach and filed it away. When the two eventually joined forces with Gyan Riley to make HUG — the self-titled debut from the trio of the same name, out September 11 on Luaka Bop — that loop resurfaced as “Catatumbo.” The story of how the album came together is similar: assembled in three weeks from a creative friendship that had been building for decades. HUG plays the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA on Friday, October 9 at 8:00 p.m.
About the Show
HUG is Devendra Banhart, Gyan Riley, and Noah Georgeson, performing material from their collaborative debut as a trio. Banhart has been a touchstone of freak folk since the early 2000s, when Michael Gira’s Young God imprint released his first recordings to immediate critical attention; Georgeson produced his records during that same period before going on to work with Joanna Newsom and Bert Jansch’s Black Swan (2006), and later studied under avant-garde composers Pauline Oliveros and Fred Frith. Riley carries a particular lineage: the son of minimalist composer Terry Riley, he grew up alongside Georgeson in Nevada City, California, the two of them bonding over classical guitar as teenagers before each moved toward experimental and contemporary music.
Together they made something that functions, in the words of the MASS MoCA event listing, as a bait and switch: “You read the spine and — especially if you’re familiar with the work of Devendra or Gyan or Noah — you think, this is a guitar trio.” It isn’t, or at least not only. The album draws on folk, ambient, and experimental traditions alongside field recordings, gamelan, reggae, and New Age influences, following no single genre’s rules. Glide Magazine called it “sedate, contemplative” and simultaneously “charming and complex, playful and serious, ambient and structured” — ultimately “a step out of the vein for all three men into something only the three of them could make.” Their debut single “Cow With Half Moon Parasol” drew praise from the New York Times for its “pinging acoustic guitars and field-recorded textures.” The MASS MoCA date follows an October 8 show at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City; the tour continues to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Constellation in Chicago, and Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco.
Venue & Logistics
The Hunter Center at MASS MoCA sits within the museum complex in North Adams, in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts — a destination worth the drive for audiences across the capital region. The performance is fully seated, which suits the music.
Tickets
Advance tickets are $46 general admission and $76 preferred; week-of pricing rises to $56. MASS MoCA members receive discounted rates and avoid processing fees (account login required). Maximum four tickets per purchase. Buy tickets