Recap LSD And The Search For God at Hi-Dive

When your band is called LSD And The Search For God, there are certain expectations; for example, hallucinogenic live shows that unfold like that crazy graveyard scene from Easy Rider. As the San Francisco act took the stage Tuesday night at the Hi-Dive, the bartender appropriately quipped, “It's about to get weird in here.” But hope for a mind-altering, possibly spiritual experience wasn’t totally fulfilled as the band put out a lot of loud, pretty, and pretty loud noises that transpired into an overall by-the-book shoegaze sound.

Shoegaze is defined by a certain sonic aesthetic—a wall of sound, a loud-quiet-loud kind composition run through an insane number of effects pedals—and LSD had that down pat. Singer-guitarist Andy Liszt's breathy voice hauntingly resembled that of Seam's Sooyoung Park, and the band seemed to have studied from the same manual as Chicago's Airiel. Waves of distorted and flanged rhythm guitar hit with sparkly, heavily processed leads, and churning, quarter-note bass lines played against crashing drums. It was certainly dreamy, the kind of noise that encourages the mind to wander off.

Despite these layers, there was nothing much to engage the audience beyond sheer volume. Neat-sounding effects were plentiful (thanks to the guitarists' dozens of pedals), but otherwise it was all simple pop tunes. The members of LSD never spoke to the audience, not even offering a thank you; instead the band kept the loops of ambient sound flowing between songs with no break in the music. The group occasionally whispered and nodded to each other, but aside from these small gestures, there was no indication that they even existed on the same plane of reality as the crowd.

Which brings us back to this: Would it be possible for the LSD guys to even be on LSD at every stop on the tour? It seemed like that's what they were going for from this show, or maybe the band members were just concentrating really hard on the effects pedals.