I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 10, 2024] Omni

Omni is a trio from Atlanta. I hadn’t heard of them and thought they were a new band.  Well, they are, but the members of the band have been around for a while.  Guitarist Frankie Broyles on guitar was in Deerhunter.  Drummer Chris Yonker has been in some other bands that I didn’t know and Philip Frobos on vocals and bass has been in Carnivores.

This explains why this band of, what I assumed were young newbies, was so confident playing their off-kilter post punk.  And probably explains why I loved their set immediately.

I was in front of Frobos and it was cool watching him play bass lines that were more like lead lines than simply rhythm.  I also really liked the sound of his bass–clean but not sharp.

I was pretty far from Broyles, but I enjoyed that he played interesting guitar lines that complemented the bass–but it basically meant there was no simply chord playing going on.

Granite Kiss was staccato with fluid lead guitar lines over the stomping bass and drums. 

There were times, like on Afterlife, where Broyles would play an angular chord and Frobos would play the main melody–a cool twist on standard song form.

The songs sounded heavier than on the record–or maybe I was just closer to the bass and the bass was really loud.  But you could still hear the guitar.  Like the way Broyles was all over the neck in the verses of Equestrian.

I was pretty impressed that Frobos could sing a fairly standard vocal line over the complicated bass of Forever Beginner.

The biggest surprise came when they said they were going to do a cover.  I totally recognized the lyrics but could not in any way figure out what the song was because they deconstructed it so much.  It turned out to be a post-punk take on Sheryl Crow’s All I Wanna Do.    You can see them play it on KEXP here.  It’s pretty great.

I don’t want to overlook drummer Chris Yonker.  Without him the whole thing would fall apart.   Consequently, he couldn’t do anything flashy.  But he was essential to the set.

My wife jokes with me  that I love the opening bands and she hates them.  But I feel like I have had some amazing luck with opening bands.  Omni was a fantastic find and I’m happy they opened for Yard Act.  I will definitely see them again if they come around.

SETLIST