Live Review: Oh Pep!

"Can't keep up with all these duos brah, I mean, which one is Oh and which one is Pep?" To answer this stranger's question as we wait inside the Corner Hotel bandroom, the Pep in Oh Pep! refers to multi-instrumentalist, Pepita Emmerichs. And the Oh? Guitarist and lead singer Oh-livia Hally? Seems likely.

Hally walks onto the lonely stage with an acoustic guitar in hand and the crowd hushes almost instantly. After a few minutes of solo singin', she's joined by Emmerichs on mandolin along with a bass player and drummer. The rhythm section kicks things into a higher gear (for indie-pop anyway) and then out comes a mandolin solo from Emmerichs. And crikey, what a mandolin player she is! Her wobbly, unhinged playing dips up and down the neck with frequent trips to the forbidden zone above the tenth fret. Not to get too carried away here, but with the number of shifts and funny little atonal melodies in her playing, it's like listening to Robert Fripp under the influence of bluegrass.

Five songs in and a four-piece of violin players appear on stage to add what some dorky writers would describe as "lush instrumentation" to these songs. It's nice for a little bit until a trio of equally skilled back-up singers enters from the other side of the stage too - and then it officially becomes too nice. Hally is a quality singer with an obvious power and range to her voice, yet we never really get to see her flex these vocal muscles. Unfortunately, it's pretty plain. To quote the man himself, Stephen Malkmus: "If a voice is just too nice, without an edge, it all kinda flows by. You forget it. You don't listen to the lyrics." And for such a lyrically focused band like Oh Pep!, their quest to achieve sonic beauty is harming their chances at grabbing some originality and substance.

The string players leave and the band jumps into What's The Deal With David?, a lively song that turns the gentle sway of the crowd into more of an enthusiastic twist. It's a good song, as many of the tunes from these two definitely are. It's just that for right now, Oh Pep! are a promising group, rather than a great one. We're aware that in a journalistic world where every new band is promoted as "the next big thing" that's "definitely going places" a sentence like that is a little hard to believe. But their potential truly is genuine. And if the stripped-back, unreleased encore song 'Enlightenment' is anything to chew on, these two are well on their way to reaching their full artistic capability.