Review: Hippie Sabotage at Terminal 5
Hippie Sabotage performed last night at the NYC venue Terminal 5 as a part of their The Beautiful Beyond tour, and it was a sight to see. The brother duo Kevin and Jeff Saurer hail from Sacramento, California.
The doors opened at 8 pm, and the opener, Sebastian Paul, performed at 9 for 45 minutes. Paul was young and glow-y as he performed to the similarly budding crowd. His sound was ambrosial, but I could not get over him singing over his own recorded vocals. He has a great voice, and I would have favored hearing it live instead.
Sabotage went on promptly at 10 pm, and the crowd was loving every second of it. Within two minutes, Kevin had lit a joint and was already off stage and pressed against the barrier to engage with the crowd. He worked his way down the line, giving group hugs to them.
The energy was bright and heavy. When you hear the name Hippie Sabotage, you instantly think of a calm, simple, and psychedelic aura. Psychedelic, yes, but calm would be the last way I would describe their live presence.
Overall, the pair interact with the crowd a ton and perform as “hype men.” As Kevin chanted in his harsh voice, “I don’t give a fuck, what,” the room shakes as it’s repeated in every single song. The crowd went absolutely wild. Also cool was the fact that the duo passed out bottles of water throughout the entire set. At one point, Kevin carried a full case of water, tossing them to the attendees.
They encouraged the horde to crowd-surf, start mosh pits, and give them instructions on how to ‘party.’ The brothers took turns manning the decks. Kevin spent quite a bit of the set in the crowd, and there were occasions where Jeff got out from behind the decks to strike a few bluesy riffs to their songs with his guitar. They performed songs such as “Able to See Me,” “Fast Car,” and a remix of DJ Fuzz‘s hit “Tiger.”
The set was visually stunning, with theatrics of clocks swirling counterclockwise, faces of women, and a field of sunflowers. As the song “Devil Eyes” began, the crowd sang in unison and grooved to the smooth vocals and slow-paced bass track. This was probably my favorite hit of the evening. “Drifter” opened with a guitar solo from Jeffrey and ran into a heavy bass-fueled breakdown but was still mostly guitar-driven.
I was surprised by a few things. First, the crowd was much more adolescent than I had imagined by previewing and listening to the producers. Secondly, as I already mentioned, I was not expecting their performance to be so heavy. Heavy bass, yes, but the “IDGAF” mantra, no. It really is their motto as it was mentioned every few minutes. Finally, the thing I found most bewildering was that the things I found to be odd were the things I found humorous and freeing to me. I felt the more I got through the set, the youth of the crowd was not a negative thing. Their listenership is young, but to me that says they will have a following for a long time coming. And the repeated chanting became routine and lighthearted. I found myself chanting, too, and laughing about it as well. Everyone in the room was dancing, and I enjoyed watching their smiling faces and hearing the room rumble to their trills.
