CHON strips down "Homey" album with string trio for World Cafe Live

Last night, San Francisco’s CHON, a household name for those familiar with the math rock genre, brought their fall tour supporting their newest LP, Homey, to World Cafe Live. But, before I get too far into the headliner, I need to talk about the opening band, Lite.

Lite, copyright Dylan Eddinger Photography

Hailing from Tokyo, Japan, Lite also finds themselves firmly situated in the math/prog genre. Together for more than 14 years, Lite has a significant and extensive discography of complex, off-kilter rhythms, and heavy, emotional soundscapes. Every song they played during their opening set was instrumental, jam-packed with that atypical, totally recognizable math-tapping guitar technique and heavy, heavy bass notes. You’d think it might be difficult to stand through a forty-minute instrumental set, but I didn’t want it to end. It was ethereal, electric, and mesmerizing. Something I noticed with both Lite and CHON was that, unless the song really starts to dig into itself, there’s very little movement between band members. Playing music this technical must take a sort of concentration that I can’t even fathom, and that’s partly why watching these sets was so cool.

This CHON tour features their June release Homey in its entirety, joined by a string trio and keys. I wish it hadn’t taken me this long to see a CHON show, because I’ve heard so much about them for years, but I think this was definitely the one to see. I love when bands stick to one release and play it front to back. (My friends and CHON’s in Circa Survive are big fans of this, and often times those are their best shows).

CHON, copyright Dylan Eddinger Photography

Watching CHON play is nothing short of hypnotizing. If you don’t appreciate the complexity behind the riffs they play, or the literal math that goes into perfecting such bizarre time signatures, then you’re at the wrong show. Their sound is clean and unfiltered and based heavily in the guitar tapping method that Lite also implements in their work. I have major respect for people who are able to write and play such difficult compositions.

As far as Homey goes, it’s a bright eclectic album, that has the ability to feel both structured and completely deconstructed at the same time. I credit that to the irregular timing and frequent stops and starts. But there’s nothing in this album that isn’t purposeful. All instruments are so cohesive and together and I’d be surprised if there were any mistakes made last night. Everything about Homey works, and the added factor of strings and a keyboard help to amplify those background noises in the soundscape that you might have missed.

CHON, copyright Dylan Eddinger Photography

This was honestly the most pleasing show I’ve seen in a little while, and my schedule has been jam packed with concerts lately. It’s rare that I get to see bands who are so focused on the technicalities, so it was nice to sit back and truly appreciate CHON for their composition as well as their innate ability to stay so focused onstage. If you have a chance to catch them on the east coast during this tour, you should go. It’s another perspective of Homey that you might not be able to see live again.