Moon Sand Land's live act showcases a uniquely spirited and soulful indie band at the height of their powers.
Reviewed by Alex "Ash" Han
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Stream Moon Sand Land's existing discography via their LinkTree page!
LATE ONE WEDNESDAY NIGHT, I extricated myself from the anxiety-ridden depths of attempting to prepare for my Music History presentation (which was due that Friday, and prior to that Wednesday had not been started), and ventured across Brooklyn into Queens to see a five-piece indie band by the name of Moon Sand Land. Though I was unfamiliar with their work prior to the show, I was convinced to come by Moon Sand Land's synth specialist, fellow MTech senior Taylor Hurt, whom I already knew as the keyboardist and backing vocalist for the prolific MTech psychedelic indie outfit Strawberry Launch. As if my own personal soft spot for Strawberry Launch's existing discography wasn't enough, Taylor also occupies the unique position of being one of the nicest people I've ever met, while also possessing an insanely good musician's ear alongside a level of sheer musicianship that routinely has me questioning how I somehow managed to wander into the same undergraduate program as her! Suffice it to say, my academic duties could wait—the prospect of getting to see Moon Sand Land performing live had me genuinely excited and ready to watch what I was sure would be a wonderful show.
Sundown Bar, located in the heart of Ridgewood just off the M line, made for a really intimate setting. After a short detour down a warmly-lit staircase, I emerged into the performance space in the surprisingly spacious basement of the bar. Vibes in there felt good, even to a stone-cold sober soul such as myself, and the space felt small enough to be cozy without being so tight as to be claustrophobic. I got a distinctly homely vibe from the soft purple and blue spotlights and Christmas-like LED lights decorating the walls around the stage, in conjunction with the candlelit tables up and down the room; it made for a nice, intimate hybrid between a dance floor and lounge space. I brushed shoulders with a few bargoers as I made my way to the front of the floor, put on my earplugs, and waited for the show to begin.
Pictured above: Jason Ross, lead vocalist & guitarist in Moon Sand Land. Photography courtesy of @keeganbaroneart on Instagram!
“Any
day that involves a rehearsal or show is a highlight of my week. I get
such joy out of playing these songs for people and the best part is that
I can get to share the spotlight with such immensely talented people.
Playing music has to be fun, otherwise why do it?” –Jason Ross, lead
vocalist & guitarist
The night kicked off in epic fashion, as the band took the stage and came blasting out of the gates with a blistering rendition of "Red Strangers", the third track on their 2021 LP We Buy Smiles. Armed with a pounding 7/4 pulse and forceful guitar riffs, Moon Sand Land left a crater-sized impression that immediately set the tone for the rest of the night. Jason Ross, Moon Sand Land's frontman and lead vocalist, had a hell of a stage presence that made itself known right away. His vocals were excellent, maintaining a certain tenderness that was right at home amidst the cozy purple & green soft lighting of Sundown Bar, and rising to a truly cathartic fever pitch during the setlist's climactic peaks. He was hitting dance moves all over the place, spinning and jumping around with seemingly boundless energy, leaving no doubt that he was having a ton of fun up there. Jason's performance was nothing short of magnetic, filling the room with a perpetual charisma that the rest of the band matched at every turn; the seamless transition out of the end of "Red Strangers" to the palm-muted opening lick of the funky, nu-disco cut "New Matters" saw the infectious chemistry between our guitarists and rhythm section propel us forward with an even-greater sense of momentum.
Pictured above: Alex Scheitinger (front), Moon Sand Land's bassist and backing vocalist, alongside Kai Barshack (back), Moon Sand Land's enigmatic drummer. Photography courtesy of @keeganbaroneart on Instagram!
“The Sundown show felt really special since it was the first time we’ve played in front of a crowd in over a month since our Hartford show, which I consider one of our best. Don’t get me wrong, New England crowds are sweet, but building off that momentum it was so sweet to come home and play a gig on our home turf… The new songs really shined more than ever and I couldn’t have asked for a more receptive audience or more kind bands to share the bill with.” –Alex Scheitinger, bassist & backing vocalist
Indeed, it was with "New Matters" that I first got a taste of the intrinsic funk inherent to Moon Sand Land's style. The bassist, Alex Scheitinger, played what appeared to be a Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI, a six-stringed Jaguar-style bass guitar typically tuned a full octave below standard guitar tuning. He brought a ton of super funky rhythmic passages, combining with the drummer to form a lethally solid and infectiously fun rhythm section. His backing vocals entered the show sporadically, serving mostly as additional flavor in select spots, but when they did appear, it made for a wonderfully tasteful augmentation to the band's already towering sound. Speaking of, the drummer, Kai Barshack, kept a very solid pulse throughout with a ton of fun spot fills and extra touches that gave the groove a huge, larger-than-life personality. He also wore a massive grin on his face pretty much the whole time, which for me just spoke to the amount of fun they were having. Lead guitarist Daniel Lerner played a Gibson SG through a massive, complex pedalboard, combining creative use of wah, delay, and chorus into a simple yet incredibly effective modular sound that allowed him to slide from tight indie funk to all-out headbanger rock with ease. He played with masterful precision alongside an innate sense of soul, bringing a tightly focused, well-rounded performance that not only showcased a ton of technical proficiency, but also complemented Jason's performance on rhythm guitar and vocals in a powerhouse duo that largely stole the show and carried us through the night.
Pictured above: An instance of a uniquely common phenomenon throughout the show, wherein Daniel (left) and Taylor (right) moved so fast they started to blur! Photography courtesy of… well, me, actually, which explains the blur. Dammit, Jim, I'm a musician, not a photographer.
“This was truly one for the books… the Sundown Bar show felt like the most in-sync and connected show we'd played. It was one of those shows that served as a reminder for why we make music, why we perform live, why we exist in this industry and put ourselves out there. I really consider myself lucky to be in this band of close friends, where we get to share our sound with great people in really cool spaces. Wednesday's show was seriously special." –Daniel Lerner, lead guitarist
That's not to say that the synergy with the rest of the band was lacking at all, though, as they never seemed to be in danger of falling out of sync, and maintained a resolutely locked-in performance that radiated the feel of a group that's been playing together a very, very long time. This was perhaps showcased nowhere better than the band's incredible performance of "Burning", a new song that as of now remains unreleased. I hope the studio version, when it does come out, maintains the same raw energy as I got from the live version, which hit like a sledgehammer in the best possible way! This song marked the only point in the band's hour-long set where I got pulled out of the experience, though only because I was headbanging so hard I thought I lost an earring, and I had to stop dancing in order to make sure it was still attached! It was only once I'd stopped headbanging that I noticed that everyone else around me was still going. The entire basement was reduced to a sea of heads, thoroughly immersed and captivated by the music, bobbing up and down in perfect unison; the multicolored waves of hair, locked in sync with one another, made a rather definitive statement—it was Moon Sand Land's world, and we were just along for the ride.
Pictured above: Drummer Kai Barshack's signature stank face, captured here during the band's performance of "Table Tennis". Photography courtesy of yours truly!
“We’ve been using our most recent shows to test out new material and it’s incredibly gratifying when songs like 'Burning' and 'Table Tennis' can hold their weight against “Cut the Carpets”. In fact, [our show at Sundown] was the best that we played 'Burning' yet! Now that we have a baseline for how it should sound, I’m excited to see how that one flourishes at future shows.” –Jason Ross, lead vocalist & guitarist
We got a bit of a come-down moment a ways into the night, when Jason unexpectedly cued the band into a cover of The Spinners' 1972 R&B classic "I'll Be Around", which made for a vibe switch that felt wholly earned and natural. In contrast to the original rendition's upbeat horn sections, soulful layers of backing vocals, and vinyl-crackle warmth, the Moon Sand Land rendition embraced a sort of smaller-scale intimacy built on Jason's evocative vocals and Daniel's verdant washes of guitars. I hadn't expected such a hard-hitting, kinetic, force-of-nature band like Moon Sand Land to pull off a cover like this, but their humble, almost-rootsy approach, visible elsewhere in songs like "Slow Street", translated remarkably well to their rendering of an essential Motown classic.
Pictured above: Taylor Hurt, flying across the keys. Photography courtesy of @keeganbaroneart on Instagram!
“Our show at the Sundown Bar was hands down the best show we’ve ever played, at least in my opinion. It’s not about whether or not the songs were the tightest we’ve ever played them, it’s totally about the energy we brought to the room and the amount of fun we were having on stage. That night we were all locked in the same wavelength of enjoyment, and I think the audience felt that too. I always have so much fun playing these shows and I can never stop dancing when I’m playing with MSL!” –Taylor Hurt, keyboardist & synth player
Perhaps my singular (mostly tongue-in-cheek) point of contention with the show was the lack of a Taylor Hurt keyboard solo! No, Taylor's contributions to the soundscape were mostly pretty economical—but an extra pad layer here and there did a lot to beef up the sound of Moon Sand Land, which filled the Sundown basement with a sense of scale that for me evoked the feeling of a much, much larger arena. When Taylor's Juno-6 did break through the surface as a lead instrument, it never failed to put a smile on my face—sometimes, less truly is more, and Taylor's usage of the synthesizer as an occasional flavoring rather than as a core element of the Moon Sand Land sound made those moments when we got a taste of it that much sweeter.
By the time we reached the finale, the We Buy Smiles opener "Cut the Carpets", it felt to me like the energy in the room had carried us all the way to the moon and back, and yet no one onstage seemed tired in the slightest. The band proceeded to pull out a breakneck, earth-shaking rendition of the song from somewhere deep in their seemingly boundless reserves of energy, and the track's soaring, modal-interchange-driven chorus hit with the same sheer force of exultation that they'd wielded when they first made their bombastic entrance. Kai well and truly let it rip on the drums, imbuing the song with a kinetic, driving pulse that snowballed with Alex's relentless bass playing to create a thundering, unstoppable groove; buoyed by Taylor's touches of ambient sparkle, Daniel's guitar skyrocketed to a towering, meteoric wail, and Jason's cathartic, soaring chants of "so cut the carpets" took on this oddly freeing quality to them, as if, just for a few more minutes, we could forget about the rest of the world and enjoy this moment together. The show ended after a well-spent hour, but something tells me that it could have gone on for another full hour, and I still would have felt that it ended too soon.
Pictured above: Jason delivers heartfelt vocals during the band's performance of "Burning". Photography courtesy of yours truly!
Suffice it to say, there's a long list of things to love about Moon Sand Land's live act. It's been a long while since I've seen a group of artists locked in such perfect synergy with their audience, and Moon Sand Land delivered a truly ascendant experience that seemingly effortlessly swept up and captivated a whole room. It was clear to me that the band was having loads of fun, and that gave them a uniquely radiant stage presence that permeated the experiences of everyone watching; it was impossible to watch them, lost in the musical nirvana they'd created up there, without smiling or tapping my feet or moving in time to the groove. For what it's worth, the band seemed extremely well-rehearsed and experienced, but something tells me that each member of Moon Sand Land could have suddenly started playing in a different time signature than the next and I might not have noticed or cared; I was utterly swept up in the experience, lost in the music, that singular hour filled not so much with clear memory as it is colorful, vivid flashes of a full-body experience I suspect I'm not going to see again anytime soon. In summary, this little basement gig beneath Sundown Bar was one of the best live shows I've seen in a long time. Moon Sand Land did say they buy smiles, but that Wednesday night, they gave away a whole room's worth for free. Go see them, and perhaps you'll leave wearing one of your own as well.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Moon Sand Land is playing on Monday, April 17th, at Crossroads in Garwood, New Jersey, and again on Sunday, April 23rd, at the Windjammer Bar in Ridgewood, Queens! Go see them—I promise you won't regret it.
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