Haerts at Shaky Knees, Atlanta, May 8, 2015

Photo by Shaky Knees

Haerts is an American indie pop band from Brooklyn, New York fronted by vocalist Nini Fabi. Members of the band were born in Germany, England, and the U.S., and met while they were students at the Iceland Academy of the Arts.  Three of the band members, including Nini Fabi, graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston and eventually moved to Brooklyn, signing with Columbia Records.  Their 2012 debut single, Wings, received substantial airplay and was featured as a KEXP Song of the Day.  The group has toured with bands such as the Shout Out Louds, Atlas Genius,Washed Out, and St. Lucia.

We've seen Haerts once before, in 2013 at Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square during MFNW (RIP) on the day after we saw Surfer Blood at the totally awesome Marmoset day party.  At the time, we had never heard of Haerts, but were intrigued as they were opening for Dan Deacon and Animal Collective and, based on the headliners, were expecting them to be a psychedelic rock band.

Reviewing that performance, I wrote:

They weren't bad at all but somehow never quite clicked with me.  I couldn't quite figure out what they were doing, or where their music was supposed to be taking us.  I subsequently came to realize that part of the reason for my lack of involvement was that I was watching the show from a comfortable but distant position on the steps way toward the back of the Square, back by the food and beer vendors and the more talkative element of the audience.  My sight line was unimpeded, but that distance tends to let one be easily distracted from the music, and without a familiar song or sound to hook me in and hold my attention, it wandered and I became disaffected.  So what I'm trying to say here, Haerts, is that it wasn't you, it was me.

As noted above, in 2013 we hadn't yet heard of Haerts, and to be honest, I haven't heard much about them since.  However, during last weekend's Shaky Knees Festival, I walked away from the Peachtree Stage where Surfer Blood had been playing and went to the Piedmont Stage where Haerts were about to perform and met two young women there who were carrying a "We [Heart] Haerts" sign and told me Haerts was their sole and entire reason for coming to Shaky Knees.  So, obviously, they've developed a fan base.

They weren't bad at all but somehow never quite clicked with me.  I couldn't quite figure out what they were doing, or where their music was supposed to be taking us.  They were definitely more pop than rock and while not at all unpleasant, the songs weren't familiar enough to click with me (the veridical system) or compelling enough to draw me in (the sequential system). Still, if you like intelligent, well crafted pop rock, you're probably already into Haerts, even if it isn't quite my thing. Sorry Haerts, it isn't you, it's me.

Okay, so two days' posts and I've covered only the first two sets of a three-day festival, or 1 hour, 15 minutes of a 30-plus hour event.  I either have to figure out a more efficient way of covering things, or resign myself to posting about one band per day over the next several weeks (or until I get bored and move on to something else).