Anyone who thinks that 2025 does not offer the appropriate musical landscape for a gritty garage rock hybrid of early Nirvana, Weezer, and the Smiths hasn’t heard California’s Archer Oh. Since launching in 2017, they’ve gone from independently recording several bedroom EPs to touring with Keana Reeves’s band Dogstar and now celebrating the February release of their first studio album, The Internal Theater.
Headlining at Chicago’s Cobra Lounge last Friday, the band fired up a youthful, mosh-friendly audience—my 30something friend and I may have been the oldest people in the crowd, save for some relatives of the phenomenal opening band Orange Dog Club—with a tight, raucous set that saw lead vocalist and guitarist Arturo “Archie” Medrano drenched in sweat approximately four songs in. (I heard at least two instances of audience members impassionately pleaing, “Marry me, Archie!”)
Archer Oh epitomizes the rock snob cliche of, “The record is good, but you have to see them live.” Before the show, I previewed The Internal Theater and a few of their earlier songs and liked what I heard, but on stage, their relentless hunger is unmistakable. Cobra Lounge is not a venue you go to for great acoustics and deep listening; its draw is in its intimacy and energy, two factors the band used to its benefit on cuts like “This Isn’t You,” which called to mind Nirvana’s punk-flavored cover of “Love Buzz.”
Medrano carried most of the weight as far as the band’s stage presence is considered, with bassist Juan Cabrero, drummer Pedro Hernandez, and lead guitarist Diego Jacuinde generally adopting a more casual vibe. That did nothing to slow down the audience, who seemed especially excited to sing along with “Enemy, Oh Me” off the band’s 2022 Gradients record.
Though Archer Oh may not be a groundbreaking band—yet—their promising trajectory makes them one worth watching.