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Return of the Love Panda: H-Beam brings the weird
By JOHN BENSON
H-Beam visionary Matt Walberg can’t wait to bring his Nashville-based rock act back to Youngstown. He’s played the city in recent years, and his musical variety show rolls into town again Friday for a gig at the Lemon Grove, which at last check was located north of the Mason-Dixon Line. The guitarist-singer said this means his band may be channeling its harder rock soul.
“We’ve got a couple of covers in the mix for this show,” said Walberg, calling from the Music City. “There might be a little bit of Faith No More and ZZ Top when we go up north. We like to get a little heavy when we come up there. We’ve done a lot of touring in the southeast and they dig it, but whenever we go to Ohio, the metal tends to come out a little more, and we get heavier.
“But we’re a product of our environment. If the crowd is into it and wants some heavy stuff, we’ll get pretty heavy. And if they want to dance all night, we’ll find a way to facilitate.”
Purveying dance and rock vibes since its inception six years ago, H-Beam is about to record a follow-up to its 2009 debut album, “The Useful Box of Hair.” When it comes to describing the project, Walberg gets a bit, well, schizophrenic. Then again, we are talking about a band that channels a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” motif replete with wacky characters to create an esoteric, psychedelic rock ’n’ roll event.
“It’ll be an independent release; we do all of this in-house,” Walberg said. “We have a great team of individuals. Part of me says the next album is going to be a little bit weirder than the last one. And part of me says I have no idea what to expect. And then the other part says it’s just going to be an album people can have a good time with. There’s a lot of diversity in the album.”
He added, “We get a lot of [Flaming] Lips comparisons. They’re one of my biggest influences. I remember seeing them when I was younger and just being blown away by the stage show. I was also a big Peewee Herman fan. So you have The Lips, Frank Zappa.”
Considering Walberg grew up watching his musical producer dad work with Jim Henson (“Sesame Street,” “The Muppet Show”), the influence on H-Beam is far from subtle.
“It’s obvious I was exposed to that stuff probably a little bit too much,” Walberg said, laughing.
Speaking of odd characters, there are roughly half a dozen that could make an appearance on stage; however, it’s The Love Panda that stands out as becoming synonymous with H-Beam. In fact, in Walberg’s mind, the wild animal is a distant cousin of Conan O’Brien’s popular character The Masturbating Bear, which the comedian can no longer use because NBC owns its rights. That’s why Walberg has been busy pitching the O’Brien camp on including his Love Panda into their new WTBS show debuting this fall. So far, O’Brien is not biting, but he may not understand Walberg’s perseverance.
Just look at the fact what started out as a quintessential indie-rock power trio has successfully grown into a variety show that would make The Flaming Lips blush. Local audiences attending the upcoming H-Beam show are guaranteed to see something rare.
“Some might come out of the show feeling a little bit confused, while others might think they just had one of the most unique rock ’n’ roll experiences they ever experienced,” Walberg said. “I know it’s been a pretty unique experience for myself. So most people leave either pretty exited and happy or still pretty happy but confused, nonetheless.”