The Thing is the thing to see at Hopscotch

New York-based rock band The Thing delivered a house-shaking opening performance for U.K.-based band The Heavy Heavy at Cat’s Cradle on July 30. The band will play a set at Hopscotch Festival Sept. 5 to bring a fresh energy to the legendary lineup. 

A group of young men, not much older than anyone in the crowd, waltzed on stage and gave a performance that rivaled some fan favorites and destroyed any expectations held about showmanship usurping performance quality. 

Bassist and vocalist, Zane Acord, has been around music his entire life — his dad was a drummer in Cleveland — though Acord’s passion for playing didn’t make a public debut until college. 

“I was just kind of going through the motions, but I had this opportunity, because I moved to Charleston after my sophomore year, and I was there for four years and that's when I started a band called 87 Nights and started playing,” Acord said. “And that's how I fell in love with performing and being a live act.”

Acord and his bandmates, Jack Bradley and Michael Carter, have made music together since high school.

“[Jake, Michael and I] were starting to play with each other around the summer 2017,” Acord said.  “I remember I heard ‘Young Lady, You’re Scaring Me’ by Ron Gallo on the radio, and I was like, I want to write something like that. I want to play music like that.” 

After making the decision to shift their music focus to another style, the band played together all the time to continue making and producing music together. Although they weren’t in college together anymore, they made it a point to see each other and keep up the progress. 

“We just started cooking,” Acord said. “Meeting in either L.A., or Boston or New York, and just started making demos with this project and planted the seed that we wanted to do this if we could, and we just kind of kept at it over the years. Spring break, winter break, while we were at school, we'd always meet up and try to get something out.” 

The audience members close to the stage were stunned at the entrance of the band, especially when Acord began their first song, “You’re the One,” with a soul crushing strum of his Rickenbaker bass.  

With one foot on the monitor, Acord took off crooning. Bradley and Carter brought in a wall of sound on their guitars, all noise bound together by the steady stylings of drummer Lucas Ebeling. The song ended with as much energy as it began, and the audience was ready for more. 

The set continued with smooth transitions and a stage fraternity that included not only the four band members but their instruments as well. During their second song, “Wanna Go to the City,” Jack’s extra long A string became a toothpick; later, it was a pinwheel that matched the head bops and hip sways of the audience. 

Bradley, Carter and Acord pranced around the stage in sync, yet each one maintained an individual sensibility to their performance. Their energy gave no indication of boredom or strain, despite having played over 200 shows since 2022. This is possibly due to their productivity in songwriting, as they’ve already released two LP records and appear to be working on another as their set contained three unreleased songs. 

“We like to record as much as we can, and want to be prolific — we just want to keep touring and make records — I think if you let anything sit for too long, you then have to relearn it,” Acord said. “We just came out of that third record going on tour for three months. We thought, why not just start playing some of these songs just to keep everything fresh for us and, yeah, just have more of a variability for ourselves.”  

The second unreleased song featured a drum solo from Ebeling, and not a single note was taken — the drum kit was captivating. Tempo changes came up often in the set, but this solo cannot be reduced to the trite beat of modern rock. Ebeling showcased the skills he picked up in the New York jazz scene and captained a masterful, oscillating journey of rhythm and tempo. 

Throughout the set, the band fidgeted with their pedals, though this can’t be attributed to a lack of proficiency. Rather, they possessed a sense of spontaneity that gave the audience a feeling that each individual sound was crafted just for their ears. 

It did just that. The audience members who hadn’t heard of the openers before the show had already purchased merch by the time the headliners went onstage. 

Jessica Long considers herself a major HeavyHeavy fan. She attended the show with no conception of the openers, though after the performance had nothing but positive thoughts.

“I absolutely love how they filled the space with sound … the transitions were amazing between songs,” Long said. “I love how they switch singers, like there was so much about them.”

The Thing is on the setlist for Hopscotch on Sept. 5. It’s the last chance to catch the band before it begins a month-long European tour. More information about other bands and artists playing at Hopscotch this year can be found here.