Album Review: Hermano, Clisson, France
Closing in on a decade after the fact, Hermano‘s appearance at the 2016 Hellfest Open Air Festival in — as the title of the live record puts it in if-you-know-you-know fashion, Clisson, France — was clearly a pivotal moment for the band. Sure enough, there’s a point in the second half of the set, right after “Is This Ok?,” where vocalist John Garcia (ex-Kyuss, ex-Unida, solo, etc.) goes around the stage and says where everyone came from and the reason they were there is “for you.”
The “you” there, of course, is the Hellfest crowd, who erupt in appreciate cheers every time a place is named, from Denver to Joshua Tree and Palm Springs, California, to Cleveland and Atlanta. I don’t know how many in the crowd in France really know where Cleveland is as relates to Atlanta and Palm Springs — that’s West Coast, East Coast and Midwest represented — but for a band who started out in 1998, put out three LPs between then and 2007 and fizzled as members went on to other doings, that had to feel pretty special. Like, I’m sure that’s not the only reason Clisson, France is being released, but if you needed just one, it’d serve.
In 2024, Ripple Music put out Hermano‘s EP When the Moon was High… (review here), with two previously unreleased studio tracks, and four live cuts, three of which, “Love,” “Manager’s Special” and “Senor Moreno’s Plan,” came from this performance. Considering Hermano, prior to 2024, hadn’t had a release of any kind since 2007’s so-much-better-than-I’ve-ever-heard-anyone-give-it-credit-for-being …Into the Exam Room (discussed here), one might forgive the repetition.
Hermano actually appeared again at Hellfest in 2025, so there’s been some return to activity over the last years, and one can’t help but wonder if momentum isn’t leading toward a new studio album even as Garcia, bassist Dandy Brown (The Fizz Fuzz, Orquesta del Desierto, etc.), guitarists Dave Angstrom (Luna Sol, Supafuzz) and Mike Callahan (Disengage) and drummer Chris Leathers (Supafuzz) are all plenty busy besides and geographically dispersed as noted. Nice thought, but for now, the most hint they’re dropping in that regard arrives in the midtempo “Love,” which was ‘the new song’ 10 years ago, and what that means is it was put together sometime after 2007. Maybe table those new LP expectations until the announcement comes through, hmm?
So, taken in its own context, one might think of Clisson, France as a victory lap for an underheralded band, long cast — by me as well — as one of the several in Garcia‘s post-Kyuss ouevre, a ‘John Garcia band’ when in fact they’ve always had more going on, never more so than on …Into the Exam Room. That being said, their focus is earlier in the Hellfest set, as almost the entirety of 2002’s debut, …Only a Suggestion (discussed here) — “The Bottle,” “Alone Jeffe,” “Manager’s Special,” “Senor Moreno’s Plan” and “5 to 5” — and a goodly portion of the 2004 follow-up, Dare I Say…, with “Cowboys Suck,” “My Boy,” “Is This Ok?” and the ripper finale “Angry American” included. Only “Left Side Bleeding,” which opens, and the later “Kentucky” feature from …Into the Exam Room, and there could be any number of reasons for that.
Sales might be one. I know we’re not supposed to talk about that kind of thing because like art happens in an imaginary vaccum somehow distant from the real world it’s speaking to, but if you’re talking about a record that didn’t get its due, sales are one way that might be demonstrated. I don’t have figures on the relative units moved, so I’m not going to say that’s definitely the thing, but if Hermano got more response to their 2002 and 2004 outings, it would make sense that less from the 2007 LP would be included.
The relative complexity of the arrangements from …Into the Exam Room would be another factor, and though I find myself drawn to these incarnations of those songs for the contrast with their layered, more polished studio versions, I recognize that sometimes that kind of thing is hard to bring to life on stage, even with Angstrom and/or Brown doing vocal backups. It’s fun to hear Garcia rip into “Left Side Bleeding,” though, and that song and “Kentucky” serve as a draw to fans who might have bought Hermano‘s Live at W2 sometime in the 21 years since its release wondering what’s distinguishing Clisson, France beyond the passage of time.
Well, that’s part of it. “Angry American,” the two cuts from the third album, “Is This Ok?” and “Love” didn’t appear on Live at W2, which means that seven of the 12 inclusions did, but it’s a different sound, a different space, a different drummer and a different time, so if you’re looking at that on paper and thinking Hermano are repeating themselves needlessly, I think maybe they just have a lot of songs that their audience wants to hear. That “Brother Bjork” isn’t on Clisson, France is a strike against it in comparison to Live at W2, but no way on earth would I trade “Love” or the perfectly rolling “Kentucky” for it. Fortunately, planet earth has room for two Hermano live albums to be released over two decades apart from each other.
But going on a full 10 years after the fact, Hermano‘s 2016 Hellfest appearance was a clear landmark for the band. To wit, I didn’t see them there and have no reason to retain it, yet I knew without reading the press release what year this performance took place. It was an important moment for them as a band. I won’t speculate on what will or won’t take shape from Hermano in the years to come, apart at least from the European touring they’ll do this Spring and perhaps more catalog reissues through Ripple at some point down the line, but if you want to know why people still sweat the band so long after their last record, the answer is written all over Clisson, France, whether it’s the bluesy energy of Angstrom‘s soloing, Garcia‘s belting out the cyclical hook of “My Boy,” or the sheer charge of “Cowboys Suck,” “Angry American” and others here. Maybe it’s a fan-piece. Fine. Let it make you a fan.
