Featuring highlights from two performances recorded at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre, The Hypochondriacs Live is a testament to the enduring strength of one of New Brunswick’s top live acts.
Matt Carter
Soon everyone will be able to enjoy The Hypochondriacs live on stage, from the comfort of their home. Known across Atlantic Canada for their stellar live shows, The Hypos have taken the time to properly document the group’s live energy with the forthcoming album, The Hypochondriacs Live, which will be officially released April 19.
Recorded over two nights at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre in January of 2024, The Hypochondriacs Live features 18 songs spanning the band’s nearly ten year existence.
“We are super stoked to be putting out this live album,” said the band’s lead singer and guitarist Josh Bravener. “So many of our heroes have put out live albums so it felt like a natural next step for us to do one ourselves. We are currently in the middle of writing a brand new album, and I am a notoriously slow writer so in a sense this was a fun project for us to do in the meantime.”
Since releasing their debut six years ago with The Hypochondriacs in 3/4, the band’s evolution has become a part of each new live performance with new arrangements, plenty of risks, and an enormous amount of musical freedom defining each moment on stage. The group’s last album Waitin’ (2022) introduced the band’s current lineup, solidifying a chemistry others would sell their souls for, as the saying goes.
“Our sound has evolved so, so much,” said Bravener. “New members and more members. The horns, vocals, lead guitar and Andrew’s [Demerchant] drumming has been a slow evolution to our sound since our first record. We wanted to document how far those songs and our sound has come since all the way back then.”
The Hypochondriacs Live features every song the band has recorded so far with even a nod to Bravener’s pre-Hypos solo career with the song OCD. Bookended by the opening and closing songs from the band’s debut, the evening’s setlist works a perfect balance between the group’s original country leanings and it’s more adventurous forays into doo-wop and soul as heard on its last studio album. With extended introductions, daring horn arrangements, confident vocal harmonies and blistering solos throughout, the album serves as an ideal look back over the band’s fast developing career leaving audiences wondering where the band will go from here. It’s been a thrilling ride so far. And The Hypochondriacs Live is all the proof we need to know wherever the band takes us next, it’s going to be a good time.
