Austin darkwave trio Urban Heat return to Orlando for a Will's show

"Have you ever got a second chance ..."

Austin darkwave trio Urban Heat play Will's Pub this week as the only Florida stop on their current tour. But it's not their first time here. The band — Jonathan Horstmann, Pax Foley and Kevin Naquin — played Orlando earlier this summer, also at Will's, to a fairly rabid crowd of goths that seemingly materialized out of nowhere.

"You never know what to expect heading to a new city, but yeah Orlando turned out for us," says singer/guitarist Horstmann. "The venue itself was one of the cooler, more iconic ones we’ve played. It’s always nice to have a solid crowd at a storied spot like that."

As we are old and thus not good at the internet, we had no clue that Urban Heat had gone viral on TikTok with their song "Have You Ever?" in much the same way that fellow goth- adjacent acts Vision Video and Molchat Doma had. Their dramatically raised profile has yielded two headlining tours, festival appearances and even a spot on Twin Tribes tour next year. (A big deal for vampires.)

"I feel like it’s a crapshoot. I don’t really approach socials as a way to grow as much as a way to strengthen our relationship with our existing fans," says Horstmann of the fickle nature of the internet. "It’s much more sustainable when it feels like you’re updating friends rather than trying to grab a stranger’s attention. And then sometimes lightning strikes like 'Have You Ever' and you just try and ride the wave. But you never expect that sort of thing."

Urban Heat live is a compelling watch — and listen — with bassist Foley and electronics overseer Naquin holding down a propulsive foundation for towering frontman Horstmann to pretty much just go off. It's hard to take your eyes off him as he sweats and broods, eventually stripping down to bondage gear.

"We've experimented a lot," said Horstmann to Soundsphere. " I think it's cool when the band has the era around the new album. You can remember a point where Depeche Mode had the bondage stuff and so I really jumped on to that."

Another thing we really like about Urban Heat is that it's goddamned great to see people of color making compelling and powerful sounds within this oft lily-white genre (and we're not talking about the makeup). Along with acts like Scary Black, Woven In, Light Asylum and Black Rose Burning, Urban Heat have the potential to be crucial crossover voices in darkwave and post-punk.

Oh and they may very well have a new fragrance as merch for this upcoming show — the sweet scent of averted catastrophe.

"There will be a new fragrance but not really by choice. We were in a car accident in Cleveland and the only thing destroyed was my perfume making supplies. I couldn’t get the raw materials fast enough to reproduce our current fragrance from the road but I’ve got some other stuff in the works. If it all works out we’ll have a limited roll-on called 'The Show Must Go On' that’s cedar, amber, and cannabis flower."

Check 'em out for yourself. Live. Not on TikTok, for goth's sake.

Urban Heat plays Will's on Tuesday, Dec. 12 with Rare DM, Super Passive and DJ Amaryllis.