Legendary Organic Trip-Hop Ensemble OTO Reunites Tonight in Downtown Phoenix

By Benjamin Leatherman Fri., Mar. 1 2013 at 1:30 PM

Categories: Up on the Sun

Continued from page 3

Courtesy of OTO

Coppé microphone and other gear at last night's practice session.

All good thing have to come to an end, however, and OTO was no exception. First, Huerta quit suddenly in 2001 after a losing his shit during blowup with Driescher while mixing their self-titled album, which the keyboardist says was from a "perfect storm" of bad timing, personal issues, internal band drama, exhaustion, and the stress of production.

"It was so hard to be involved in that project, so many strong personalities involved. And I foolishly left on an emotional decision," he says. "And I've regretted it to this day. It was a really great record and a really great band with a lot of really talented musicians."

Then, Coppé dropped out later that year because of family issues and internal band drama.

"My papa was sick, so I had to go back home to Japan," she says. "And around the same time I was getting into this brand new [effects processor] called Kaoss Pad. And every time I sung I needed to use that baby, making my voice like 'waaaaaaaah' and they got sick and tired of it."

Applewhite says that OTO didn't stick around long after that.

"It was really over after Micah was gone and then after Coppe left. It was just completely dead. It was right around then that we played that last show at Bash on Ash [in December 2001]. It wasn't the same, sp we decided to split ways. There hasn't been anything for like more than a decade."

Until tonight, however, when OTO does a special one-off at one of The Quincy's parties. The reunion came about after Coppé was paying a visit to the Valley from Tokyo and decided to reconnect with some of her old bandmates. Bad memories and past breakups were all forgotten, things began to gel once again, and everyone seemed game for one more show. Huerta, who now lives in Baltimore, booked a last-minute plane ticket for the occasion.

"When we first were jamming tonight, it was like no time passed at all," Huerta says. "I looked around and we all had these shit-eating grins on our faces. It feels like riding a bike only you're like really drunk . . . It's hard but fun."

Oto is scheduled to perform tonight at 10 p.m. in Downtown Phoenix. Admission is $5. Visit The Quincy's Facebook page later today for the location of the party.