Respected local band Exit Clov rightly bills itself as a band much greater than the sum of its parts. Born from “three worlds collided” — a musical marriage between talented twins Susan and Emily Hsu, the rhythm section of the Sneeks (bassist Brett Niederman and drummer John Thayer), and former Adoption Agency guitarist Aaron Leeder, Exit Clov stoke sturm und drang from lilting melodies and an oceanic jam. They are, typically, a fine band, with gorgeous and delicate musical eccentricities and loose, jaunty rhythms.

Sadly, so much of what makes Exit Clov an exceptional band was lost amid the murk at the Black Cat Friday night. A sound mix that one could only describe as tragically awful buried the band in a dreadful bass-heavy murk, effectively burying the band’s intricate keyboard lines and the Hsu sisters’ gorgeous harmony vocals in an inky fog. The band seemed to be having trouble with their bass guitar as well — many in the audience remarked that it seemed out of tune. This DCist attended the show with not one, but two experienced bass players, both of whom felt it was just as likely that the sound mix’s low end resonance was so distorted as to give the illusion that the bass was off by a step.

Having seen Exit Clov play the Staccato Lounge in Adams Morgan — a perfectly serviceable rock club that’s nobody’s idea of a gold-standard sound system — it was shocking that the mix at the Black Cat was so undeniably poor. Standing right next to the chucklehead at the board, it was perplexing to imagine that anyone in that proximity could listen to the show and think, “Yeah, this sounds great right here.”