The Oh Hellos bring nine-piece folk-rock ensemble to Strummer’s

Tyler and Maggie Heath did one show as a duo, just the two sibling’s voices and an acoustic guitar.

Immediately, they brought in a drummer and bass guitar.

“It still felt empty,” says Tyler Heath, who started the Texas folk-rock duo The Oh Hellos with his sister in 2011.

The pair kept adding members until there was an almost circus sized group of performers cramming the stage each night. Depending on the gig, the pair could be joined by more than a dozen musicians, pulled from their tight-knight scene of friends.

For the pair’s tour, which stops Tuesday, Sept. 22, at Strummer’s, The Oh Hellos are running 10 people strong — nine musicians including the Heaths, plus someone to run the sound.

“The live show is the transition,” Maggie Heath says, on the phone from Colorado, where the band played the Four Corners Folk Festival.

On recordings (2012’s “Though the Deep Dark Valley” and the soon-to-be-released “Dear Wormwood”), the Heaths play all the instruments, layering sonic elements on top of each other as the song progress. The live show attempts to recreate the layered production the pair gets in the studio.

It’s not perfect, Maggie Heath says.

The instrumentation isn’t always the same. The live performance tends to be louder and more acrobatic, Maggie says. She means high-energy. Several of the musicians play in metal bands back home. The intensity tends to bleed through.

Musically, The Oh Hellos play eclectic folk rock, taking cues from Fleet Foxes, Sufjan Stevens, Los Campesinos, The Lumineers and The Muppets.

Fozzie Bear is of particular interest, Tyler Heath says.

You can expect plenty of dancing at a The Oh Hellos show. There will be some bad jokes told, too: “But with a lot of enthusiasm,” Maggie Heath says.

This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 9:00 PM with the headline "The Oh Hellos bring nine-piece folk-rock ensemble to Strummer’s."