S. Carey, Other Lives, Tor House

Wednesday May 25, 2011
Sophia’s Thai Kitchen, Davis

The only barrier that separated the musicians from the audience members at Sophia’s Thai Kitchen in Davis was a white string of lights. The only items that separated the musicians that made up headliner S. Carey were their own instruments, due to the lack of space on the cozy porch stage. The man playing on the porch that night was Sean Carey, best known as the drummer and vocalist from Bon Iver, who made the wooden panels of the porch move Wednesday night.

The show began with an opening set played by Tor House, aka Daryl Jason Lazaro, who stood and sang in front of the other band’s instruments that were piled on the porch. His set only involved him, his guitar, and a few of his number-one fans and friends in the crowd who demanded an encore.

Shortly after Tor House was finished with his encore, Other Lives warmed up for their set. Originally from Oklahoma, the folksy sounding band admitted they were kind of making things up as they went along. Even if they were improvising, they played their soothing acoustic set with ease and seemed to love every minute of it. But during the middle of their set, a group of people near the bar started to have loud conversations that could be heard over the music. At one point the lead singer was strumming his guitar and mildly glaring at the people who were making obnoxious bar noise and said to the quiet people in the front, “Thank you very much for being polite.” Despite the ruckus, Other Lives finished their set to make way for the sounds of S. Carey.

Sean Carey and his band were playing so close together on the small porch that they could have all joined hands while performing if they wanted to. Carey even said that he was glad to play at such a “unique venue.” They started off their set with a low, ambient hum of the combination of the piano, xylophone, bass, drums and guitar, then gradually moved into their songs. S. Carey is the type of band that would be great to have every night in your living room before bedtime to provide sweet lullabies for a good night’s rest. It was mesmerizing to watch the xylophone player balance the four mallets between his fingers as he would hit the different notes on the giant bars. Sean Carey made sure to thank everyone almost after every song and at one point moved his talent from the back of his piano to the front of a drum. Intimacy is hard to achieve at most outdoor shows because the acoustics can get lost in the fresh air. But Carey and his band made each audience member feel as if they were given a one-on-one session with the music. That night’s intimacy was felt in the audience members keeping warm with the surrounding body heat on a chilly night; the dark red glow on each performer’s face that was provided by the only “stage lights” for the show; the street light turning on in the middle of the set, providing S. Carey a little more stage light for their performance; the crowd of 30 feeling the porch pulsate beneath them while they held Chimay glasses and beer bottles at their side.
Anyone can listen to the music of S. Carey on an iPod, in a video on YouTube, or in the car, but nothing can beat feeling the music on a small porch in Davis.

Best Coast, Wavves, Hunx and His Punx, Royal Baths
Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011
The Regency Ballroom – San Francisco

Hot off the “Summer is Forever” tour, pot-smoking indie rockers Best Coast and Wavves headlined a sold-out ballroom last week for the Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco. The Regency Ballroom is usually a classy venue that is fully decorated with elegant chandeliers and shiny hardwood floors. But on the last Saturday in February, it was quickly turned into a foggy, sweaty, deafening atmosphere, fully equipped with rowdy fans and pot-smoking aliens.

But before the headliners took over the stage, the show began with a mellow start. Openers and San Francisco locals Royal Baths showed off their eerie guitar riffs that echoed around the fog-polluted ballroom, causing a few occasional rock nods from members of the audience.

Soon after, Hunx and His Punx got the Noise Pop party started with their bubbly, body-moving beats. Perhaps it was because the punk band gave off similar vibes to watching the Rocky Horror Picture Show and listening to The Ramones at the same time. Or maybe it was the way the eccentric frontman of the group, Seth Bogart, would strut across the stage and flirt with the audience in his skin-tight leopard-print leggings.

“It really smells like weed backstage. I’m not joking,” Bogart said after he asked the crowd if they were ready for the night’s headlining bands.

When it was time for Wavves to take the stage, the venue was suddenly turned into a raging beach party when band members Nathan Williams and Stephen Pope threw out inflatable beach balls and green aliens.

Ironically enough, moments before Williams incited the sea of audience members into a rock frenzy, he warned the crowd to not hurt an already injured audience member and told everyone to “take a chill pill.” From every corner of the ballroom people could be seen jumping, moshing or yelling the lyrics right back to the band.

During the set, Williams took notice of a white sheet that was floating in the sea of people. It read in black messy writing, “Bluntz after show,” and was decorated with colorful cartoons of green aliens and a blue dinosaur smoking joints.

Before they broke into the song “So Bored,” bassist Stephen Pope grabbed the fan-made sheet and tied it around Williams’ neck over his black Misfits tee, just as a superhero would wear a cape.

Wavves decided to end their punk spree with their hit “Post Acid” that turned the crowd into jumping animals. To end the final note of the song, Williams launched his guitar straight toward the drum set and casually walked off stage.

Afterward, Best Coast walked out to make their second return to Noise Pop, but this time as a headlining band and in front of hundreds more faces. The band started off playing the first few tunes with careless ease until they had trouble starting off one of their new songs.

“I smoked too much weed today,” said frontwoman Bethany Cosentino with a smile and her guitar at hand. So the band decided to skip the song altogether and soon realized that the other members, (bassist) Bobb Bruno and (dummer) Ali Koehler, had different set lists all together. But that didn’t slow the indie rockers from continuing their summer-loving set.

Best Coast pleased the crowd and played through most of their songs that are on their debut album, Crazy for You. Even though the fans were packed indoors like sardines, it felt as if they were taken to the sandy beach to rock out.

When Cosentino broke into the song “Boyfriend,” a young man in the audience was caught lip-synching every word of the song, almost in a trance while he watched the headliners perform within feet of him.

We all know summer can’t last forever. But Best Coast and Wavves brought the warm, carefree feelings of summer just for those few hours during Noise Pop.

Cold War Kids

Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010 – Harlow’s – Sacramento

Before Cold War Kids took the stage in front of the tightly packed crowd at Harlow’s, audience member Valerie Valdez scanned the set list to see what the band had in store for her Thursday night. As soon as she realized her favorite songs weren’t there, she did what any fan would do and made her song request on a used napkin. It said in scribbles, “Hi guys, ‘We Used to Vacation’ [and] ‘St. John,’ Pleez” and placed it right by their set list, so the band would take notice.

After an opening set from We Barbarians, Cold War Kids took the stage with a roar from the audience and immediately went into their new songs, “Royal Blue” and “Finally Begin.” When they started to play a familiar tune, “Mexican Dogs,” the audience couldn’t help but rock their heads to the beat and join the band in singing the vocals.

The audience seemed to be pleasantly surprised that their set mostly centered around their upcoming third album, Mine is Yours, including new tracks, “Louder Than Ever,” “Audience,” “Bulldozer” and “Upside Down,” which resemble the same raw sounds as their 2006 album, Robbers & Cowards. But as soon as the audience recognized “Hang Up to Dry,” there was not a mouth in sight that wasn’t echoing the lyrics right back at the musicians.

The indie rock group was completely focused on their music as each member lost himself while performing. Frontman Nathan Willett not only sang with his bluesy voice but banged away on an old brown piano. At one point, drummer Matt Aveiro was drumming with a drumstick, a maraca and a shaker with beads. Bassist Matt Maust seemed to be in a trance while he used the entire stage, almost colliding into band mate Jonnie Russell. Throughout the set the two members often played their instruments face to face within inches of each other, as if they were the only two people in the entire venue.

Even though the crowd seemed to be unfamiliar with the new tunes, bassist Matt Maust said he likes to stick to playing the new songs.

“It’s who we are right now,” explained Maust after the show, with his arms crossed. Maust admitted that before the show he decided to do a little antique shopping around town. The bass player said he feels a little dislocated in the city of Sacramento because he gets more of a “folksy” vibe from local residents as if he were somewhere in the Midwest. But as for the bittersweet transition from old songs to new ones, “It’s like breaking up with an old girlfriend.”

Who knows if they saw what was scribbled on the dirty napkin next to their set list, but the indie rockers decided to end their set with another crowd favorite, “We Used to Vacation.” During the song, guitarist and vocalist Russell used a maraca to bang on a cymbal that rested on a speaker case while tapping his foot on a tambourine. A lot of bands seem have trouble breaking out from the comfortable territory of their old songs, but Cold War Kids unleashed their new songs with ease.

Dan Deacon
Luigi’s Fungarden, Sacramento, California
Monday, Oct. 19, 2009
Words by Vincent Girimonte
Photos by Samantha Saturday

Dan Deacon’s set at Luigi’s Fungarden on Oct. 19 reminded me of that saying, “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.” Manifesting this was a state worker boogying next to some teenage princess probably 20 years his junior; and Deacon himself, pleading with us to imagine a “sky of hair” above the dance floor. Suffice to say nobody was caring.

The Baltimore-bred electronic artist owns one of the more egalitarian live spectacles you’ll come across, and it’s anything but gimmicky, despite the merch peddler performing interpretative dance (which was a little gimmicky). Dancing around isn’t compulsory, just highly encouraged. If that’s not enough to get you moving, peer pressure eventually kicks in to where anybody not sweating through his or her shirt may as well be the chaperone. The result was a Fungarden smelling “like a farm,” as one hooligan put it.

Deacon set up on the floor, caved in with lights, amps and a throng of impatient youths savagely bouncing around near his board, which looks like it was made on Sesame Street. This preferred dynamic may be his referendum on the typical live performance hierarchy (the artist being up there, and everybody else down here, having all the fun); or, perhaps being among his crowd he can more easily organize dance-offs and the ubiquitous “human tunnel”—each making an appearance at Luigi’s. There’s an element of wedding MC in Deacon’s shtick, the one that comes free with the venue and wants everyone to be happy while waiting for the buffet. Sometimes you need that guy.

I would hesitate to call Bromst, Deacon’s second full-length release and the primary source material for Monday’s set, “experimental” if he himself didn’t sometimes classify it as such. Admittedly, this is probably out of my own misinterpretation of the word “experimental,” as in you can’t shake your ass to it. Live, the tone is surging and rich, bringing to mind that “noise in tune” adage—but this is also pop music, implying some accessibility. Deacon plants playful, trippy melodies on the grinding rhythms and manic live-drum samples, and from there it just goes up and up at a breakneck tempo. It’s the music of frolicking optimists, and resonated well within the snug confines of the Fungarden.

He grabbed the mic every now and then for some cathartic chanting—not that he can sing, really, but nobody seemed to mind. By the end of the show he was Uncle Dan, commiserating with the Sacramento audience as a Baltimorean knowing what it’s like to live in a city consistently ignored by the hotshot indie tours. Though if this reputation is what brought Deacon here in the first place, it is one we can surely live with for a little while longer, at least until Uncle Dan returns.

Vivian Girls, Abe Vigoda, Agent Ribbons, Dog Party

Luigi’s Fun Garden “¢ Friday, April 24, 2009

By Blake Gillespie | Photos by Samantha Saturday

From the deck of Luigi’s Slices & Fun Garden, you could see over the security fence into the Wyclef concert on K St., but inside of the Fun Garden housed the most entertaining performances of the night. Besides, who wants to hear “Ready or Not” without Lauryn Hill? Yes, Pras can stay home.

The wall-to-wall capacity audience in the Fun Garden made it difficult to see the opening band, Dog Party. Granted, Dog Party is comprised of two Sacramento native 12- and 10-year-old sisters, so even working through the bodies to a closer position might not grant visibility.

It is about hearing Dog Party that matters most. Gwendolyn and Lucy Giles are too adorable and punk to be true. I am tempted to assume either they have a rad music teacher or even radder parents pushing good music on a future generation. Dog Party opened with covers of TV on the Radio’s “Young Liars” and followed it with Credence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen Rain?” Surprisingly, it flowed well. Even better, the girls presented a few original songs; mostly simple three cord post-punk about how it blows going back to school. Dog Party gets the nod of approval for sticking around the remainder of the night. There’s nothing more punk than staying out after the streetlights come on.

Agent Ribbons continues to prove they’re meant for attention larger than the Sacramento art galleries. In fact, it’s time Sacramento embrace the Ribbons girls as indie darlings poised for national notoriety before we lose them to some hip coastal city that will value their potential. Agent Ribbons is a delightful balance of blues and baroque—like hearing a set of songs inspired by The Velvet Underground’s “After Hours.” For every gentle nursery rhyme about the birds and the bees, there’s a naughty pun about the “sticky and sweet” side of love. Agent Ribbons tested out a new song, timid in presenting a song not yet mastered, but it played out without a kink. The ladies have the look, a treasure trove of songs, and a seasoned patience to draw the audience in for a shredding coda.

After a brilliant showing by local talent, it was time for the touring acts to seize the evening. Los Angeles’s Abe Vigoda got the gallery buzzing with its massive math dance sound. It’s always impressive to hear a band turn blistering finger chords into body moving rhythms. But, it’s bothersome to feel like it’s time to sway a little, only to be interrupted by a-rhythmic progressions. I gave up my inclinations to nod or move to Abe Vigoda simply because it required too much attention. In giving up, I heard chatter of appreciation in the Garden, so perhaps it was just me. It should also be noted that Abe Vigoda felt unwelcome amongst a bill of girl bands—as though the boys just had to break up babysitters club.

Vivian Girls can try their darnedest to not be dreamy, but even in their ambivalence, the ladies maintain an alternative sexiness. It’s in the reverb and harmonized vocals, but it’s mostly the bangs. Our mothers screamed uncontrollably for Beatles bowl cuts. Now their sons quietly long for the Brooklynite girls with tattoos and bangs.

Vivian Girls betrayed my reception of their self-titled debut. Live the Vivian Girls traded in the spiritless performance of songs like “I Believe in Nothing” for an untapped energy that was easily trapped within the Garden’s tight walls. The set felt like it was over before it even started, but it was tough to demand more from a band, barely 2 years old, with a 22-minute debut and limited B-sides.