NFV Song Spotlight: unpolished*' nobody knows

I've known about Bar 10 at the Corbin Bowl for a very long time now, but I've always considered it to be way too far away. I live in Glendale and Glendale to Tarzana is 18 miles. The farthest venue from Glendale that is on my rotation is Hotel Ziggy, which is 10 miles away. So that venue fits into my claim to various people that I hate traveling more than 10 miles to a venue. Heck, I only make it to the Sunset Strip once or twice a year, primarily because I hate the long drive. 

unpolished* at Bar 10

I happened to notice that Stephanie de Santos ("Santos") was celebrating her birthday at the venue. Now I don't know Santos all that well personally, but I have followed her since 2021 in various bands. Though we don't know each other all that well personally, I do know that she likes my photos so I figured, "Why not finally make the trek out to Tarzana for her birthday?" I know she is currently playing in a band called Bitter Half so my initial thought was that the band was playing at Bar 10. Taking a closer look, I noticed that she had joined another band called unpolished* and that was the band playing a set. That gave another reason to head on out, catch a band I'd never seen before. 

unpolished* at Bar 10

The band describes themselves and their sound as follows via their bio:

unpolished* is a new, all-femme rock band from Los Angeles, CA . . .   Sitting somewhere in between alternative rock, punk rock, pop punk, heavy/hard rock, and grunge with influences ranging from Green Day and My Chemical Romance to Demi Lovato and Lady Gaga . . . 

unpolished* at Bar 10

The band consists of vocalist Mary Bugbee, guitarist Celinda Chang, drummer Jasmine Day and, of course, Santos on bass. Bugbee makes for an engaging front woman both while singing and doing the between song chit chats. There was a note of humbleness in her voice that one hopes never disappears. Chang put on a show with her guitar and, as an example of that, played in the midst of the audience for one song. Day was not to be denied the attention deserving of her drum playing. You could see the eye contact made with her band mates throughout the set and those eyes had a sparkle of joy. She was also celebrating a birthday, making it a double birthday night. Santos played the bass with that cool stance that bassist employ and on occasion Bugbee and Change went over in her direction to soak it up. Per their bio, the band is only 7 months old. One can definitely see the foundations being set for a band that will be conquering the Sunset Strip soon enough. 

unpolished* at Bar 10

What song do I want to highlight? Let's go with the last song of the night, "nobody knows."

Their Bandcamp has this to say about the song, "the embodiment of feminine pop-punk rock revenge . . . it paints a story of vengeance and vindication . . . "

unpolished* at Bar 10

The lyrics are meant for an unknown person who has done someone in the band wrong: 

You’re not so mighty now
Without your tacky crown
Secret’s out, everyone’s talking
Never thought it’d be so shocking

The band describes the music as being pop-punk, but to be disagreeable, I say there's a touch of metal in those guitar riffs by Chang. 

unpolished* at Bar 10

What are my thoughts about the venue? Solid lights. I didn't have to crank up my ISO to 10,000. No one questioned me about my camera other than the door guy wanting to make sure my camera bag just had a camera and lenses and nothing sinister. And they appeared to stick to hard set times as the bands playing were quick to getting their gear loaded in and loaded out. In fact, after unpolished* played, the next band started to setup before unpolished* had even finished to load out. I'm not sure I'm all into two bands having to load in and out at the same time, but I am for a venue that sticks to set times. As someone who likes to go to bed at a decent hour (prior to midnight), I like shooting at a venue that doesn't let set times slip 30 minutes to an hour. 

Setlist: Constitution, Copy/Paste, Collateral, STFU!, ghost, EMO!!, Sucker, hollybaby, All I Want For Christmas, nobody knows.

unpolished* will once again hit the Bar 10 stage on January 25th.