American Barbershop: Spare Parts for Broken Hearts, Speed of Light, Ugly Sweaters

It was off to the American Barbershop to catch a trio of bands. Yes, it is an actual barbershop that turns into a venue at night. I first stepped foot inside the barbershop a few weeks back to catch Disco Shrine's video release party. This time, it was to catch live music. The place was packed with music fans. One thing I noticed that I didn't appear to have noticed the first time I went to this "venue" was the moose head above the stage that the bands played on.

This was my second time catching Ugly Sweaters. The first time was at Broke LA 2017. The band is fronted by a married couple. They're expected a son in the not so distant future. Comment of the set was, "Buy some stuff and we'll put some food in our kid's mouth." This band played with some rocking spirit that perhaps had the baby kicking.

Ugly Sweaters

Up next was Speed of Light. This band is fronted by 3 tweens/teenagers. If ever there was a band name that matched the band, this is it. This band plays at the speed of light. What is actually fun to watch is the bassist. Her eyes show such excitement. One hopes that never goes away. What was cool about their set was seeing Spare Parts for Broken Hearts helping the band out to make sure nothing went awry during the set. This band played a good portion of their set off the stage so Spare Parts for Broken Hearts made sure that wires didn't get tangled or bring down any microphone stands.

Speed of Light

Closing out the night for me was Spare Parts for Broken Hearts. Lead singer Sarah's vocals bring the power of punk. And yet there is a solid melodic sound that drifts through all that rawness. And there are just those moments that just cause you to want to jump and scream. A demand was made for an encore and it was given.

Spare Parts for Broken Hearts

What was especially fun about the night was recognizing so many faces in the audience. It was like a small community of the Echo Park/Silverlake music scene. And unlike maybe a random night out when most people are strangers to each other, I think on this particular night people knew a number of those hanging out that night. A very precious moment to have in the crazy city of Los Angeles.