July 2019: Chinatown Summer Nights

It was obvious. The Chinatown Summer Nights' crowd came to catch BIIANCO (Gabby of Smoke Season). I've follow Gabby since 2012. I have to say that BIIANCO is special and unique. There are still significant borrowing from Smoke Season. Her stage presence and synths are still there. During the set, she climbed atop and jumped off both the bass drum (unused for her set) and light truss. She switched off from the synth to electric drum set with ease. And her interpretive dance moves were evident. Those are all taken from Smoke Season. The difference is the sound. The soul sounds of Smoke Season are replaced by full on electronic dance. The sounds pop at just the right moment. The vocals are refined by years of singing. Those vocals soar at just the right moment and stay at those levels for just the right amount of time. I do believe this is her second set ever. The first was at School Night. The news of that set's success must have gotten out, because as the minutes ticked towards her set time, the crowd size grew and grew.

BIIANCO

Though I think BIIANCO stole the night that doesn't mean the line-up for Chinatown Summer Nights was just a BIIANCO night. Weslee is an import from London. The duo is now hanging out in Los Angeles. The RnB groves definitely caught the crowd's attention as the fence at the beer garden was lined with listeners. Okay, so nothing can separate folks from their beer, not even some music groves.

Weslee

Mmmonika was a surprise. They definitely had a fan base show up. A group of female fans bought blown up face photos of the various members of the bands. I think they were too shy to actually wave them around during the set though. The band is led by the breezy vocals of their lead singer, Ryan. With a 6 pm set time, it was some wonderful golden hour music.

What I noticed: the band did a group meeting on stage, run by Ryan. I couldn't hear everything that was discussed, but there were definitely pointers being given out about what they wanted to accomplish for specific songs. And in the end, I believe I heard, "Let's remember to have fun out there."

Mmmonika

I also happened to catch a couple bands that I've seen in the past. Beauty Queen opened up the day. I caught about half the set. Lead singer Katie cheerful personality is infectious.

Beauty Queen

SPELLES is a band I first came across at Echo Park Rising in 2017. I also caught a couple songs in late 2018. The band vocals are deep and rooted in Southern blues. The songs to me that really stood out were "Teach Me How To Pray" and "Down To The River."

SPELLES