Soft Palms is a duo that brings together the wife and husband team of Julia Kugel-Montoya and Scott Montoya. The partners also are the founders of one of my favorite music festivals, Happy Sundays Long Beach. That festival is often my only annual trip to Long Beach to catch the music scene in that city. I have on rare occasions gone to Alex's Bar or DiPiazza's to catch a favorite band.
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| Soft Palms at Club Tee Gee |
The first time I came across Soft Palms was likely in August 2022, but I feel like I've been following the band for longer due to having seen Julia Julia (Kugel-Montoya's solo project) before that and just basically crossing paths with the two at Happy Sundays Long Beach throughout the years. That 2022 set was an interesting situation. Fierce Femme Sounds put together a music festival at Permanent Records Roadhouse. It had an August date and was, in my opinion, a nice mini-Echo Park Rising replica as that festival was still on hiatus due to Covid-19. Echo Park Rising didn't come back swinging until 2023. Unfortunately, after announcing the festival, The Echo counter-programmed with their own mini-Echo Park Rising replica. I doubt it was done on purpose. It was just an unfortunate situation where two local festivals were on the same day.
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| Soft Palms at Club Tee Gee |
Fast forward to the last free Sunday night music of 2024 at Club Tee Gee and Soft Palms was playing a set. Off I went to catch the band for the third and final time in 2024. I will often walk to Club Tee Gee as I live close enough to the bar (people can obvious debate how close it is), but this time I drove. That night, I did something that I seldom do: I jumped between two venues. Zebulon was having a rare matinee so I caught a couple bands there and then drove a mile or so to Club Tee Gee to catch a trio of bands. Soft Palms was the final band of the night.
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| Soft Palms at Club Tee Gee |
The band opened up with perhaps my favorite Soft Palms song "Rainbows." I love the drone of the drums and electric guitar playing while Kugel-Montoya's sweet and playful vocals soar above the music.
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| Soft Palms at Club Tee Gee |
And when I'm at the end
I wanna do it all again
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| Soft Palms at Club Tee Gee |
Life is a bit of a rat race, right? Yet, rainbows and nature in general remind you to take a breather and enjoy the moment.
What I found amusing about the set: the band started playing "Rainbows" while the DJ music was still going on. It was the song that I wanted to record live. While they were playing, it dawned on me that they were actually playing their set and not just doing a sound check. I decided I better hit the record button on my camera.
Setlist: Rainbows, Bone Dry, Say What You Mean, Something In My Head, Pretty Dancer, Baddy, Dog Bone, In Plain Sight, Blondie, Bitch Bag, Radio.
You can catch the band on Feb 3rd at Harvard & Stone.
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