I first came across Max Look and the Tomorrow Band in July 2021. As one might recall, venues were just starting to reopen around that time. It wasn't the first time I ventured back out into the world of the Los Angeles music scene. My first official venture back out was catching Starcrawler doing an acoustic set at Stories Books and Cafe. I do believe it was my fifth time out when I caught up with the band and it actually wasn't at a venue. It was at a house party in Highland Park, hosted by Broom Closet Records. It was a solid lineup. Cheekface and Suzie True were the headliners. I next came across Max Look at the 2023 Echo Park Rising Festival (it was admittedly a brief encounter as I take a run and gun approach at Echo Park Rising as I cover the festival for various blog sites and try to catch as many bands and singers as possible). Once again, it was at the outdoor stage of The Semi-Tropic.
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| Max Look at The Goldfish |
Would I ever catch him playing at an actual venue? Fast forward to this week and I was invited to catch a set at The Goldfish where he has a Thursday night residency for the month of April. Each residency night features a new song from his upcoming four track EP. The first night of the residency featured "Heartbeat on the Breeze." The April 10th night debuted "Cruise." On the night that I went, the song was "Always." On April 24th, you can catch the song "Bitter Blue."
The set started out with "Put Me Down," which had me thinking of John Mellencamp rock vibes. The lush guitar riffs allowed him the time to take his guitar on a tour de force of entertaining swings as he rocked out on stage.
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| Max Look at The Goldfish |
Taking a look at the photos I took of the band at Echo Park Rising, it appears that his backing band is still the same other than an addition of a second guitarist. It allowed for inside jokes being tossed around about just arriving into the United States from the UK or the proper pronunciation of the song "Amie." The familiarity also helps with the cohesion of the music.
"Heartbeat on the Breeze" and "Mirror" veered into country music territory, especially "Mirror" that has poignant vocals layered over country guitar playing.
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| Max Look at The Goldfish |
The band cut a song from the setlist in order to beat the curfew and have everyone "get their eight hours of sleep." Some in the audience just wanted to drink more versus heading off to bed. "Always" was final song of the set and included a special guest guitarist, Sasha Massey. Massey was doing double duty for the night as he was also the lead singer of the opening band Cooking Steak (Massey is also in a band called Buckets). Max Look had to do some tuning so it gave him time to give a shout out to his band as well as the parents of his drummer Mitch Rossiter (who also is in the band Buckets and part of Broom Closet Records, I like all these friend connections). The song opens up with a fun guitar blast and keeps the energy going. The band members could be seen swaying to the chill rock tempo. The lyrics perhaps gives some hints into why there was an insistent on getting 8 hours of sleep.
It's been a long day, always it seems.I put my bed to my head and fall in love with you in my dreams.
Opening up the night was, as mentioned, Cooking Steak as well as Jake Tittle. I missed the first three songs of Cooking Steak's set. Ha ha, The Goldfish's website had 8 p.m. listed next to the event. I figured that meant when doors opened, not when the first band started their set. I've been to The Goldfish enough times over the last month and a half that this should have registered with me. I did get to listen Massey's ruminations on the Titanic and the possibility that it might have survived a head-on collision with the iceberg. Their song "Pets" was about pets that "get outside and you try to catch them, but they're too fast." Massey pointed up to a video showing his cat on screen. The song had a rock drone quality. An amusing moment was when someone came up to the stage with their beer and then back off. Massey was either joking or got confused, because he told the person, "Hey, come back with that beer." He then realized his beer was behind him. The band ended their set with the song "Purpose." "Have you found your purpose?" "Yes, this song."
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| Cooking Steak |
One of my favorite bands Ramonda Hammer dropped in for Jake Tittle's set. It's been a hot minute since I last ran into members of the band. When Tittle asked the audience, "Did you get a beer or something more fun?" Lead singer of Ramonda Hammer Devin Davis chimed in about her drink, "It tastes like cough syrup, but it's really good." One of his songs was called "Black Cat." There was definitely a cat theme going on here. The cat theme also extends to earlier in the day for me. I got to work from home for the day and while working, there were the cries of a cat. The cries kept on going and so I walked outside to see what was the situation. A cat had somehow gotten up to the roof of my two story apartment complex and was too afraid to jump down. The owner of the cat was trying to coax it down with a bowl of cat food. The lyrics of the night has to go to Tittle for the song "Fair Warning."
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| Jake Tittle at The Goldfish |
Just because my hair is long
After those lyrics, he ended the set with the quite tunes of "Just a Feeling."
Max Look Setlist: Put Me Down, Heartbeat on the Breeze, Mirror, Amie, Curse, Always.
Jake Tittle setlist: Natural, Dirty Television, Black Cat, Harper, To Be Seen, Glad to See You Go, Fair Warning, Just a Feeling.
Cooking Steak setlist: It's Alright, door step, ok sure ting bob, Try, Pets, Awesome, I Hope, Purpose.
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