Day 4: Echo Park Rising

Day 4 at Echo Park Rising was my fun day. I wasn't shooting for Buzzbands so I showed up later than I would have if I was shooting for the site and I just set up camp at The Echo/Echoplex.

The day started out catching a couple touring bands. Autumn was coming in from Minnesota while The Bellwether Syndicate hailed from Chicago. Both rocked it out under the lights of the Echoplex. What was the best moment of the two sets was actually what happened after The Bellwether Syndicate. The drummer brought up his little girl who started banging away on one of the drums.

Autumn

The Bellwether Syndicate

Collapsing Scenery didn't play the main stage at the Echoplex. No, they played in the far back corner of the venue. I didn't even realize it until just before they were about to play. I was just hanging out at the main stage, watching the young kid having the time of her life. I turned around and there were sheets hanging from the ceiling and floor lights shining. Yep, that was Collapsing Scenery. That band loves to rock against the backdrop of flashing lights.

Collapsing Scenery

Then it was a rush upstairs to The Echo to catch Ever So Android. They started their set a touch early, because as I headed up a little before their 6:45 p.m. start time I could hear them hitting up their first song. The venue was packed for their set. Some call their sound goth punk. Others call it industrial. It doesn't matter, I love their music and was thrilled they were playing in front of such a large crowd. Lead singer Hope jumped into the audience for one song to get the mosh pit going. A guy to my side decided it was a good time to protect his $10 drink.

Ever So Android

I then rushed back down to the Echoplex to catch a few songs by Poppy Jean Crawford. Love her quiet attitude on stage.

Poppy Jean Crawford

Then it was back to close things out at The Echo with Dancing Tongues, Draemings, R Clown (no known link) and The Bank of America (no known link).

Draemings is a favorite of mine. I heard someone to the side of me say of lead singer Kimi, "She's so pretty, I love her." In regards to Kimi, this was her 6th set of the festival. She did 4 sets with her band Kevin, one with Draemings and a solo set. And this was done over 3 days and not 4 days. Talk about being busy. Maybe driven by surviving those 6 sets, she jumped into the crowd and danced with great joy.

Draemings

As for The Bank of America, I couldn't catch The Paranoyds as I was doing photography on the east side during their Friday set. So what do I do, I catch The Bank of America. Lexi of The Paranoyds is in the band. This band is totally different from The Paranoyds. There are no vocals. The band just jams, sending out pulsating beats.

The Bank of America

Dancing Tongues and R Clown got the crowd hyped up for some mosh pit action. The crowds were still ready for the mosh pit even after four days of music.

Dancing Tongues

R Clown

Quick Hit Band Interview: Dancing Tongues

Dancing Tonuges at The Echo

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What's the story behind how your band started? We started playing music together in high school and formed our first band when we were about 16. We kept playing together in different bands throughout college and always found ourselves working on songs together that didn't really fit whatever project we were in at the time. We realized pretty quickly that the two of us would rather be focused on working on the songs we were writing together than spending our creative energies elsewhere. So, we decided to move forward as the two of us, writing the kind of music that we liked, which at the time, and still continues to be heavily influenced by post-punk, punk, darkwave and new wave. The two of us just clicked since we shared a lot of the same sort of influences and complimentary creative approaches, and we just didn't stop writing. We got to the point where we had written and recorded so many demos and songs that we decided to put a name on our project, recruit a bass player to perform with us, then start playing shows. We have kept at it and now we’re still here making more music and performing it!

What’s your favorite band song and what makes it the favorite? We don't really have a single favorite song and both feel that it changes a lot but if we had to pick:

 Kevin: Little Creatures because it's always fun to play live. It's usually high energy and gets people moving.

Alex: Bigger Picture. It is not out yet. We will be releasing it soon on our upcoming full length, but I like it because it touches on a lot of different aspects of our sound, but at the same time does something very different than the rest of our songs do. I liked writing it, recording it, and have enjoyed the times we performed it live.

The Echo: Black Flamingo with Nights Talks, The Great Sadness and Dancing Tongues

I was a touch obsessed with Black Flamingo from the years 2011 - 2013. Around 2013, they broke-up and eventually formed various other bands such as Draemings and Brass Box. I'd argue that Brass Box carried on the legacy sound of Black Flamingo while Draemings went in a different direction. Either way, I followed both bands. I got a hint back in December 2017 that Black Flamingo might be hooking back up when I posted a throwback photo on Instagram and got a reply from Dreamings: not ended forever.

Black Flamingo

It took about 7 months, but the band got together and put on a show at The Echo. It was a Who's Who of Echo Park musicians hanging out at The Echo on a Friday night. Black Flamingo, of course, had to joke about how they knew most everyone inside The Echo and that we'd all aged 10 years. Of course, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but true none the less. Though not everyone there knew who Black Flamingo was. As I was photographing, I over-heard someone ask a friend, "What's the name of this band?"

Black Flamingo describes their sound as Tropical Goth or whatever. Their primarily duo vocals (used to be a trio of vocals) soar above and linger in the air, which brings that goth imagery. I think the perfect example is their song "Living Ghost" where Kimi and Ammo start off the song just going off on a choir harmony sound. Their sound just makes you want to sway in joy even though I suppose one should be a touch depressed. I have to admit that I had a smile throughout the set even though there was a lot of goth dress in the audience.

Opening up was Night Talks, The Great Sadness and Dancing Tongues.

Night Talks is always fun to photograph with lead singer Soraya always putting on the moves. They lost a couple members a couple months back. I think that's led the band towards a more guitar driven pop sound.

Night Talks

This was my second time catching The Great Sadness. This is a two piece band that likes to play it on the rough side of the tracks. They opened the set with both under a red covering that was slowly pulled off from them via friends. I nearly had a camera collusion at the end of the set when the drummer tossed his cymbal towards the front of the stage. Not sure how many inches it got to the lens, but it got close enough.

The Great Sadness

Dancing Tongues opened the night. They didn't ease the audience into the night. They went all out for that loud rock sound. And I couldn't help but notice some folks in the audience mimicking the hair tossing of one of the band members. 

Dancing Tongues