The Echo: Feels with Kairos Creature Club and Le Pain

This is a set I'll remember for years to come. After a decade, Feels played their last show (or at least until the 5 year reunion show). It was a 15 song tour de force that lasted for a good solid hour in front of a fan base filled with those who had followed the band from the start and those who had just recently started following the band. They played a mix of songs from their three album and EP releases: Feels (2016), Post Earth (2019) and Subversive Reaction (2021). Laena, lead singer and guitarist, made sure that we weren't going to be having a sense of depression due to this being their last show. She told us to all have a fun time as the band opened up with "Sour" that has a real psychedelic feel to it -- making you want to dance like a genie coming out of a bottle. Throughout the set, the band did their classic head flips and face off jams. As the show came to a conclusion, a bottle of champagne was brought out to celebrate the final show. The final encore was played and yet no one really wanted the moment to end. 

Set list included: Sour (Post Earth), Unicorn (Feels), Rodeo (Subversive Reaction), Trash Island (Subversive Reaction), Night Walker (Subversive Reaction), Anyways (Post Earth), Tollbooth (Post Earth), Running's Fun (Feels), Car (Post Earth), Post Earth (Post Earth), Deconstructed (Post Earth), Slippin (Feels), Tell Me (Feels), Close My Eyes (Feels)

Feels

Kairos Creature Club did their third residency night. They're in from Florida. I would say their music has the basis in adult contemporary, but they take in influences from other genres in the music. Some of their music has the undercurrents of jazz. The final song they played, if done a bit faster and louder, would qualify as a heavy metal song. 

Kairos Creature Club

Le Pain opened it up with just their third set ever. Their music just floats with the clouds. They have some sweat vocals and occasional funny dance moves. And their final two songs were sung in French. 

Le Pain

Feels Decides to End Their Long Run

This series was originally posted on Instagram. There are some edits and corrections.

Thursday night, The 6*6*60s sent me the below Instagram post from the Feels stating that they were playing their last show at the Echoplex on Monday, September 20th (to me, this is so appropriate as I’ve seen the band at this venue -- including The Echo -- more than any other).

 

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A post shared by FEELS (@feelstheband)

That sent me down memory lane, because I’ve enjoyed catching Feels in concert for a decade -- almost practically to the date. I do hope some of you enjoy the following walk.

In September 2011, I went to The Standard in DTLA to listen to my friend participate in a poetry reading. Afterwards, on the rooftop, a band called Raw Geronimo played a 4 song set. Unfortunately, I have no photos from that night, because The Standard wouldn’t let me bring in my camera and I was rather upset when I saw a number of photographers with their DSLRs. But the band obviously caught my attention.

Photo 1: Two months later, after work, I rushed down to Origami Vinyl with my point and shoot Canon G9 (I’m not sure why I didn’t bring my Canon 5D Mark II) and captured this really horrid shot. If I’m not mistaken, I had previously mentioned to my friend Siria that I’d come across this amazing band. I do believe she had some involvement in setting up this specific night and told me to come out. (I’ll admit there is a former member of the band in this photo that I totally forgot about.)

Photo 2: Then in December, I went to The Mime (a venue that was on Glendale Blvd just before the entrance to the 2 Freeway) to catch them again and brought along a proper camera. Yes, in 2011, my love affair with Raw Geronimo was full on. (I’ll admit again there is a former member of the band in this photo that I totally forgot about.)

Photo 3: This photo was taken in January 2012 and ranks as one of my all time favorite photos.

Photo 4: I believe this was the only time I ever caught the band at The Satellite - October 2013.

Photo 5: So I told this story once before. In more recent years, I’ve spent 2 or 3 days shooting Echo Park Rising for Buzzbands. But prior to that, I used to just go down to catch a handful of bands and then take off. Well, in 2014 I went down to Echo Park Rising to catch only one band and one band only, Feels. This is the first time I caught the band under that name change.

Photo 6: This photo was taken July 4th, 2016. I so wished that it had become an annual tradition -- a 4th of July show by Feels. I have a handful of photos (I think Photo 3 also applies) where the lights just love to play along with Raw Geronimo / Feels. It is like there is this intertwine between the lights, music and the band.

Photo 7: This photo -- March 2017 -- was taken at HM 157. The band was playing in a very small part of this historic house and the place was packed with people. I was right up there at the front taking photos. When the set was just about to get super rocking, Laena took a pause and said something like, “To all the photographers, you might want to move away from the stage to make sure your cameras don’t get damaged.”

Photo 8: I mentioned on Instagram that I believed this was the only time I caught the band outdoors (July 2018). I now realize this was the second time I'd seen the band outdoors. Taken at the Resident’s patio.

Photo 9: This photo was taken for Buzzbands in 2019. So for this specific show I basically got as aggressive as I might get saying I wanted to shoot Feels. I’m reading my email from back then and in a passive aggressive way I’m just telling them that I’m shooting Feels for the site.

Photo 10: A 2021 photo at The Echo. This one was also shot for Buzzbands. To me, there really is a serenity watching Laena fronting Raw Geronimo / Feels. Maybe it is just how my finger likes to snap shots of the band, but it always seems to capture these moments of serenity in the middle of loud rocking psychedelic music. 

P.S. There is an early connection here with The Like, which I’ll leave out so as not to drag this on any further.

Resident: Feels with Reckling

The last time I saw Feels was earlier in the year when I caught their record release party with The Paranoyds. This was also the first time this year that I've gone down to the Resident. I used to head down to the Resident far more often, but they appear to have changed their format at this venue, shifting away from live music. This was also the first time since the apparent departure of Shannon Lay from the group. I believe that there are now two original members left (Laena and Michael) from the Raw Geronimo days. So in some ways the night felt like a first for many reasons.

The band mixed it up between their two albums, but they also covered a Mariah Carey Christmas song. Laena Geronimo was in a good mood. Swinging her hair. Smiles throughout the set. Taking a stroll into the crowd. It must have felt good playing in front of an appreciative Los Angeles crowd that included a number of us faithful photographers. Amy Allen on bass gave us the stage presence that made her such a great addition to the band a couple years back. And the music was that slightly scratchy garage/punk/rock mix that just has a touch of those original psychedelic sounds. Based on what Laena said, this was their last live set for awhile as they put together a new album.

Their set list was: Tell Me, Car, Find A Way, Slippin, Running, Unicorn, Toll Booth, Mariah Carey cover, Flowers, Anyways, Sour, Post Earth, Deconstructed, Close My Eyes.

Feels

Opening up was Reckling. Their music goes at hyper speed. And vocals that stretches across those speedy jams.

Reckling

Resident to Chinatown Summer Nights: Saturday Adventure

This was a day of diverse music. The Resident was doing free Saturday afternoon shows. The Paranoyds played one afternoon, which I happened to miss. I wasn't going to miss Feels. I hadn't seen Feels since March 2017. That's well over a year! But I have to say in some ways it wasn't that long of a time frame. Shannon Lay has been doing sets across Los Angeles and I saw more than a handful of them. Laena Geronimo backed her up on a number of those nights -- if not all of those nights. Also, Laena is in a band called Numb.er, which I saw during their recent residency. So yes, it was forever since I last saw Feels, but I've been keeping up with the various projects of the band.

For this set at the Resident, they played outdoors on the patio. This actually got me excited due to how things were set up. The area they were playing required the drum set to be set up at the front of the stage. This meant I'd get some photos of the drummer. It is always cool to be able to snap some easy shots of the drummer.

This psychedelic punk band was having fun during this set. There were smiles and on the spot self commentary throughout the set. I believe for one song Laena wasn't able to get her guitar adjusted corrected so put it aside and just did the front woman singing portion of it. At the end, bassist Amy replied, "That was the censored version of the song." And then another time, Laena looked over at Michael on drums and said, "You're playing into the sun." The familiarity that comes from a band that has played together for years. The crowd wanted an encore. The band was discussing possible song options, but then the DJ started up the tracks and that ended any potential encore.

Feels

 From there, it was off to Chinatown Summer Nights to catch a few artists/bands.

La Louma was playing as I walked over to the LA Weekly stage. She's a singer-songwriter. During the set, she used three different instruments. A flute, a guitar, and another string instrument that I'm unsure of the name. Funny moment of the set actually came in at the end. She accidentally started the song with the wrong instrument and she'd already started her backing track. Well, that threw her off the mark so she replied, "Since 98% of you are friends and family, I'm going to just restart it all."

La Louma

Cosmos and Creature brought the electric dance pop. And I have to say, I wasn't sure who was Cosmos and who was Creature. This band put on the dance moves.

Comment of the night: Thanks for hanging with us. It's been really fun. I'm really sweaty."

Cosmos and Creature

Krys Wright changed things up with some RnB. Throughout the set, she made sure we knew how to spell Krys. Let's be honest, it isn't the standard way to spell out Chris or Kris. She also blew away the audience with some stylish vocals that combined a bit of Paula Abdul with Sade.

Krys Wright

Iconique closed out the night for me. There was actually a delayed arrival. The MC announced that Iconique was coming on stage. A moment passed. Another moment passed. Nothing. Than out ran one of the musicians to turn on the introduction tape. That started off 30 plus minutes of disco dancing. Front man Leo just doesn't stop moving. It actually made it hard to focus my camera on him. The show also included a full wardrobe change with Leo running off to a tent to make the change.

I have to say, the audience loved it. Fans were out in full, dancing to their full content.

What did I notice: before the band started, a couple folks wanted to come up to the stage, but then one of them said, "Let's stay back here and let the photographers have their space."

Iconique