Weekends start on Thursday afternoons, right? Maybe in this new virus world it does. Thursday thru Saturday was spent with Buzzbands. Thursday brought
Hamis Handerson. He hooked in some 70s guitar rifts from Australia.
YIP YOPS were up on Friday afternoon. Just like their live shows at venues from The Hi Hat to Echo Park Rising, they had the lights flashing bright. The drummer was slamming those sticks. The lead singer left everything out there. Saturday was spent catching a short 15-minute set by
Starcrawler. It was lead singer Arrow's birthday the previous day. Two members of the band kicked it in what seemed like an industrial setting. Both wore masks with Arrow wearing red gloves. It was a laid back and yet in your face type of set. I'm not sure if that sentence makes much sense, but it seems like a good description.
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| Hamis Handerson |
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| Yip Yops |
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| Starcrawler |
Saturday was a busy day in terms of watching online sets. Prior to Starcrawler, I caught
Emily Kinney. First on Facebook, which resulted in technical issues. Her vocals kept cutting out. Her fans convinced her to switch over to Instagram so to Instagram we went. She said something like, "This feels like me telling everyone that we should just jump to the venue across the street." She handled the Facebook vocal problems with a very cool and calm outlook. Personally, I would have thrown up my hands and said, "Sorry, we'll have to meet up on another day." Over on Instagram, around the same number of people tuned in so everyone did jump from one venue to the other. A couple years have passed since I last caught a set from her. I realized that the next time she plays Hotel Cafe, I'm there.
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| Emily Kinney |
Closing out Saturday was spent catching
Mara Connor's record release party on Zebulon's Instagram page. She did a round with her favorite musicians. She would do a song and then pass it off to a friend.
Sam Outlaw was up first playing from Nashville.
Desure played from Los Angeles. There were a number of Internet glitches. Somehow he kept dropping off of Instagram. On one occasion, someone off camera whispered to Mara, "He's dropped off." Maybe there was an Android vs. Apple familiarity issue, because Mara shut down Instagram Live and came back on using a new phone.
Cale Tyson joked about hanging with friends on the patio of Zebulon. He then let on that he was hanging out in Texas with his parents. (Honestly, what's up with Texas. I know a handful of people who have left California during this pandemic and are in Texas.)
Ryan Pollie played his set from his car after he'd gone grocery shopping. He bought toilet paper, coconut milk, and wine. Ryan and Mara admitted that this was the first time both of them played Zebulon. It was so amusing watching cars driving pass during his song.
Leeann Skoda played in front of a rather futuristic metal backdrop. Amusing moment was towards the end, Mara accidentally starting clapping while Leeann was still singing. The problem was that Instagram froze for a few moments so Mara figured the song was over.
Will Fox closed out the guest with some pink/blue room lights.
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| Mara Connor |
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| Mara Connor with guest Desure |
