Vacation Week: Time To Go Out Multiple Nights

I took a Friday to Friday vacation recently and decided to head out a number of nights to catch some live music. I was tempted to go out every night, but ended up deciding against that.

Friday

Friday was spent heading off to The Love Song Bar to catch a favorite for the first time in 2021: Gracie Gray. I knew it was going to be dark inside the venue so I pulled out my 85MM F/1.2 lens. It is a very slow lens when it comes to focusing, but luckily Gracie Gray is a singer-songwriter. Towards the end of her set, she sand "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." I am blown away every time I hear her sing that song. The audience was blown away, as well. Backing her up was Lexi of Mini Trees on bass -- her regular bassist was off playing in Pomona with Livingmore. 

Gracie Gray

Opening up was Mercutio. Since their Instagram reads: Bay Area Synth Guy, I'll assume they came down from San Francisco. Rather soothing music if I can say so.

Mercutio

Tuesday

Tuesday was spent at Little Joy and the music switched to punk - rock sounds. Moonfuzz just throws out the fuzz. And they're just exciting to watch with the constant face offs between the bassist and guitarist as they amp up the music.

Moonfuzz

Mr. Max brought the rock. Ladyhump brought the old-school punk. The Richard Ramirez Beatdown had those in the audience talking about the band name. 

Mr. Max

Ladyhump

The Richard Ramirez Beatdown

Wednesday

I went off to The Silverlake Lounge to catch my second dose of The Gooms' October Residency. One thing I've noticed is they've changed things in terms of their stage show. It used to be Chase Buttons (lead singer) who used to do the jumping on stage. They've now allocated that fun duty to Nicole Rae (guitarist).

The Gooms

To be honest, the main reason I went to this particular night (I had previous gone to see The Gooms' a couple weeks previously), was to catch Young Winona. This was my first time catching this New Zealand band live and in person. I previously caught their set online. 

Young Winona

Also playing was New Media with their 80s / 90s rock sounds.

New Media

Thursday

This night was spent driving off to Bar Lubitsch to catch what WFNM had on the docket. I was already familiar with three of the artists: Heyboy, Mia Nicolai, and Hayley Warner. I love Heyboy's enthusiasm on stage as well as the earnest nature of his music such as the song "Wasn't it Fun?" Mia Nicolai is in Los Angeles from The Netherlands. I hope she sticks around. I love her enthusiastic personality. It is infectious. Like Young Winona, my introduction to Hayley Warner was from watching an online set. She was definitely the primary attraction of the night for those who dropped by the venue. I can totally understand. Estef opened up the night for me with a soulful performance.

Heyboy

Mia Nicolai

Hayley Warner

Estef

Friday

I got an invite by French Mouth to head out to Permanent Records Roadhouse. Enjoyed the set, but am mad at my photography skills. There was a moment where the lead singer got up on a counter and I just knew he was going to jump off at some point. So I got my composition all set up, but . . . forgot to up my shutter. Shoot.

French Mouth

Urns & Argyles and Hurt Hawks opened it up. Hurt Hawks sound is aggressive punk. Urns & Argyles had a goth rock sound that fit in perfectly with the Halloween theme though the lead singer apologized for not dressing up in a costume.

Urns & Argyles

Hurt Hawks

Saturday

I decided to do a random run to Highland Park Bowl. The band name Friends Don't Die caught my attention. They were supposed to go on at 10 p.m. and so I targeted to get their at around 9:45 p.m. Luckily, I planned to get there early, because they must have gone on at 9:30 p.m. Shoot. I'm telling you, that vocalist has some pure sounds. Just loved it.

Friends Don't Die

Silverlake Lounge: The Gooms with Chase Petra and Mashugana

The Gooms are the October residency band at the Silverlake Lounge. Like many bands, this was their first live set since the start of the pandemic. Opening up for them was Mashugana that had a nice chill sound. When the spirit took hold, the lead singer let loose with some vibrant moves on stage. The band got a touch excited when someone in the audience yelled out their band name with the proper pronunciation. I had to look up the word. It means someone who acts crazy or nonsensical.

Mashugana

Up next was Chase Petra. This is a band I saw three different times during the pandemic -- all online. I saw them playing Echo Park Rising, the Six at Six, and Wonder & Awe. Their music has a pop punk flavor to it. Having seen them online so many times, I was super eager to catch this band for the first time live. Yes, live. What did I notice that was different from catching their music online? Mercy, this band is so fun to photograph -- especially when the bassist and guitarist face off with each other.

Chase Petra

The Gooms closed out the night. Now, here's what I noticed about both Chase Petra and The Gooms. Their fans packed the front of the stage. I feel like this is the first time I've seen this happen when hanging out post-reopening at the Silverlake Lounge. No one was getting to the front of the stage if they didn't get their prior to the start of Chase Petra's set. The Gooms is just a fun band. They play their music fuzzy and, well, they like to make amusing facial expressions. I've followed this band since early 2019 and just was so happy to catch them again.

The Gooms

Echo Park Rising 2020: Online Edition Part 1

As August approached, I just figured that Echo Park Rising would be cancelled for 2020 due to COVID-19. Then I noticed an Instagram post that hinted the event would be held online. A couple weeks passed and I didn't hear much else so figured plans had fallen apart. I was wrong, because the online event was held on Saturday, September 26th.

For me, Echo Park Rising started on the 20th when I got an invitation to head down to American Barbershop to shoot the band FARTBARF. While there, everyone was social distancing. There were 3 cameras doing video. Two were being handled by humans while the third was in front of the stage and was just mechanically moving horizontal to the stage. The sound person was actually off in a separate room of the barbershop. There were 3 photographers (me being one) in the back about 15 yards from the stage on the left side. And then there were a couple other people off on the right side. Everyone except for the band wore masks. It was all done with solid social distancing. Even without an audience, the band dived head long into their relentless synthesizer sound with enthusiasm. 

FARTBARF

Flashforward a week, and Echo Park Rising went live with a multitude of pre-recorded sets. The festival started off with Masa of Echo Park doing an introduction video. With some background music, one of the pizza makers cut mushrooms and opened/closed oven doors to provide the beat. With that, it switched over to Kevin Bronson of Buzzbands walking around Echo Park doing some jaywalking and being angry that The Echo was shut down due to COVID-19. With that added introduction to the festival, Kevin did a brief interview with COSMO GOLD. The band then had their music video play their dance sounds. The video had some interplay with a futuristic Garden of Eden with UFOs travelling across the landscape. The dance songs including 2 backup singers one of which was Gracie Gray, a favorite singer of mine. 

GOSMO GOLD

Masa of Echo Park

Leroy from the North came up next playing his Southern rock sounds from the patio of The Echo. It was really nice seeing that patio again. Just like my normal self while doing photography during a live Echo Park Rising, after catching a couple songs of his I jumped over to the Portia Street Studios Youtube page to catch Deep Waters. It was a jump from Southern rock to a grunge attack on the patriarchy. Portia Street Studios looked like they had 3 cameras going, perhaps 4. There was definitely one that was hanging from the ceiling or atop an elevated platform that provided a top-down view. And then cameras from the sides. Pretty cool setup. I couldn't help but wonder who put the music video together as well as all the videos that were shot at the studios. The band did a shout out to the city of Lancaster due to the support they got from an enthusiast audience one time. That's my hometown city. 

Deep Waters

Leroy from the North

From Portia Street Studios I jumped back over to the main page to catch Kid Row. Kid Row teaches children how to play musical instruments. There were a handful of one song sets by those who take classes there. One lead singer was definitely a Peanuts fan. A guitarist was making sure he hit his chords. And the final set was played like a Zoom meeting with three teachers helping out.

Kid Row

I jumped back over to Portia Street Studios to catch Nate Redmond and his songwriter type jams. He allowed the music to take center stage. One of the comments left on Youtube was "silky smooth." I agree with that comment. 

Nate Redmond

Jumping back over to the main site, The Gooms had their set in the middle of a tennis court. For one song, a couple friends popped in to sing a few notes. During their song "Judy Garland," tennis balls came flying across the screen.

The Gooms

REL provided some big vocals songstress tunes. I loved seeing the carefully written musical sheet music. I love movie watching and with theaters shut down, I've been watching a lot of movies on TCM. Of course, TCM shows movies from the 1930s and 1940s so listening to REL had me thinking about those movies where jazz bands play their tunes in large dining halls. 

REL

Trip Tides had a lava lamp atop of an electric organ. That provided the backdrop for their 70s grooves. Veneer  played their set from the same location as Trip Tides. During last year's festival, I caught them at Little Joy Cocktails. For this set, they went with a no vocals set. Just a great jam session, but I have to say I missed the standup bass. I hope they still plan to keep that in their live sets.

Veneer

Trip Tides

There was more to the festival than just the above, but those will be found in Part 2.

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 35

The Gooms got to take over Culture Collide's Instagram Live on a recent Tuesday afternoon. They played outside the drummer's apartment complex. That led to an interesting couple encounters. As they were playing one song the upstairs neighbor asked them to quiet down, because she was working from home. The encounter apparently caught the attention of a couple people who were walking pass. Once the song ended, the folks on the sidewalk gave the band some compliments that contrasted with the upstairs neighborhood. Both encounters were just heard and not shown on Instagram.

The band did their best to accommodate the upstairs neighbor. The drummer stopped playing his drum and instead tapped the side of the apartment wall. 

I have to check my records, but I think I've seen this band more than any other in this online world. They have such a playful style to their music.

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 19

Friday nights on Los Angeleno's Facebook page hosts short videos from various artists between the hours of 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. -- though occasionally some artists/bands have their videos posted much later. The short form videos allow for creativity to shine through.

Up first on this recent Friday night was Corey Vogel. He's a drummer and his video was just memorizing. He was never on screen. Instead, there was video that started off with him spraying a water hose at clay cups/planters. It then shifted to the vibrating drum beats that had maroon clay bouncing around. Waffle shaped objects were put on the same surface and the drum beats shattered the objects into thousands I small pieces within a few moments. It closed with wooden sticks beating on bamboo.

Corey Vogel

Pure Protein was up next with sonic space sounds. Emily Lacy has to be close friends with Bloody Death Skull. She spent half her video providing a tutorial about her playing methodology. It was just strange with her playing her keyboard with every part of her body. It was expressionist keyboard playing.

Pure Protein

Emily Lacy

The Gooms is a band I've seen play a couple online music festivals. Yet, it was always just the lead singer. This time, 3 of the 4 members were playing. The fourth member, their bassist, was in the Bay Area with his parents. It was so great seeing this band in almost full form. You could tell they were having such a good time together and it makes it a thrill. The band was dressed in a vacation type of mood with a Hawaiian shirt and lei.

The Gooms

Closing out the night was Polartropica. Polartropica is always up to provide some interpretative surrounding. There was a whole plastic garden set up around her. That was my interpretation though Los Angeleno described it as "candy-colored spaceship."

Polartropica

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 8

April 17th thru April 19th was spent watching a couple of online festivals. The whole weekend was spent watching sets here and there of the Couch LA festival. The one cool thing about this particular festival was that half of the money raised would get donated to The Satellite and The Hi Hat. On Friday night, I was only able to catch Egg Drop Soup. The band played from their 3 homes. Three cameras tracked the band members. I have to say they did a solid playing their punk music from unknown distances from each other.

Egg Drop Soup

Saturday was spent catching The Gooms and Lauren Ruth Ward. The Gooms was a one person show with the other three band members taped to the wall of the shower. I've seen a handful of online sets played in bathrooms. I believe that Early Evil, who played on Saturday, was also in the bathroom. Is it something to do with the acoustics of a bathroom or the best place to play and not disturb the next door neighbors? Lauren Ruth Ward was the last band for Saturday night. Lauren played it up to the camera throughout the set. Amazing music, as always.

The Gooms

Lauren Ruth Ward

On Sunday, many of the bands took it up a notch. Easy Friend is hanging out in the desert. I guess he's officially moved to the desert and out of Los Angeles. He owns property out there and plans to live on around $6,000 a year. That's some minimalist living. His set includes a few minutes of just looking out into the desert as the wind whipped past. Then you could hear the noise of a motorcycle. He road up and started his set. SLUGS did Egg Drop Soup by one. Egg Drop Soup had 3 members playing from 3 locations. SLUGS had 4 members playing from various locations. I can't believe over a year has passed since I last saw that band at the Moroccan Lounge. Dream Phases is writing some new music while in isolation. And played his set in the dark confines of his apartment. Holy Wars really outdid everyone that I caught during this festival. They didn't play live (honestly, not sure if Egg Drop Soup or SLUGS were playing live, either). They put on this great long form music video with a couple cameras and inserted TV shows from the 1950s or 1960s. During the video, they interacted with those watching online via the comments section. It was just super awesome.

Easy Friend

Early Evil

SLUGS

Dream Phases

Holy Wars

Before heading over to Couch LA on Sunday, I spent the afternoon watching bands playing the Live From Quarantine festival put on by Magic Giant. I actually tuned in to catch Meg Myers, but she had technical difficulties and wasn't able to play the festival. The second reason I tuned in was to catch Glen Hansard. I so remember catching the movie "Once" back in 2007. So long ago, but I loved that movie and fell in love with the music. During his short set, he played a few lines of "Falling Slowly." Beautiful. Filling in for Meg Myers was Max who shifted his set forward. He was totally cool with it and did a great job at it. Closing out my time with Live From Quarantine was Shaed. I totally didn't realize that this band sings the song "Trampoline." I swear at times when I hear this song on the radio I figure it is a song by Lorde.

Magic Giant

Glen Hansard

Max

Shaed

Quick Hit Band Interview: The Gooms

The Gooms at The Satellite

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What are some things that are currently influencing your music? Our influences include, but are not limited to: Danny Elfman, No Doubt, our quaint rehearsal space, The Strokes, Bananagrams, Mendocino Farms, and laughter.

What’s your favorite The Gooms' song and what makes it the favorite? We can’t just choose our favorite child, but "Squeep Fleep" is the middle kid of our EP and could definitely use some attention. We love the song because it’s fun to play live. The verses bop, the chorus becomes a live sing along, and the bridge is a powerful and vocally commanding build. The whole song tells an intriguing story through a unique melody and we all remember smiling a lot when it was being written.

Own Q&A: Right now, our dream Q&A is to be asked to play The Troubadour, The Echo, a fun festival like Desert Daze, or SXSW, to which we would answer: yes!