Quarantine Online Sets: Version 41

The Satellite was putting on their "6 songs at 6 p.m. for 6 nights" series on their Livestream, curated by The 6*6*60s.

Cathy from The Great Sadness opened the series up on Monday. She brought her desert rock and a guitar that dated back all the way to 1905 (I believe that is what I heard). 

The Great Sadness

Electric Children was up on Tuesday. The three strong band made an entrance. The online stream started with an empty stage and the members made an entrance. I loved it. They played some haunting sounding rock music. 

Electric Children

Taleen Kali on Wednesday was dressed in all black and with black sunglasses. She was looking super cool during a hot late August afternoon.

Taleen Kali

Thursday had half of Jagged Baptist Club playing an energetic vocal driven rock set.

Jagged Baptist Club

Polartropica on Friday provided an end of the work week pool party.

Polartropica

Closing out the series was two members from the bands Qui and Cunts. They did a set of cover songs.

Qui and Cunts

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 26

Friday night means catching short 8 to 15 minute pre-recorded sets on Los Angeleno's Facebook page.

Opening things up was Stilljill. Stilljill is a 3 member band, but for this night it was only one individual from the band, Alex. The set was less than 6 minutes long. It was set outside with just an amp and electric guitar. The outcome was some blues like riffs.

Stilljill

Next up was Omoghéné. First thing I noticed was the minimalism of her living room. The walls and couch were white. There was a picture frame and a mounted television. With the use of a backing track, she sang some nice pop tunes.

Omoghéné

The Great Sadness is one of those bands I've followed for a period of time. Their set was spent screaming wickedly to the heavens and slamming out pulsating drum beats. They played in a studio that had a vague familiarity to me. I'm not saying I've been to their location, but it is a similar design to small venues I've gone to in the pass.

The Great Sadness

Talk 2 Strangers most definitely had the most extravagant set. Talk 2 Strangers has a classic voice with a very artistic presentation. The voice and presentation seemed to be at odds with each other. The artistic presentation included frills around her head and as a backdrop along with exaggerated theater make-up. That to me would indicate someone who would present a more modernistic style of vocals. Yet, if one closed their eyes, one would hear power pop tunes. Her comment of the set, "Building a community . . . . making Los Angeles a little bit more lovely."

Talk 2 Strangers

Closing out the night was punk band Rituals of Mine. Their video had their name in bold white lettering at the top and bottom. The bold lettering along with the split second introduction of additional lettering gave off a very futuristic scifi vibe to the set. The two members of the band were shown on two monitors, one for each. As the set ended, an apology to their neighbors was made.

Rituals of Mine

Redwood Bar: Vigil of War with Chump, The Great Sadness and The Dead Coats

I caught Vigil of War for the first time last year. I saw them twice in 2018, but the last time was way back in June. That meant over a year had gone by since I last saw the band. About a month ago, I ran into Alicia, lead singer, at The Satellite. She mentioned to me that she was playing the Redwood Bar. I looked up the date on the Redwood Bar's website and immediately entered it into my phone calendar.

This band brought their metal rock to the tiny Redwood Bar stage. I just love Alicia's vocals. At one point, those vocals snarl and at another you get a power vocal that ranks up there with the the best '80s metal bands' power ballads. My experience seeing them on the Sunset Strip is that this band loves to move, which was restricted by the small stage of the Redwood Bar. They did their best with their lead guitarist busting some knees on the wood stage.

The band has replaced one of their guitarists with another, Kiki Wong. I'm not sure when exactly this occurred, but obviously within the last year.

There were a number of photographers in the audience. All of us; however, were the old guard. I wonder when the young guard of photographers will discover this band.

Vigil of War

Opening the night was Chump. I caught perhaps half of their set. Their Instagram indicated that this was going to be their last set ever. If so, they killed it. Their bassist/lead singer sprawled himself across the floor, putting on some Dr Jekyll shifts to Mr Hyde like moves. Or maybe I should say he was going from Banner to The Hulk. What I did find interesting is how he played the bass for part of a song. He grabbed it by the neck and then tossed it in the air a few times, grabbing it by the neck again while making sure he shook those strings. 

Chump

The Great Sadness is a band I've come across a few times. They're a band that seems to play with many of the bands I follow. I've seen them do some art-type shows. Other times, I've seen them go with just some straight up desert psychedelic rock. On this specific night, they went with the desert psychedelic rock. As always, they had some devoted fans in the crowd. And I do believe they won some converts, as well.

The Great Sadness

The Dead Coats was closing out their west coast tour. This is a band from Austin, Texas. This band loved to tell the jokes and actually explain the idea behind each of their song titles. It was actually pretty cool. For example, they have a song called "Coke." They mentioned that every band has to have at least one song about cocaine even if they'd never used cocaine themselves. Yeah, as they mentioned, they were stand-up comedians. I couldn't help, but notice how excited their lead singer came across. There was a sparkle in her eye throughout the set. She was playing one of the smaller venues in Los Angeles, but she looked so thrilled by the fact she was playing the Redwood Bar.

The Dead Coats

Weekend Overload: Queen Kwong, Annie Hardy, The Colour Coast and many more

The weekend started with a Friday trip to Redwood Bar. I was looking forward to this night. I randomly noticed that Queen Kwong was playing that night. The last time I saw Queen Kwong was in 2013. It was in San Francisco of all places. I was temporary working up there for 4 months and she happened to be playing a set in the city. Soon after, she moved out of Los Angeles. I was definitely going to catch her set.

The Great Sadness

The first band I saw at the Redwood Bar was The Great Sadness. This two piece band gives some raucous noise. Then up came Annie Hardy. I swear she looked familiar. It is always possible that we've crossed paths at various venues before, but she looked like someone I'd seen before on stage. Her music was a touch on the minimalist side. A keyboard. A guitar. Soft vocals. Then she happened to ask the crowd what they'd like to hear next. She gave three options. One was a Giant Drag song. "Wait a second," I thought, "I've seen Giant Drag before." Saturday morning, I spent time looking through various photos and blog posts and finally found out that I had seen Giant Drag way back in 2011. It took awhile, but I finally caught up with her again. I'll keep an eye out in the future for Annie Hardy.

Annie Hardy

Queen Kwong closed out the night. Her set started out with a bang as she launched into a full blown rocking queen set. I was blown away, realizing what I'd missed for so many years. She took control of the Redwood Bar. If it was the stage, she was on her knees screaming into the microphone. If it was in the crowd, she was up there climbing the rope ladder that hangs on the wall. Sometimes, you just can't believe how much you've missed a favorite musician.

Queen Kwong

Saturday night was a double hitter. It started out at the American Barbershop where I caught 3 bands: Beers 4 Fears, Speed of Light, and The Lungs. Beers 4 Fear had a dark fantasy set. There was the thick book filled with -- I do suspect -- ingredients to potions and brews and perhaps a few scary prophecies. Speed of Light is a young tween band that knows how to rock and put on a show. They're more than willing to give the camera a smirk. The Lungs gave the night some solid heavy and fast beats. And plenty of hair flings.

Beers 4 Fears

Speed of Light

The Lungs

With that, it was off to The Hi Hat to celebrate The Colour Coast's single release party. I got there in time to catch Glacial Palms and their beautifully structured harmonies. Then it was on to The Colour Coast. There was a heightened sense of energy radiating from the band. The packed house no doubt got them going. While shooting from the side, an individual came over and suggested I take video of what was going to happen next. Obviously, he had a sixth sense about what was going on. I ended up taking a quick video of the crowd singing and clapping to the tunes of the band.

Glacial Palms

The Colour Coast

Sunday just kept the music weekend rolling. Of course, I first had to watch a very stressful Duke basketball game. Mercy, Duke nearly got taken down, but they survived and advanced in March Madness. Hopefully, they are able to play better basketball this coming weekend. As soon as the game ended, I rushed over to The Hi Hat to catch Michelle Young's birthday bash. I was able to catch the last two acts. James Byous, who mentioned that he's known Michelle Young since high school, gave a set filled with sweat and emotion. Then Michelle Young closed out the afternoon. Of course, it being her birthday, there were some candles to blow out. A doughnut from Donut Friend did the trick for a cake substitution. Her singer-songwriting sets are always filled with enthusiasm. And there were some special guests. One special guest was Heather Cole. I've seen her name splashed around various music bills, but I've never gotten to see her. I'll need to make an effort to catch one of her sets. Moment of her set has to be when her feet were in so much pain she just had to take off her high heels and finish out the set barefoot. She didn't want to do it, but sometimes you just got to do it.

Michelle Young

James Byous

Quick Hit Band Interview: The Great Sadness

The Great Sadness at The Echo

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? I would say what Stephen and I do in The Great Sadness is the merging of all the dark elements of metal, hard rock, delta/country blues and no wave/punk. We mix it in an emotional blender and the result is entirely our own. We like our music heavy and visceral.

What band/artist would you most like to open for and why the choice? Right now we would LOVE to open for Big Business. They are coming from the same place we are. Their sound is thoughtful, epic and pounding. Honestly, we love them. Do you hear us BB?

Is there a question(s) that you always love to answer? We would love to answer any questions about life after death or ice cream.

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