I will occasionally make references in these blog posts to a past DIY scene called Kiss or Kill. That's the scene that got me hooked on Los Angeles bands. One part of that scene that always fascinated me was how bands helped other bands. I distinctly remember a night where the guitarist for the band The Randies broke a guitar string. Immediately, someone from the band Underwater City People came to the rescue, took the guitar, and started to replace the broken string. For someone outside of the Kiss or Kill scene (which would probably be most of the readers of this post) who comes across this review, you've probably never heard of the bands The Randies and Underwater City People. Hey, that's perfectly fine. Why would you have? I think the important point is that each generation of Los Angeles bands often form friendships and that it the emphasis of this post.
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| Total Pleasure at Zebulon |
That vibe is what I noticed on a recent trip to Zebulon. The night was the final February residency night for Total Pleasure. I'd previously seen the band a year ago (February) at Zebulon, which is an interesting factoid. As for the other bands, I don't believe I'd ever seen them before: Konspiracy, Home Again, and Jinx. I didn't exactly notice that vibe immediately when Konspiracy took the stage. All I gathered from the set was that this was their first time playing in Los Angeles. They had friends in the audience and there was some trash talking about local NFL teams as well as the Las Vegas Raiders. The band played an extremely short set that lasted perhaps 12 minutes. Their sound was industrial screaming.
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| Konspiracy at Zebulon |
I still didn't notice the connections between the bands when Home Again came up on stage. What I did notice was the niffy guitar playing by the two guitarists in the band. The band has alt pop rock songs that shift gears towards the end of some of their songs, giving them a slightly different concluding interpretation. The band is led by their drummer who not only keeps the beats, but also carries the singing duties. The band asked the audience to check out their 16 minute Youtube video. It is actually 20 minutes. It looks like it is a backyard house party set. You can check it out here. It is worth your time.
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| Home Again at Zebulon |
When Jinx hit the stage, it finally started to dawn on me that these bands were friends. The bassist for the band was the lead singer from Konspiracy. I also happened to notice that someone from the audience was helping the band out. This individual ended up being part of Total Pleasure. I notice him tapping an effects pedal at the start of the first song. During another part of the set, he took a guitar from stage left, taking it over to the guitarist who was stage right. The band has a driving punk song that got the audience crowding near the stage right guitarist and giving him the middle finger.
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| Jinx at Zebulon |
Closing out the night was Total Pleasure where now the bassist from Konspiracy was joining. The band has a sonic sound with a dark wave influence. When the lead singer called out, "Better see you dancing," the audience could be swaying. Perhaps the moment of the set occurred when the band was not performing at all. Lead singer Jon Carias went reaching for his beer and accidentally knocked it over, resulting in beer spilling onto the Zebulon stage. Now if there was a significant amount of beer spilt, I think most musicians would just either try to soak up the beer with some available papers or towels. Essentially, they'd just considered it an unintended consequence of being on stage and performing a set. But Carias responded to the incident by saying, "Sorry."
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