Seeing Kelcey Ayer in concert always reminds me of my first few years in the Los Angeles music scene. Way back in 2009, a friend mentioned to me that I should head to the Silverlake Lounge to catch a band called Local Natives. The place was packed from stage to entrance. Somehow I was allowed inside -- I'm sure the fire marshal would have shut the place down. I squeezed my way to the front of the stage so that I could take photos of the band. It was love at first sight. And via Local Natives, I connected with bands such as Eastern Conference Champions (Mondo Cozmo) and Family of the Year.
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| Kelcey Ayer at The Goldfish |
Ayer left the band in 2024 to devote more time to his own personal music projects. His set at Rocknite's showcase at The Goldfish may have given another clue behind the decision, which is fatherhood. He mentioned that fatherhood was the driving influence behind his recently released solo debut EP No Sleep. Ha ha, that title alone should indicate the direction of the songs on the EP.
Towards the end of the set, he talked about fatherhood with the dad joke, "I'm not going to impose a good or bad adjective onto being a dad" before switching gears to the meaning behind "Mother is the Real Jesus." "My whole experience of becoming a new dad was all about my son, but there's this one huge part about watching my wife become a mother and realizing the power that women have at being these unbelievable, unsung superheroes. I'm not religious, but it is a literal miracle on earth."
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| Kelcey Ayer at The Goldfish |
A song I most identified with was "Ghost of Neighborhood Dogs." He mentioned that he lives in Highland Park. During family walks, whenever they got to a certain house, a Dobermann would always rush the yard fence and bark at them. This continued for a few years. Then one day the dog didn't come rushing at them. They learned that the dog had died.
Why does that resonate with me? I also walk around my neighborhood and pre-pandemic there was a house that I would walk pass. The individuals in the house owned a couple pit bulls. Talk about me thinking through strategies of how to jump atop a car if for some reason the gate to the house was ever left open. Like with Ayers' experience, the two dogs suddenly disappeared. I also noticed that the occupants had disappeared and I wondered why. Though the default position would be that they moved, I decided to do a little research (it was a long time ago and the details might not be accurate, but perhaps I just wanted to look up the house on Zillow) and let's just say it was all a rather gruesome story that I found (no, the pit bulls did not attack one of the individuals living in the house, but they might have attacked someone).
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| Kelcey Ayer at The Goldfish |
The song of the night goes to the title track "No Sleep." It is a song about "not sleeping and losing your f*cking mind." Maybe the song title should really be called, "Coffee."
Don't talk to me until I've had my coffee.
It is a beat poetry song that goes through every reason why he wants a quiet morning until the coffee kicks in. This song will ring in his ears until his son hits the age of 14 or so.
Funny moment of the set: His guitarist is Mia Conte. During one of the instrumental changeovers, Conte put down one guitar and picked up another. At the same time, he picked up a bass and turned towards her to hand it to her. They shared a laugh.
Setlist: Different Planets, No Sleep, Ghosts of Neighborhood Dogs, Myxomatosis (Radiohead cover), Before You, Mother is the Real Jesus, Don't Look Down.
Will be playing School Night at Zebulon on Tuesday, November 4th.
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