Pearl Charles recently played the relaunch of KCRW x School Night. For the relaunch, the night shifted from Bardot to Zebulon. This was my first time catching her live (I did catch an online set when venues were shut down). Considering how long she's been part of the Los Angeles music scene, I am a touch embarrassed to admit that. It is what it is.
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| Pearl Charles at Zebulon |
Harry the Nightgown calls their music "electronic avant-pop." I would also add that the band is a playful outfit that enjoys each other's company. This band was having too much fun on the Zebulon stage during their recent September set. As the band was about to start their set, lead singer and guitarist Sami Perez took out her phone to take photos (or videos) of her bandmates Spencer Hartling and Luke MacDonald. She was laughing all the while. My curiosity has me wondering what she was finding so amusing.
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| Harry the Nightgown at Zebulon |
I've followed Ty Teg (the moniker for Audrey Reynolds) since 2022 when the band played The Smell. I caught the band a second time in 2023 -- once again at The Smell. In those two encounters, I've felt like I was hanging out with the cool art crowd. It helped that Reynolds is a graduate (or soon to be) of CalArts. Also, during both those nights the bands they played with had that artsy air to them. Hound played that first night in 2022. Though I believe the band has broken up as the duo headed off to college, it does appear that one of them has a solid following related to their art endeavors. The second time around, the band played with March Adstrum (someone I think highly of and you can read a blog post I wrote here) who is a CalArts graduate.
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| Ty Teg at Zebulon |
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| Cosmic Kitten at Happy Sundays Fest |
I've followed Kate Clover's music career since 2016 when her band ExSage had a residency at the Bootleg Theater (current location of 2220 Arts). That is nearly a decade ago. I remember having conversations about catching this awesome band called ExSage for the first time and people responding with, "You never heard of Cobalt Cranes?" Jump forward a few years and I ended up covered her solo sets twice for Buzzbands. Once in 2019 when she opened up for Death Valley Girls (you can read that article here) and another time when she was headlining her own show in 2022 (you can read that article here).
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| Kate Clover at Levitt Pavilion |
A Handful of Show Alerts
Sunday, Oct 26th: Patriarchy and Dagger Polyester at the Lodge Room. Doors at 7 p.m.I first crossed paths with All Things Blue in 2019 at The Hi Hat. The symmetry of life had me at The Goldfish (the former location of The Hi Hat) in late August to catch a farewell set. All Things Blue is the moniker for lead singer India Coombs. She announced earlier in the month that she was taking off to New York City after spending the last 11 years in Los Angeles.
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| All Things Blue at The Goldfish |
Nikki Falk's indie folk tunes enchanted the Rock Nite crowd at The Goldfish. How would one tell? There were moments where she'd spend time tuning her guitar and the crowd would start conversing with their friends. She even said at one moment, "You can all talk for about 5 seconds." Then she'd start to talk about her next tune and the talking would quickly quiet down. I found it to be an interesting phenomenon as just a couple days earlier I was at another venue where the singer songwriter was drowned out by the roar of the conversations.
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| Nikki Falk at The Goldfish |
Her bio mentioned that she currently resides in San Diego, but hails from the 50th state, "From Lahaina, Hawai'i, Nikki Falk holds a unique indie-folk sound with heartfelt, diary-like lyricism. Inspired by the warmth of her childhood and hometown, the feeling of nostalgia (peaceful or not) carries through each song. Nikki Falk vividly captures the emotional textures of young adulthood."
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| Nikki Falk at The Goldfish |
Her song nostalgia ranged from a Santa Barbara bar called Elsie's Tavern to relationship breakups to being born on New Year's Eve. And songs about thinking that "love is stupid and dumb and then you realize it isn't stupid and dumb." Each song was a treated as a treasure by Falk. As she was introducing her music, one could see her eyes light up and a smile cross her lips. Enthusiasm is infectious and perhaps this is one reason why the crowd was so quick to silence their conversations.
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| Nikki Falk at The Goldfish |
Her latest release at the time of her September set was "Fighter Dog." She introduced the song by saying, "It's about . . . . being spiritually manipulated, which is a really weird niche experience. It's basically being put down in the name of God so you can't really argue with it."
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| Nikki Falk at The Goldfish |
Like the rest of the set, the song was played with just Falk and her guitar on stage. She played the guitar at a slight angle towards her body. Her quiet vocals were the only sound in the venue except for a couple coughs from yours truly -- I was standing to close to that fog machine -- and the occasional sounds of the bartender making a drink.
To you, I'm still aroundIzora (the moniker for Shreya Jaswal) has Hollywood star power that was in the spotlight during a September WFNM showcase at Bar Lubitsch. Her band took the stage while she stood out in the audience. A voice over introduced the set, "Welcome to the experience. This is Izora." The band then went orchestral rock. The end result of that introduction was that her guitarist busted a string as Izora took to the stage to sing the opening song "SPIN YOU IN CIRCLES".
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| Izora at Bar Lubitsch |
Country music took over the WFNM showcase at Hotel Ziggy back in August. It was admittedly a brief, but memorable, takeover as the night was a diversity of genres that also include big time vocals, pop tunes, and the blues. The country artist of the night was Mallory Warman.
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| Mallory Warman at Hotel Ziggy |
I crossed paths with Daiana Feuer (aka Bloody Death Skull) in 2013 at a since closed venue called Pehrspace. I should note that Pehrspace as a booking entity still does live shows at 2220 Arts. This past Saturday at around noon, I got an Instagram message about an event she was throwing called "Murder Ballads & Dark Songs" later that day. The night was being presented by both Stepping Stone Presents (the booking entity of Liz Garo who handled scheduling for the Echo and Echoplex and is the co-owner of Stories Books and Cafe -- the hang out spot for the DIYers in Echo Park) and Feuer.
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| 2220 Arts |
UGHH is the definition of high energy punk band. They're also a band with a soft spot for kids. This past Happy Sundays Fest at the Port City Tavern stage was the third time I've seen the band play live. Interestingly, even though this band plays quite frequently in the Los Angeles area, I've only seen the band play Happy Sundays events. The first time I saw them was back in 2022 when they played a pre-festival concert at DiPIazza's. I then caught them in 2023 during the festival and once again at this year's festival.
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| UGHH at Happy Sundays Fest |
A Handful of Show Alerts
Monday, Oct 20th: Shannon Lay and Emily Rose and the Rounders at Zebulon. Doors at 8 p.m.
