tUnE-yArDs put an end to summer, close out 2015 Twilight Concert Series at the Santa Monica Pier

tUnE-yArDs with Avid Dancer //
Santa Monica Pier – Santa Monica, CA
September 10th, 2015 //

Summer is officially over. Well, except for the fact that the weather in Southern California has been hovering in the high 90’s over the past two weeks.

So, what better way to escape the heat than to watch tUnE-yArDs play the last free concert of the summer at the beach?

With kids back in school and the tourist season dying down in Los Angeles, there weren’t quite as many bodies on the Santa Monica Pier or down on the sand last Thursday night as there had been in previous weeks.

But tUnE-yArDs, the musical project of New England native Merrill Garbus (drums, vocals, keyboards, ukulele), did their best to keep the small, but excited crowd entertained as the sun went down and the temperature cooled off. Playing one of the final shows with their current band lineup that features Dani Markham (percussion, vocals), Moira Smiley (vocals) and Haley Dekle (vocals), Garbus and Nate Brenner (bass, synths, vocals) ran through songs from their entire catalog, including their third and most recent full-length album Nikki Nack.

Opening the show was Avid Dancer, the indie-rock project of Jacob Dillan Summers, who grew up listening strictly to Christian music in a highly religious family before joining the United States Marine Corps and later moving to LA to play drums in a number of local bands. Now, with a guitar in hand, he’s leading his own band with his own stories to tell.

While the KCRW-sponsored performance marked the end of the 2015 Twilight Concert Series, signaling an end to summer, it also served as a reminder of how fun the past 10 weeks at the Santa Monica Pier have been for LA music fans.