Live Music Reviews

Nick Murphy shows he’s the new-and-improved version of Chet Faker to close out 30 Days in LA

December 7, 2016 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

Red Bull Sound Select – 30 Days in LA: Nick Murphy (fka Chet Faker) //
The Theatre at Ace Hotel – Los Angeles
November 30th, 2016 //

When Nick Murphy dropped his debut LP Built on Glass (read our review here) under the alias “Chet Faker” in 2014, the Australian singer-songwriter was relatively unknown outside of his home country.

Sure, his cover of Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” reached No. 1 on the Hype Machine charts and made an appearance in a Super Bowl commercial, but Murphy’s popularity had been mostly confined to the land Down Under, with a list of accolades including “Breakthrough Artist of the Year” at the Australian Independent Records Awards and “Best Independent Release” at the Rolling Stone Australia Awards.

Built on Glass changed all of that, paving the way for Murphy to sell out shows in major U.S. markets, including two in LA at The Roxy Theatre (read our review here). With the 12-track album boasting three singles — one of them being “Talk Is Cheap”, which shot all the way to No. 1 in the 2014 Triple J Hottest 100 countdown — the Melbourne native was quickly headed for mainstream status.

Since then, he has made an appearance on “Ellen” and this year headlined music festivals up and down California, including CRSSD Festival (see more photos here) as well as Lighting in a Bottle (read our festival review here), where he reaffirmed that moving to a full live band was one of the best career moves he has made. In fact, ever since his set on the main stage at FYF Fest (read our festival review here) in 2015, Murphy has taken his live show up a few notches.

The Theatre at Ace Hotel

But that was a different person; Chet Faker is now a man of the past. Nearly two months ago, Murphy made the announcement on Twitter, revealing that “there’s an evolution happening and I wanted to let you know where it’s going.” It was his way of telling us that he no longer wanted to hide behind the moniker he spun off in reference to famous jazz trumpeter Chet Baker. From here on out, his real name would be attached to his music. And as cheesy and cliché as it might be for a musician to change their identity for artistic reasons, Nick Murphy — the one who sold out another show in LA last Wednesday — is an extension of Chet Faker more than anything else. Call him Chet Faker, Nick Murphy or whatever name you want — it doesn’t change the fact that the 28-year-old Aussie always pours his heart and soul out when he’s onstage.

At The Theatre at Ace Hotel, the gorgeously ornate, Spanish Gothic-style movie house built in 1927 and owned by United Artists, Murphy put a stamp on Red Bull Sound Select’s 30 Days in LA, which after only three years is becoming a November staple for the city’s booming music scene. From opening night with Sampha at the Palace Theatre to Murphy’s series finale just a few blocks down Broadway, Red Bull continues to seemingly outdo themselves year after year with a month full of shows featuring top-notch talent at an affordable rate (all tickets were $15 or less before taxes and fees).

But unlike many of the series’ other shows, Murphy didn’t just hit the stage for an hour and call it a night. Instead, his 90-minute set extended past midnight as he dove into newer cuts — “Bend”, “Stop Me (Stop You)” and “Fear Less” — from his forthcoming sophomore studio album (release date TBA) and played older hits like “1998” and “Gold” off of Built on Glass. There were also guest appearances by Marcus Marr, the English DJ/producer whom Murphy worked with on last year’s collaborative EP Work, and Dave Harrington, the Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist who is best known for being one half of the now-on-hiatus electronic music duo Darkside that includes Nicolas Jaar. Murphy might be filling seats thanks to his uniquely soulful voice, but it’s his propensity to surprise that keeps them filled at bigger venues each and every time he performs in LA.

Murphy’s music, both new and old, can be difficult to describe. It’s equal parts electronic, rock and soul, a hybridization that accessibly encompasses all three genres. And while his latest material follows along a similar sonic path, Murphy continues to prove that he isn’t afraid to take risks with his honest, heartfelt songwriting. So, who really needs Chet Faker when you got Nick Murphy now anyway?

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: 30 Days in LA, Ace Hotel, Chet Faker, Dave Harrington, Marcus Marr, Nick Murphy, Nick Murphy (Chet Faker), Red Bull Sound Select, The Theatre at Ace Hotel

Lucky to be alive, YG is celebrating life to the fullest

December 6, 2016 by Joseph Gray 1 Comment

By Joseph Gray //

Red Bull Sound Select – 30 Days in LA: YG //
The Wiltern – Los Angeles
November 29th, 2016 //

“They knew the code to my gate. That was awkward. Answer this: I got a million dollars. Who shot me?”

Before asking the million-dollar question, YG was wheeled onto the stage at The Wiltern in a stretcher covered by the haunting sounds of the real-life news reports from the night a bullet from an unknown assailant pierced his hip during a recording-studio shooting last year. The pitch-black building became illuminated with surgeons on an LED screen as we re-lived the “operation” on the Compton rapper. Nevertheless, YG assured the crowd this wouldn’t be a somber affair, rapping through paranoia toward the heavens with the brash resiliency and expanding maturation that’s led him to one of rap’s most improbable rises.

Did YG’s homies set him up? Was it the guy he knocked out during a past fight? Did a girl he was sleeping with tell her boyfriend about YG’s studio hideout due to fear? All of these still unanswered questions flow through the heart of the song “Who Shot Me?” This serves as the vivid crux of YG’s sophomore LP Still Brazy (released in June) and the opener for arguably the biggest name of Red Bull Sound Select’s 30 Days in LA series.

“Damn, I ain’t know it was gon’ happen like this … But I guess God has some other plans for me. ‘Cause that shit ain’t stop me,” recalls YG at the end of the song.

It was a thankful and brazen declaration extremely fitting for the 26-year-old who is still driving at top speed but maneuvering in directions many didn’t imagine. YG (born Keenon Daequan Ray Jackson) wasn’t expected to be here, let alone serve as the driving force in the resurgence of gangsta rap. It’s not too often that a major debut album comes 4-5 years after a breakout single, but such was the case for YG after the playfully crass “Toot It and Boot It” came and went without much of a follow-up from Def Jam. However, YG leaned on the same things he used to charm a horde of anxious fans drenched in red attire to match their favorite Blood rapper: self-awareness, survival and a new-age, authentic look into LA’s culture, with equal celebrations for the lucky-to-get-by days and champagne-spilling nights making for something we can all relate and party to.

This concoction, tied to an undeniably formidable rapper-producer connection with LA native DJ Mustard, helped form YG’s 2014 debut My Krazy Life that was a half-decade/lifetime in the making. A first-class concept album that offered some perspective to those who were unable to avoid gang life’s abyss, YG picked up where Grammy winner Kendrick Lamar left off with his own views on the “Hub City,” which has become a global name in the process.

With his mind-bending suspicions briefly on hold, YG jumped back into the now-welcomed madness that proceeded it. He treated the crowd to the gigantic “BPT” before confessing — like all of us spectators — “I Just Wanna Party”, the standout track from My Krazy Life that features Top Dawg Entertainment’s ScHoolBoy Q and Jay Rock. While neither TDE member was in the house, that didn’t put a damper on the night’s energy or YG’s willingness to visit Bompton for as long as possible.

Playing to the Bloods’ longstanding vernacular — replacing C’s with B’s — that he has made mainstream, YG then went into “Bicken Back Being Bool”, showcasing how he can turn a robbery on an average day into something we can all boogie to. YG may never be mistaken for the world’s greatest lyricist, but he has a knack for sharp storytelling — something even the secret service had to take notice of during this past election season.

An ever-present voice and face of the streets, YG isn’t taking anything lightly. Police brutality and racial injustice are getting the same relentless attention that his escapades with women previously would, and that’s something the U.S. government can attest to.

This narrative was highlighted by “FDT”, the anti-Donald Trump anthem featuring LA rapper Nipsey Hussle that has grown even more relevant after this year’s U.S. presidential election. The secret service forced some slight edits to the record after some calls to Def Jam threatened its release, but that certainly hasn’t stopped YG’s momentum.

For evidence, look no further than his roaring hometown concertgoers at The Wiltern. This contingent included several who were randomly plucked from the audience — even the ones whom YG joked looked “like they work at Facebook” — to take turns beating a Donald Trump piñata before Bay Area rapper G-Eazy surprisingly appeared to rap his verse on the remix.

If extended album delays, a near-death experience and government censorship can’t stop YG, I don’t know what can. And neither does he.

Setlist:
Who Shot Me?
BPT
I Just Wanna Party
Word Is Bond (with Slim 400)
Twist My Fingaz
Really Be (Smokin N Drinkin)
My N***a
Toot it and Boot It
Left, Right
Don’t Tell ‘Em (Jeremih tease)
Why You Always Hatin’?
Who Do You Love?
Still Brazy
FDT (with G-Eazy)

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: 30 Days in LA, DJ Mustard, G-Eazy, Red Bull Sound Select, The Wiltern, YG

A night of nonstop dancing at The Fillmore with RÜFÜS DU SOL, Kllo & Yuma X

December 6, 2016 by The Bam Team Leave a Comment

RÜFÜS DU SOL

By Geoff Hong //

RÜFÜS DU SOL with Kllo, Yuma X //
The Fillmore – San Francisco
November 30th, 2016 //

On the first of two sold-out nights at The Fillmore, RÜFÜS DU SOL put on an intense show that had the audience singing and dancing all night long. They had spectacular assistance from two Australian duos, Kllo and Yuma X. Together, the three of them made a strong case for Australia as the hottest source of today’s new music.

The night opened up with a surprisingly punchy and energetic performance by Yuma X. Singer Lucy Washington’s lyrics and vocal delivery were reminiscent of Romy Madley Croft’s from The xx. Lost love, heartache and broken promises were a theme in her lyrics. Jake Smith provided instrumentation on what seemed like a half dozen various instruments, including keyboards, synth and guitar.

Although there were only a few dozen concertgoers in attendance (their set was at 8 p.m.), Yuma X did not fail to win over everyone’s hearts by the end of their allotted time. The duo has one song, “Matchstick”, released on Spotify, while the rest of its tracks can be found on Soundcloud. According to Washington, fans should look out for more titles to be officially released soon.

Yuma X

The audience was much larger by the time the second duo, Kllo, took the stage but seemed rather unfamiliar with the group. This was surprising given Kllo’s previous success — their debut EP Cusp was widely promoted on The Hype Machine and Spotify, and the group has toured extensively in Australia and the UK. Regardless, The Fillmore approached their set with an open mind, getting down to previously unheard tunes.

Compared to Yuma X, Kllo was much more drum and synth forward. The cousins hailing from Melbourne, Chloe Kaul and Simon Lam, featured faster, tighter drum loops and more creative synth lines, combined with some subdued and restrained vocals from Kaul.

The biggest audience reactions came during Kaul’s sensual crooning on “Make Me Wonder” and an apparently unreleased track titled “Sex”. The swirly mood lighting and smoke effects combined perfectly with Kaul’s breathy and wavy delivery style. Upbeat songs like “Walls to Build” off their recent 2016 release Well Worn successfully built the energy and anticipation as a juxtaposition to Yuma X’s vocal-forward style and a logical musical transition into the final set of the evening.

Kllo

By the time RÜFÜS made their entrance, the excitement in the room was at a fever pitch. The crowd was ready to dance from the very first beat (thanks to the excellent warm-up from Kllo and Yuma X), and they did just that. Lead singer Tyrone Lindqvist took center stage with great energy and proceeded to do the customary water bottle toss shortly after.

Lindqvist set the tone right from the get-go for a high-energy, high-audience-participation set. The crowd responded in kind by getting down much harder than expected for a Wednesday night. Notably, there were surprisingly very few phones out as most attendees put away their cameras to make the most of every song. The intimate setting of The Fillmore could almost have been mistaken for the polo fields of Coachella, given how many girls-on-shoulders could be seen around the venue.

Lindqvist made a point to highlight tracks off the band’s early 2016 release Bloom. Bandmates Jon George (keyboards, synthesizer) and James Hunt (drums) obliged willingly, adding their own creative flairs to longer, extended cuts of their classic tracks. Even Lindqvist’s guitar riffs felt like they had more creative leeway and freedom when compared to the respective studio cuts of the band’s songs.

RÜFÜS DU SOL

Tyrone showed off the smoky end of his vocal range when he exchanged his normally mellow voice in favor of his 80’s voice on the track “Tonight”. As Lindqvist sang, “We’re coming alive / The dead are arising / The night is coming to life”, The Fillmore did just that, demonstrating a second burst of dancing energy in the middle of the show.

The highlight of the night came when RÜFÜS asked the crowd to “come on a journey” with them, “past the Milky Way, but not to Uranus.” Fans simultaneously got down on the dance floor and blasted off into space, so to speak. The show came to an end with the retro-groovy “Like an Animal”, but RÜFÜS DU SOL graced fans with a generous, two-song encore that included dance classics “Take Me” and “You Were Right”. The evening was capped off by a salute from all the performers, reminding SF where some of the best music today originates.

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Coachella, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Kllo, RÜFÜS, RÜFÜS DU SOL, The Fillmore, Yuma X

Jhené Aiko turns a hometown show at Avalon into her own living room party

November 28, 2016 by Joseph Gray 1 Comment

By Joseph Gray //

Red Bull Sound Select – 30 Days in LA: Jhené Aiko //
Avalon Hollywood – Los Angeles
November 21st, 2016 //

Jhené Aiko really, really, really didn’t want to leave her home.

A rare, chilly breeze hawked through LA, but it wasn’t that or the pre-Thanksgiving traffic preventing the alluring Ladera Heights singer-songwriter from avoiding La Brea Ave. or the 101 freeway. Most of the city’s residents would empathize with either headache, but when you’re enjoying an ambiance-filled dwelling with a harp, cello, drums, stylish candles and feathery smoke all while being surrounded by some of your closest friends on a bunch of plush couches and bean bags, it becomes even more understandable.

Lucky for Aiko (and more importantly for us as spectators), Red Bull Sound Select decided to double their duties as a temporary moving company. Ever the gracious host, she was more than agreeable to the modification, welcoming her new hometown friends to a cozy world decorated with special guests and blue party cups of engaging melodies for a living room “jam” that will not be soon forgotten.

While much of Red Bull Sound Select’s annual 30 Days in LA series focuses on providing a platform for up-and-coming artists, Hollywood’s historic and spacious club Avalon offered a whole different feel for the fully formed Aiko. With tie-dyed merchandise of Aiko’s face being sold inside and self-embroidered shirts being hustled outside, the show felt surprisingly big, unforeseen only because Aiko’s music — delicate, sly and often vulnerable — is not what you would imagine ringing throughout the multilevel venue that routinely hosts DJs with frenetic and flashy light shows to entertain raging partygoers. On this night though, it was perfect.

Slipping to the front of her foggy living room a little after 10 p.m. to excited screams, Aiko tucked away any of those doubts into a satiny topcoat while also keeping her footing atop slow-dripping piano keys. Kicking things off with “New Balance”, she patiently explored unexpected love on the fan-favorite opener that she was pushed to release in August by TWENTY88 collaborator and G.O.O.D. Music rapper Big Sean.

It’s been said that it’s not a true house party until the arrival of unexpected guests. There are those you turn the music down for before escorting out and those whom you hand the mic to in order to keep things going, and Aiko opted for the latter in sticking with the theme of the night. Big Sean, the Detroit emcee and second half to her conceptual relationship, joined his rumored real-life beau as the two traded pleasant yearnings, playful remarks, embraces and back-and-forth vibes during their onstage collaboration that was highlighted by “On the Way” from Aiko’s self-titled studio album, which was released earlier this year.

Despite her soothing and beautifully gentle voice, Aiko’s music is not just seeped in ballads of love found or love lost. Sex, infidelity, drugs, encouragement, motherhood and more subjects fuse together to produce a great sense of relatability to her audience, which she played to by having intimate and good-natured conversations with the audience during her hour-long set. The evening was capped off with more fun in the form of R&B singer Omarion’s “Post to Be” featuring Aiko and Grammy winner Chris Brown, who emerged onstage with his signature pizzazz for a slowed-down acoustic version of the platinum smash.

This, like the rest of Aiko’s performance, was backed by a badass band, as each member took turns soloing to keep the good energy flowing all night. Between standout songs “Comfort Inn Ending (Freestlye)”, “The Worst” and “The Vapors” (which Long Beach rapper Vince Staples joined her for) from her Sail Out EP and its LP predecessor Souled Out, her living room party also became a lesson in welcoming the complex rewards and penalties of susceptibility.

Jhené Aiko with Big Sean

“Maybe I have made mistakes and been through my fair share of pain. But all in all, it’s been OK, I’ve lived well,” Aiko sang, flashing a slight smile that matched the evening’s appreciative vibe over “Eternal Sunshine”.

Nevertheless, prior to kicking us out, Aiko wanted to make sure we got home safely.

“I stay up all night for you, I’m a trooper. Call and request, I pick up, pull up quick as Uber,” said Aiko, turning the aggressive line from her recently released and sensual single “Maniac” into a PSA for concertgoers to make sure they find a safe way to get home.

And before we left, Aiko gave out gift bags in the form of song requests from the crowd as she morphed into an old-school lounge singer. Stepping back into the cold air before hopping into an Uber, my driver asked me where I was coming from.

“The coolest house party I’ve been to in a while,” I told him.

Setlist:
New Balance
Living Room Flow
Déjà Vu (TWENTY88 cover) (with Big Sean)
On the Way (TWENTY88 cover) (with Big Sean)
Comfort Inn Ending
W.A.Y.S.
Eternal Sunshine
Bed Peace
WTH
Vapors (with Vince Staples)
Drunk Texting / Post to Be / Drunk Texting Breakdown (with Chris Brown)
Maniac
The Worst

Encore:
Space Jam

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: 30 Days in LA, Avalon Hollywood, Big Sean, Chris Brown, G.O.O.D. Music, Jhené Aiko, Omarion, Red Bull Sound Select, TWENTY88, Vince Staples

After touring with Sia, AlunaGeorge have never been more well-suited to succeed than now

November 28, 2016 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

Red Bull Sound Select – 30 Days in LA: AlunaGeorge with Xavier Omär //
The Belasco – Los Angeles
November 22nd, 2016 //

If you haven’t heard of AlunaGeorge, there’s a good chance you’ve probably heard them on the radio and just didn’t know. But it probably wasn’t one of their own songs that you heard. Nope, it was more than likely from another English electronic duo by the name of Disclosure.

For plenty, Disclosure’s 2013 hit “White Noise” off their debut LP Settle was the first exposure they had to the namesake of vocalist/songwriter Aluna Francis and producer/instrumentalist George Reid. And though their very first single “You Know You Like It” reached as high as No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks in part to DJ Snake’s remix for “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” boosting the song’s popularity, AlunaGeorge had yet to have a bonafide pop song in their arsenal until brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence enlisted Francis’ pipes a few years ago.

Since then, Francis and Reid together have released two full-length albums, including most recently I Remember as the follow-up to 2013’s initial offering Body Music. While their latest studio effort sees them expanding horizons with some guest spots — something they didn’t endeavor on Body Music — from New Orleans-born rapper Pell, Chinese-American electronic musician/singer ZHU and Jamaican dancehall emcee Popcaan on lead single “I’m in Control”, the loudest roar from the healthy crowd at LA’s Belasco Theater last Tuesday came when they dropped the popular Disclosure track toward the middle of their hour-long performance.

Despite the show being scheduled right before a holiday weekend, it was still billed as one of the premier events for Red Bull Sound Select’s 30 Days in LA series this month and rightfully so. AlunaGeorge, in fact, were coming off their most important string of dates having served as one of two opening acts (the other being Miguel) on the North American leg of Sia’s 2016 arena tour. So, after gracing the stage at the world-famous Hollywood Bowl this fall, Francis and Reid had no reason to be intimidated by the Belasco’s main theater room. If anything, it only gave them the freedom to showcase some of their songs under a new and different light.

As we reached the midway point of their set with back-to-back singles from I Remember (the title track and “My Blood”), AlunaGeorge entered unchartered territory as they welcomed Pell and a three-piece brass band onstage to help them perform “Full Swing” live for the first time. It was a fitting way to wrap up a tour after months and months of both festival dates and club gigs all around the world, stretching the scope of electronic music with merely an element or two of surprise sprinkled into the equation. Because on this night, whether many attendees had heard of them or not, AlunaGeorge did everything they could to help them not forget.

Setlist:
Mediator
Your Drums, Your Love
I’m in Control
Automatic (ZHU cover)
White Noise (Disclosure cover)
My Blood
I Remember
Full Swing (with Pell) (with brass section)
Heartbreak Horizon (with brass section)
Not Above Love (with brass section)
Hold Your Head High
Mean What I Mean
You Know You Like It

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: 30 Days in LA, AlunaGeorge, Belasco Theater, Disclosure, Pell, Popcaan, Red Bull Sound Select, Sia, The Belasco, The Belasco Theater, Xavier Omär, zhu

With dignity and grace, Pusha T stays true to himself

November 23, 2016 by Joseph Gray Leave a Comment

By Joseph Gray //

Red Bull Sound Select – 30 Days in LA: Pusha T with Boogie //
The Belasco – Los Angeles
November 16th, 2016 //

“Thinking back on it, it really was all a set up. You were setting me up to be the solo artist I never saw myself as.”

This week, G.O.O.D. Music President and rapper Pusha T (born Terrence LeVarr Thornton) graciously reflected on his life of six years ago, when he was summoned to Hawaii for six months as part of label founder Kanye West’s brain trust of inspiration. The outcome of the famed recording sessions and basketball games became My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, West’s fifth studio album that brilliantly pits the Grammy winner’s defiant indestructibility against his haunting burdens as he returned from self-imposed deportation stemming from his infamous acceptance-speech interruption at the MTV Video Music Awards.

A powerful declaration set to wide-ranging and rich stadium sounds while not forgetting hip-hop’s basement essentials, West’s album also served as the perfect opportunity for the younger of the Thornton brothers — who together formed the rap duo Clipse — to share his brash, relentless talents with the world.

This opportunity and eventual partnership has not gone forgotten on Pusha T, who, prior to posting an open letter on Instagram to West (now reportedly in the hospital after cutting his latest tour short) on the six-year anniversary of MBDTF, took the stage at the Belasco Theater last Wednesday night as part of Red Bull Sound Select’s 30 Days in LA series with a similar graciousness as the headlining act he’d never imagined he would be.

“It’s always love when I come to LA. LA was always riding with me,” said Thornton, the veteran Virginia Beach-raised lyricist who unconventionally showed up earlier than we expected. Following Compton emcee Boogie’s warm hometown vibes, Pusha — with his signature braids, ad-libbing snarl, sweat pants and panther-embroidered jean jacket — proceeded to get comfortable and get to it.

There were no illuminated, floating stages to hover above a raucous mosh pit like West exhibited on his Saint Pablo tour. No maniacal dances or broads in Atlanta like rapper Desiigner frequently flaunts. No special guests like you’d often find at Big Sean’s shows. Unlike some of his labelmates, Pusha T opted to deliver us a PSA instead of a surprise, sending a reminder that this is what rappers are supposed to look like.

Not in the vein of the get-off-my-lawn emcees who shun everything that sounds different from their era, Pusha has embraced being a rapper’s rapper, refusing to deviate from the ease that he displays in combining vivid storytelling with a cloak of brazen confidence — an attribute new UFC two-division champion Conor McGregor would likely approve of. The performance proved to be a double-edged sword because while the Pusha T fan in me gladly recited witty rhyme after witty rhyme, the casual fan looking for big thrills may have been underwhelmed.

Fortunately, the larger percentage of concertgoers fell in line with the former, scrunching their faces in approval as President Pusha ran through “Crutches, Crosses, Caskets”, “M.P.A.” and more from his sophomore solo LP King Push – Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude. The show’s early highlights came during “Numbers on the Board” and
“Nosetalgia”, the head-nodding, boom-bap standouts from his debut standalone album that showcase Pusha at his very best.

“20-plus years of selling Johnson & Johnson. I started out as a baby-face monster. No wonder there’s diaper rash on my conscience,” rapped Thornton, giving his LA fans the metaphorical opener they had been waiting for. This preceded the all-encompassing highlight when he took time for a brief Clipse homage with the classic “Grindin'” and the Future and Pharrell-assisted “Move That Dope” before turning his attention to the “toast for the douchebags” that changed his life.

While refusing to sing as the recognizable piano keys grew louder, the crowd happily obliged in assuming West’s echoing duties before Pusha joined the party, rapping the standout verse on “Runaway” that he acquired by being as greedy to work as he was thankful. Promising that new albums from him and the rest of label were on the way, Pusha, if anything, made it clear on this night that his appetite for more will not be diminishing anytime soon.

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: 30 Days in LA, Belasco Theater, Big Sean, Clipse, Desiigner, Future, G.O.O.D. Music, Kanye West, Pharrell, Pusha T, Red Bull Sound Select, The Belasco, The Belasco Theater

Isaiah Rashad makes a statement at Echoplex while giving fans a lesson in reverse psychology

November 21, 2016 by Joseph Gray Leave a Comment

By Joseph Gray //

Red Bull Sound Select – 30 Days in LA: Laneway Presents Isaiah Rashad with Mansionair, Sampa the Great //
Echoplex – Los Angeles
November 14th, 2016 //

Isaiah Rashad is a liar. On the surface that sounds absurd, considering how unregretful the Chattanooga, Tenn., emcee is about wearing his desires, anxiety and near self-demise on his sleeves. Hundreds of restless LA-area residents who were at Echoplex last Monday can vouch for my improbable story, though they’d also probably say how happy they were to be duped by the Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) member.

On this night, as part of Red Bull Sound Select’s 30 Days in LA series, Rashad, TDE’s talented outlier, was originally scheduled to arrive onstage around 10:20 p.m. Yet, nearly an hour later, fidgety concertgoers were still jockeying for position in the darkened Echoplex tucked under an overpass not far from downtown LA.

With liquid courage taking over one attendee as he attempted to start altercations during anxious “Zaywop” (Rashad’s nickname) chants for the 25-year-old, there was a brief reprieve coming in the form of Mansionair, a Sydney-based band that mixed exceptional vocals with sweet electro-soul, culminating in a cool surprise as they brought out a full choir to perform with them for the first time ever. Despite the well-liked appetizer that came after Sampa the Great’s passionate set, the apprehension for more was palpable until Rashad’s DJ emerged, signaling it was almost time for the real fun to begin.

And when it did, Rashad torpedoed onto stage and turned the restlessness in the room on its head with “Smile”, the apropos homecoming banger he released after years of uncertainty that followed his 2014 EP Cilvia Demo. It was fitting because prior to his reemergence, which was sparked by the song, Rashad admitted to being addicted to Xanax and alcohol, and it almost led to him being dropped from his West Coast record label on several occasions.

From his issues with substance abuse to the tears he shed while listening to Kid Cudi’s music and his open-book thoughts on the humanizing of mental-health issues, Rashad’s journey from being the contemplative unknown in superstar Kendrick Lamar’s crew to a complete artist deserving of your attention has been steeped in honesty.

One song down and beads of sweat already dripping down his face, Rashad nevertheless promised that despite the frenzy that Sampa the Great and Mansionair created, his show in support of his latest release The Sun’s Tirade wouldn’t be too crazy. That, though, couldn’t have been more of a lie.

Manipulating fans of all ages with a nimble flow that was heightened to match the crowd’s energy, Rashad excitedly took us to the same place where his reflections have led him during his two-year hiatus. And not to be outdone by a couple of surprises, but he brought out rapper Hugh Augustine for “Tity and Dolla” before he really took things up another level.

The latter revelation came in the form of songstress SZA, Rashad’s TDE labelmate who assisted, danced and caused a near trampling of excited women near the stage as the two bounced smiles off each other while performing “Stuck in the Mud”. Folks were more than appeased at this point, but the good vibes kept on coming.

“Wop! 4r Da Squaw, dog?! Where’s 4r Da Squaw?!”

One spectator in the audience let me move in front of him to photograph Rashad with the promise that I’d switch spots during “4r Da Squaw”, a shared album favorite about growth which was repeatedly requested after Rashad finished each song. Considering it’s more of a slower-paced song, I wasn’t sure the young fan would get his wish during Rashad’s hour-long set, but soon after the guest appearances by Augustine and SZA, I made good on my promise when “4r Da Squaw” finally came on.

Even though Lamar was not in attendance on this night, Rashad let the crowd fill in for the Grammy winner during his rapid-fire guest spot on “Wat’s Wrong”. And when Lamar’s verse got to the part about his desires to vandalize President-elect Donald Trump’s headquarters, the left-leaning crowd erupted as expected.

Moving the focus toward a vote all could agree on, Rashad called for his groovy single “Free Lunch” to christen his feel-good show. Soon after, more “Zaywop!” chants would resume, this time beckoning Rashad to return for an encore, but when they eventually went unanswered, fans dispersed knowing their patience was still well worth the wait.

Setlist:
Smile
Brenda
Soliloquy
Cilvia Demo
R.I.P. Kevin Miller
Tity & Dolla (with Hugh Augustine)
Heavenly Father
Rope // Rosegold
Menthol
Nelly
Stuck in the Mud
Ronnie Drake (with SZA)
Warm Winds (with SZA)
4r Da Squaw
Find a Topic (Homies Begged)
A Lot
Wat’s Wrong
Free Lunch
Park
m.A.A.d. city (Kendrick Lamar cover)

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: 30 Days in LA, Isaiah Rashad, Laneway Presents, Mansionair, Red Bull Sound Select, Sampa the Great

The ‘EDM bubble’ may be bursting, but Pretty Lights remains a beacon of hope at the Santa Barbara Bowl

November 17, 2016 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

Pretty Lights (Live) with Big Wild, Chris Karns //
Santa Barbara Bowl – Santa Barbara, CA
November 10th, 2016 //

Amid the myriad of tragedies that the music industry has endured in 2016, one of the major talking points has been the future of electronic dance music. EDM, as the kids like to call it these days, experienced a meteoric rise just a few years ago as laptops replaced turntables and guitars, transforming DJs into music’s newest and biggest rock stars with multimillion-dollar residencies in Las Vegas and headlining slots at music festivals all around the world.

But in the last eight months, the genre’s sustainability has started to be called into question, with several media outlets predicting that the EDM boom will soon come crashing down. One well-known music website, for instance, published an in-depth look at EDM’s demise back in April, already declaring it a thing of the past with a title like “Popping the Drop: A Timeline of How EDM’s Bubble Burst.” Soon after, LA Weekly followed suit, continuing the conversation with their own piece on why an industry worth $6.9 billion only a year ago has fallen so fast. Of course, it should also be noted that Forbes was the first to tap into the subject, exploring how the proliferation of EDM festivals in the U.S. hasn’t always equaled massive payouts for some concert promoters.

Still, for a culture born out of the UK’s underground rave scene, it shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that the EDM business has reached its ceiling. From simply a spectators’ point of view, watching someone entertain an audience with a computer and a mixer can only be engaging for so long, even if the song selection and stage production are superb (it can also depend on if any mind-altering substances were ingested at the time). That’s not to say dance music can’t or won’t survive. As oversaturated as the market is right now, there will always be a thirst for music that can make you move — it’s more that the genre will continue to evolve in new and different ways. And if there’s one electronic artist whom others should look to for inspiration, it’s unquestionably Pretty Lights.

Praised by legendary record producer Rick Rubin as “the face and voice of the new American electronic music scene,” Derek Vincent Smith started out making music under his Pink Floyd-inspired moniker with his close friend and frequent collaborator Michal Menert more than a decade ago. But unlike so many of his contemporaries, the Colorado native was carving his own path in his early 20’s. Influenced by hip-hop groups from the Beastie Boys and A Tribe Called Quest to Wu-Tang Clan and The Roots, Smith got his big break opening for jam bands like Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9), The Disco Biscuits and Widespread Panic at their late-night, after-party shows. Employing a colorful patchwork of hip-hop breakbeats and soul samples to build the foundation for his tracks, Smith’s process as well as his music in many ways felt like an extension of the classic trip-hop that DJ Shadow pioneered in 1996 with his seminal debut LP Endtroducing….. and RJD2 (read our interview with him here) later furthered on his initial studio album Deadringer.

Pretty Lights’ rise to stardom didn’t happen overnight. Releasing his music for free on his own record label Pretty Lights Music, it took years for Smith to build the worldwide following that he has today. Yet, what has always made him more than just merely a “DJ” or a “producer” is his propensity for incorporating live instrumentation into his live performances. By the time he began touring in 2007, he had enlisted drummer Cory Eberhard to join him for a run that would eventually include important U.S. festival appearances at Coachella and Ultra in 2010. Smith would go on to replace Eberhard with Adam Deitch, and while Deitch’s commitment to his other projects (Break Science, Lettuce) has curtailed his involvement in more recent years, he served as a key ingredient during the recording sessions for 2013’s A Color Map of the Sun, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronica Album.

Since then, Smith has made a conscious effort to bring other talented musicians into the fray. Touring with a live band for the first time in 2013 — something that few other EDM artists have done to this day — he quickly changed the way electronic music can be experienced live. Fast forward to last Thursday, and we were once again treated to an electrifying Pretty Lights show that was more than just Smith behind a pair of Macbook Pros and two Akai MPD32s. Making his debut at the majestic Santa Barbara Bowl, he once again showed why he isn’t your typical EDM act. With Chris Karns and Big Wild providing support, Smith hit the stage at 8 p.m. with his bandmates — Karns, Borham Lee, Brandon Butler and Alvin Ford, Jr. — and put on a show that dazzled both sonically and visually. What was most impressive, though, was seeing how much of the performance was improvised, as the band transitioned from one jam to another while dropping in a number of remixes here and there. And as I looked on from my seat in the stands, I couldn’t help but think about how much the show reminded me of all the times I’ve seen STS9 perform live. It only seemed fitting considering that the livetronia band helped give Smith his start back in the day, and with the “EDM bubble” about to burst (that is, if it hasn’t already), it’s hopefully an approach more electronic artists will gravitate toward in the future.

Setlist:
Still Night Jam
Maybe Tomorrow
Time Remix
One Day They’ll Know > ODESZA Remix > Break Science Remix
Let The World Hurry By
So Much In The Dark
More Important Than Michael Jordan
Bombay Bump
Total Fascination > Jam
Understand Me Now > Jam
Cold Feeling > Jam > Remix
There Is a Light
Jam
Where I’m Trying to Go tease
More Important Than Michael Jordan tease
I Can See It In Your Face > Jam
High School Art Class

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Big Wild, Chris Karns, Coachella, Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Disco Biscuits, DJ Shadow, Michal Menert, Pretty Lights, Pretty Lights Music, RJD2, Santa Barbara Bowl, Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9), STS9, Widespread Panic

The Sam Chase & The Untraditional give one last hurrah before Election Day

November 8, 2016 by The Bam Team Leave a Comment

By Gina Lopez //

The Sam Chase & The Untraditional with The Crux, Ismay //
Mystic Theatre – Petaluma, CA
November 4th, 2016 //

Something wonderful happened in Washington, D.C., recently. No, Sam Chase wasn’t made an official presidential candidate, but he and his band, The Sam Chase & The Untraditional, did bring much-needed good cheer to our nation’s frazzled capital and throughout the East Coast — from New York to the Deep South — during their first East Coast tour.

Luckily for the Bay Area, The Sam Chase & The Untraditional returned just in time to give us one last rollicking performance before Election Day. It was billed as a birthday/pre-election/potential apocalypse show. Those of us who were at the Mystic Theatre in Petaluma last Friday can be satisfied if we never see another show again.

Ismay opened the night with her ethereal folk sound, reciting lyrics so powerful they could lift you above the din of the crowd. Then, The Crux came sailing in on their pirate punk ship. All hands were on deck as ringleader Josh Windmiller brought a taste of vaudeville back to the historic Northern California venue with a festive set that included a whimsical instrumental accompaniment to a lederhosen-wearing mime sword-swallower. During the set, double bass player Melissa Leigh, also of Token Girl, got the spotlight for a soulful song of hers that could blow the toupee right off of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s head.

At last, the swashbuckler birthday boy himself and his band took the stage, headlining the Mystic for the first time and forever being sealed into the theater’s mystique. And song after song, the energy kept rising.

All night long, Chase, with his charismatic charm, had the crowd stomping their boots and tipping their bartenders. And thanks, at least in part to him, voter turnout for the live-music-loving demographic should be up significantly this year, as he encouraged the crowd to head to the polls on November 8th.

For the grand finale, Chase invited all the members of Ismay and The Crux to join him and his bandmates for one last spirited song. But after the last note, the band remained onstage for a surprise, all-American rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” that was complete with red, white and blue stage lights. It was a fitting send-off into the next four years.

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Mystic Theatre, Sam Chase, The Crux, The Sam Chase & The Untraditional

On a night full of metalcore, Every Time I Die upstage Beartooth at The Regent Theater

October 21, 2016 by Zach Bourque Leave a Comment

Every Time I Die

By Zach Bourque //

Beartooth with Every Time I Die, Fit for a King, Old Wounds //
The Regent Theater – Los Angeles
October 12th, 2016 //

Metalcore veterans Every Time I Die dropped by The Regent Theater in support of their new album Low Teens, which they released in September. Despite their extensive résumé and massive fan base, ETID was actually not the headliner. Instead, marquee duties were left to Columbus metalcore outfit Beartooth, whose disparate appeal was reflected dramatically throughout the course of the night. Opening sets came from Old Wounds and Fit for a King.

If you randomly showed up at The Regent without any knowledge of who was performing, there was a good chance you would have assumed that Every Time I Die was the headliner. My own completely unscientific survey showed at least one in three attendees were donning ETID shirts, an overwhelming number that was highlighted in the massive pit that formed in front of the stage.

With the exception of ETID’s recent appearance on the Warped Tour, it’s been years since the Buffalo band last played in LA. And the excitement in the room was tangible as Keith Buckley (vocals), Jordan Buckley (guitar), Andy Williams (guitar), Stephen Micciche (bass) and Daniel Davison (drums) hit the stage around 8:30 p.m.

With nearly 20 years of material to dig through, the rambunctious five-piece wasted no time running through the hits during their 45-minute set. Classics like “Ebolarama” and “The New Black” were coupled with Lower Teens tracks like “The Coin Has a Say” and “It Remembers”, the latter of which featuring Panic! at the Disco vocalist Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco.

Beartooth

It was a loud, fast and intense set that made fantastic use of The Regent’s lack of a barricade between the crowd and the stage. Fans stage dived non-stop throughout their performance in what made for an interesting night for those close enough to experience the wrath of it.

While ETID’s set was nothing short of phenomenal, no moment defined the night quite like the second they left the stage, which seemingly saw two-thirds of the entire crowd dissipate the floor and walk out the venue’s doors.

Needless to say, it was a different story for Beartooth. The collective age of the crowd was reduced at least 10 years, with many looking like they just came from band practice in high school. Beartooth’s set was polished, produced and worthy of being included in a Hot Topic playlist. Fans appeared to dig it, though vocalist Caleb Shomo noticed a distinct drop-off in energy compared to ETID’s explosive show.

Given their huge following, it’s a head-scratcher why ETID decided to be on this tour. At any rate, we’re thrilled they’re still with us and amazed that their music continues to improve at an almost alarming rate. Let’s just hope for a headlining set next time.

EVERY TIME I DIE

Setlist:
Glitches
We’rewolf
Ebolarama
Underwater Bimbos from Outer Space
Thirst
Decayin’ With the Boys
Petal
Bored Stiff
C++ (Love Will Get You Killed)
The New Black
Floater
It Remembers (with Brendon Urie)
The Coin Has a Say
No Son of Mine
Map Change

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Beartooth, Every Time I Die, Fit for a King, Old Wounds, Panic! At The Disco, The Regent Theater, Warped Tour

Despite a disappointing crowd, Warpaint still take their SF fans on an introspective sonic journey

October 19, 2016 by The Bam Team Leave a Comment

By Diana Cordero //

Warpaint //
The Fillmore – San Francisco
October 12th, 2016 //

It’s always nice to see a band do well and have success. I have seen Warpaint perform since they opened for The XX back in 2011, long before they could sell out shows like the one they played in SF at The Fillmore last Wednesday.

Like everything in life, change is undeniable — both for the performers, but also the audience, which, sadly, was a huge letdown. It is the downside of a band reaching commercial success, though.

Even though the Los Angeles four-piece took us on an introspective sonic journey, not many people in the audience joined in. In fact, most of the attendees seemed to be there because it was the cool thing to do that night, which of course affected the atmosphere of the show. And while intimacy was craved, it kept being overshadowed by the “normie” population that kept drunkenly speaking out loud or scrolling their Facebook feed. Needless to say, what a way to disrespect those who wanted to actually be there.

Granted, Warpaint’s music is slow and introspective, especially their latest album Heads Up, which depicts the downfall of a love relationship between two people (quite possibly one of the women in the band, although no comments have been made publicly in that regard). All the more reason to wish for a quiet, respectful audience.

Keeping the aforementioned in mind, it does make sense that the women of Warpaint have gone through some difficulties, which is reflected in the songs they write. But it also shows the proximity that they have with each other — and that’s what completely sets them apart from any other outfit that wishes to sound like them. They work in unison, which is hard to achieve in a band and what ultimately makes them powerful and relevant.

Warpaint do seem more focused and less playful (I do miss the jokes bassist Jenny Lee and drummer Stella Mozgawa tell in between songs), but they are all still quite charming and engaging — well, at least to those of us who care anyway. Together, they are a super-tight band that has grown not only in terms of commercial success, but also musically.

Setlist:
Bees
Heads Up
Composure
Hi
Intro
Keep It Healthy
No Way Out
The Stall
CC
Whiteout
Beetles
Elephants
Love Is to Die
New Song
Disco//Very

Encore:
So Good
Biggy
Krimson

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: The Fillmore, Warpaint

Chris Corner turns an ordinary Monday night in SF into an electric one with his IAMX project

October 18, 2016 by Laura Tsu Leave a Comment

By Laura Tsu //

IAMX //
Great American Music Hall – San Francisco
October 10th, 2016 //

Chris Corner, formerly of the UK band Sneaker Pimps, developed IAMX as a solo music and visual art venture featuring dark melodies and intense theatrical production. Since 2004, the project has released eight albums, with the most recent being Everything Is Burning early last month. IAMX put the finishing touches on his North American tour with the penultimate date at the Great American Music Hall on a Monday night.

In an aura of fog and red smolder, Corner walked on the stage, joined by Janine Gezang and Sammi Doll on keyboards and backup vocals as well as Jon Siren on drums. Throughout the evening, Corner held two microphones in hand and either switched off from one or the other or sang into both. His voice fluctuated and highlighted the vocal diversity in musicianship; sometimes Corner screamed into his microphone, and other times he crooned in falsetto.

There were also portions of songs that more or less resembled spoken word, such as during “North Star”. Gezang and Doll significantly contributed vocals, whether they were harmonies in “Everything Is Burning” or more dynamic roles like in “You Stick It in Me”. Together, they synthesized dark, moody rhythms with a danceable complex.

Along with music composition, Corner clearly identified both performance energy and visual illustration as key components of the IAMX live show. Throughout the 80-minute set, Corner and the supporting musicians were constantly in motion throughout the performance — and none of them shied away from audience energy. Corner, Gezang and Doll constantly pointed their microphones to the crowd and invited them to directly engage in the show. Their visual showcase, tactically planned and moody, featured monotone hues amassed within fog amid strobe lights flashing as songs reached their apex.

Hovering above the band were four smaller rectangular screens with black-and-white or sepia videos of hellish imagery. Corner’s bandmates even went as far to incorporate body paint and some skintight attire into their outfits to further enhance the presentation.

At the end of the set, the crowd was hesitant to see IAMX depart. Band members embraced the audience and passed out printouts of the evening’s setlist. The breadth of content, from the beginning of the project in 2004 to more recent material, still merged to form a cohesive set. And altogether, the combination of IAMX’s music, energy, lighting, video and costumes created a primal undercurrent of shadow and pulse.

Setlist:
No Maker Made Me
Happiness
Nightlife
The Unified Field
Everything Is Burning
Screams
You Stick It in Me
Spit It Out
Insomnia
North Star
Aphrodisiac
Kiss + Swallow

Encore:
I Come With Knives
The Alternative
Oh Cruel Darkness Embrace Me

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Chris Corner, Great American Music Hall, IAMX

With a new album out, Tycho scratch a strong itch to surprise in front of a capacity crowd at The Fonda

October 12, 2016 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

Tycho //
The Fonda Theatre – Los Angeles
October 6th, 2016 //

It’s always inspiring when you see someone incorporate the skills they have developed over the years and apply them in new and different ways. For Scott Hansen, Tycho has been more than just a path to sonic exploration. While music remains at the forefront of Hansen’s vision, the project has served as a vehicle for his overall creative expression.

Before he became better known by his astronomical stage name, Hansen spent more than a decade working as a graphic designer, and his affinity for photography is no secret. For his photographic and design work, he operates under the moniker ISO50, and sometimes he’ll even include notes with his Instagram photos detailing the exact camera settings that were used (like in this one). The results — as you can see here, here and here, for instance — are incredibly beautiful and awe-inspiring for any young photographer. And in many ways, the music Hansen writes is just as pretty.

But it’s also worth mentioning that Hansen designs all of the art (including the album covers) for Tycho, often using geometric shapes like circles to represent such natural wonders as the sun that in turn serve as metaphors for life and the connection to the human experience. The live show similarly plays off these reoccurring themes, with a large video screen set up behind Hansen and his bandmates to reveal footage of nature, surfing and other subject matter that’s pleasing to the eye. In fact, as Hansen recently explained in his ISO50 blog, “the imagery tells a story that the music can’t fully articulate, and vice versa.”

It’s rare to find a musician who’s talented enough to create all of the music and artwork on his own, let alone one who can get the two to perfectly coincide with each other. Hansen, though, has managed to do this better than most, and he continues along that path with Tycho’s fifth studio album Epoch, which he unexpectedly dropped less than two weeks ago with no formal announcement. The 11-track LP and third Tycho album originally released on Michigan/New York record label Ghostly International picks up right where 2014’s Awake left off, combining the group’s signature ambient-techno sound with more post-rock flourishes than we’ve heard previously. It hasn’t peaked quite as high on the Billboard 200 chart yet, but there’s still plenty of time for Epoch to make up more ground in the weeks and months ahead.

For as much as Epoch was a surprise, so were Tycho’s two most recent shows in LA last week. It was the first time Hansen and company had played The Fonda Theatre since the Awake tour back in 2014 (read our review here), and Thursday’s sellout, which was announced less than a week before the show, along with the subsequent need to add a second date the next night, made it clear that more than ever, Angelenos have a strong appetite for what Hansen is doing on both a musical and visual level. It helps, too, that KCRW Music Director Jason Bentley, who opened the shows at The Fonda with a DJ set, has helped expose Tycho to a broader audience, whether through the “Morning Becomes Eclectic” theme song or live, in-studio performances by the band. Even nowadays with an abundance of streaming sites, you can’t underestimate the power of radio in a city with a driving culture as large as LA’s. And truth be told, Tycho is some of the best music to drive to, especially when you’re surrounded by nature.

When it came time to take the stage, the four-piece comprised of Hansen (synthesizers, guitar, bass, visuals, programming), Zac Brown (bass, guitar), Rory O’Connor (drums) and Billy Kim (bass, keyboards, synthesizers) didn’t waste any time diving into some material from Epoch, opening a 75-minute set with the album’s lead single “Division”. However, what might have been just as surprising as the album and show announcements themselves was the fact that of the 15 songs they played last Thursday, only one-third came from the new LP — and none were performed during the encore. With three critically acclaimed full lengths to draw from, Hansen has continued to evolve the live show, pulling equally from Dive and Awake and still including a couple tracks from 2006’s Past Is Prologue in crafting a setlist that covers all the bases. I suppose I should lay off the baseball analogies when describing one of Tycho’s latest performances, but we are in the month of October and Hansen, after years of hard work and dedication, has been playing in the big leagues for long enough now.

Setlist:
Division
Dive
PBS
Source
Past Is Prologue
Montana
Receiver
Epoch
Spectre
Horizon
A Walk

Encore:
Daydream
Hours
Awake

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: ISO50, Scott Hansen, The Fonda Theatre, Tycho

Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins pours his heart and soul out during his latest stop through LA

October 10, 2016 by Joseph Gray Leave a Comment

By Joseph Gray //

Mick Jenkins with Smino //
Bootleg Theater – Los Angeles
October 4th, 2016 //

Mick Jenkins does not have all the answers, nor does he pretend to. However, in the midst of America’s political revitalization that grows more and more volatile in a presidential election year surrounded by several recent instances of police brutality, the Chicago rapper does offer some healing — an elixir comprised of reflection, faith-based actions and a soundtrack that puts an emphasis on love. And the pot boils over into something not to be ignored.

Even if it’s only for the time and that moment, the good vibes are undeniable. The 25-year-old Jenkins showed this liberation off at LA’s Bootleg Theater last Tuesday while on his “A Quest for Love” tour, which is doubling as a victory lap for his well-constructed, critically acclaimed album The Healing Component, during the latest installment of Red Bull’s Sound Select series. While the intimate settings of the series that’s curated by the popular energy drink are often accompanied with baking temperatures, last Monday provided a different but suitable cool.

Jenkins followed St. Louis native Smino, the neighboring rapper in Chicago’s Zero Fatigue crew. Smino mixed melodic harmonies, clever wordplay and playful fun, the latter of which culminated in an entertaining moment where he danced to classic records in an ode to his city’s artists like Grammy winner Nelly. With more than enough reason to dive into Smino’s catalog after the show, Jenkins was ready to get to the meat and potatoes of his crusade.

Sneaking onstage without a grand introduction but with a live band intact, Jenkins charmed by using his signature deep-and-stern voice to power the crowd through his waters of truth and purpose. Yet, this was not an hour-long set where everything relied simply on prophetic words. The diverse and sold-out crowd came unhinged several times to big sounds, notably during “Jazz”, a standout from Jenkins’ 2014 mixtape The Water(s) — a precursor then and last week to his latest LP that highlights the positives of humanity over the blues we often learn about from local news coverage.

While he suggested that we “drink more water” during his performance, Jenkins continually refreshed the audience with a jug of feel-good material from THC. From the warm “Spread Love” to the darker, more hypnotic “Daniels Bloom”, Jenkins used his lyrical sword to cut through faith, violence and race toward a light, which at the very least, was different.

“Don’t let the struggle make your heart harder,” Jenkins rapped. “Sip the truth, spit the truth. That’s the smart water.”

With all the love, passion and consciousness in the room, Jenkins was still down for a riotous goodbye — this coming in the form of “Social Network (Gang)” by Chicago hip-hop collective Hurt Everybody that he’s featured on — where he motivated one last frenzy before a surprise stage dive.

After these small moves toward promoting love, Jenkins asked us at the end of the night to let him know if a difference was truly felt. Amid smiles, a room full of energy and avid chants for an encore taking place, it appeared he got his answer.

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Bootleg Theater, Mick Jenkins, Red Bull Sound Select, Smino

From club gigs to the Hollywood Bowl, Bloc Party close their U.S. tour with their largest show ever

October 10, 2016 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

By Josh Herwitt //

Bloc Party with Bob Mould, Ezra Furman //
Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles
September 25th, 2016 //

For those of us who attended college in the early 2000’s, Bloc Party were one of those bands that epitomized our most formative years. Back then, there weren’t many making music quite like the English quartet was, pioneering a sound rooted in indie rock, yet partially influenced by the surrounding UK electronic scene.

Now more than a decade after the release of their seminal debut LP Silent Alarm, Bloc Party are still going strong with Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack at the helm. The two Londoners have known each other for close to 20 years, and while each have their own projects outside of Bloc Party, what they’ve built together over five studio albums isn’t something to sneer at.

At the same time, it’s fair to say that the band’s last three records — 2008’s Intimacy, 2012’s Four and this year’s Hymns, which came out in January — haven’t struck a chord quite like Silent Alarm and A Weekend in the City both did. And with the departure of original band members Matt Tong and Gordon Moakes, it’s been on Okereke and Lissack to carry things forward while writing the group’s next chapter.

But even after all the commercial success they’ve had, what’s cool about Bloc Party is that they’re still playing big and small venues. This was no more evident than at the end of their latest U.S. tour, which saw them go from playing 1,000-person clubs like Mezzanine in San Francisco (see our photos from the show here) to headlining the one and only Hollywood Bowl with support from former Hüsker Dü leader Bob Mould and 30-year-old indie singer-songwriter Ezra Furman, who crossdressed to impress with a bright red one-piece, black stalkings and a pearl-like necklace.

It was the second time in two months that we were invited to cover a show at the legendary amphitheater (read about our first time here), and while Sufjan Stevens, Kurt Vile and The Violators, and Ibeyi provided a more compelling billing with quite a few more theatrics (at least on Stevens’ part), this one had its own unique storyline that made it special to witness. After all, it only seemed fitting that after playing small clubs and theaters amid a myriad of festival dates over the summer, Bloc Party were wrapping up a months-long tour with their largest crowd ever on hand. Don’t ask me what the attendance number was, but I think it’s fair to say the venue was no more than half full. Of course, thanks to LA’s new music festival Music Tastes Good taking place in downtown Long Beach over the same weekend, it wasn’t surprising to see the top two sections of the Bowl completely empty for the latest edition of KCRW’s second World Festival series. But that’s really just how big the Bowl is in size — and how big of an artist/band it takes to sell the place out on a Sunday night in late September.

Feeding off the raw energy of Mould’s punk-fueled set, Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, sampler), Lissack (lead guitar, keyboards), Justin Harris (bass guitar, keyboards, saxophones, backing vocals) and Louise Bartle (drums, percussion) dove immediately into their newest material, following a setlist that closely resembled, yet didn’t match past ones from the tour. For as high as Hymns has charted all across Europe and Australia though, the strength of Bloc Party’s live show remains firmly grounded in their first two LPs. If anything, their Hollywood Bowl debut, highlighted by A Weekend in the City fan favorites “Song for Clay (Disappear Here)” and “Hunting for Witches” in addition to Silent Alarm classics “Helicopter” and “This Modern Love” during a five-song encore, brought back memories of what it felt like to hear those songs for the first time. I know they say you shouldn’t live in the past, but for a little more than an hour in the Hollywood Hills, Bloc Party made it feel OK to do just that.

Setlist:
Only He Can Heal Me
So Real
She’s Hearing Voices
Mercury
Song for Clay (Disappear Here)
Banquet
Two More Years
Different Drugs
Octopus
Hunting for Witches
Virtue
Positive Tension
The Love Within

Encore:
Stunt Queen
Flux
Helicopter
Ratchet
This Modern Love

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Bloc Party, Bob Mould, Ezra Furman, Hollywood Bowl, Ibeyi, KCRW, KCRW's World Festival, Kurt Vile, Kurt Vile & The Violators, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Music Tastes Good, Sufjan Stevens

FOALS unite all walks of life at Hollywood Palladium

October 6, 2016 by Zach Bourque 3 Comments

Zach Bourque //

FOALS with Bear Hands, Kiev //
Hollywood Palladium – Los Angeles
September 27th, 2016 //

Of all the seven days in a week, Tuesday might be the least exciting. We go to work, grab a bite to eat and go to bed.

But when UK rockers FOALS come into town, things change. Bros get stoked, beers get drunk and fans get pumped. This exact course of events went down last Tuesday at the Hollywood Palladium for the band’s return to Los Angeles after a raucous performance in Oakland the night before (see our photos from the show here).

Few bands bring out such an eclectic cross section of a city like FOALS. While the majority in attendance seemed to be irresponsible USC students, old-timers, high schoolers, hipsters and average Joe’s all made an appearance despite the fall heat. The variety was no fluke. FOALS are a band that transcend expectations — a commercial indie-rock band whose appeal is equal parts KROQ and KCRW.

Opening duties came from Orange County’s Kiev, who were missed due to traffic, followed by Brooklyn’s Bear Hands. Instead of telling you what genre Bear Hands’ music fits under, it’s probably more efficient to tell you what they’re not. They’re not metal, they’re not country and they’re definitely not gospel.

Bear Hands

Needless to say, Bear Hands were all over the map on this night. Rap vocals? Check. Catchy keyboards? Check. Each song sounded different than the next, which proved to be equally refreshing and infuriating. It was like they set out to chronicle the musical progression of today’s culture starting with Limp Bizkit and ending with Imagine Dragons.

This “throw everything at the wall and see what fits” worked to a certain degree for Bear Hands. Their music remained genuinely interesting to hear throughout their set, and the foursome definitely had the chops to handle a venue the size of the Palladium. Ultimately though, Bear Hands never coalesced into something extraordinary.

If the line outside the venue after Bear Hands was any indication, many skipped the opening acts entirely in anticipation of the main course. Around 9:50 p.m., FOALS took the stage and quickly got everyone’s feet moving with an instrumental prelude and the hard-rocking track “Snake Oil” off their latest release What Went Down. The band’s range was exhausted in full effect throughout their set as they transitioned into catchy, dance-friendly tracks such as “My Number” and slower tracks like “Give It All”.

FOALS closed out their rambunctious set with a killer take on the title track “What Went Down” that brought lead singer/guitarist Yannis Philippakis diving into the crowd, giving fans one hell of a selfie and proving their rock credentials for good. After all, any band that can unite 20-something bros with 50-something grandparents gets a gold star in our book. Rock brings people together, and those who made it out to see this unicorn of a band won’t live to regret it.

Setlist:
Prelude
Snake Oil
Olympic Airways
My Number
Providence
Give It All
Mountain at My Gates
Spanish Sahara
Red Socks Pugie
Late Night
A Knife in the Ocean
Inhaler

Encore:
What Went Down
Two Steps, Twice

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Bear Hands, FOALS, Hollywood Palladium, Kiev

Flume makes his case as one of EDM’s fastest-rising stars over a three-night run in SF

October 3, 2016 by Brett Ruffenach Leave a Comment

Photos by Lisette Worster // Written by Brett Ruffenach //

Flume with Shlohmo //
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium – San Francisco
September 23rd, 2016 //

Among the many electronic musicians to break through into the mainstream over the past year, there aren’t many who have crafted their rise in fame as carefully as Harley Edward Straiten, better known as Flume. After releasing his critically acclaimed, self-titled debut album in 2012, the Australian producer quickly gained popularity thanks to his instant-earworm hits like “Sleepless” and “Insane”.

Leading up to his most recent LP Skin that he dropped in May, Flume began to enter the EDM mainstream after releasing several blistering remixes of artists like Disclosure and Hermitude. Since the release of Skin, Flume has spent much of this year headlining festivals and selling out some of the largest indoor venues around the world, including SF’s very own Bill Graham Auditorium. On a Friday night, I joined 5,000 of Flume’s fans for the second of his three-night run in the City.

Flume, or whoever manages his bookings, deserves some praise for the openers he brought out for this tour. Thursday and Friday featured Shlohmo, the goth-cousin (sonically speaking) of Flume, and on Saturday night, concertgoers were lucky enough to see Vince Staples, one of the hottest new rappers around, warm up the crowd. Though I was particularly excited to see Shlohmo (born Henry Laufer), a musician and producer/DJ worthy of his own separate review (see our photos from his live show in Los Angeles last year), the crowd did not feel similarly. As Laufer, the LA native who is a founding member and the defacto leader of the electronic music record label/collective WeDidIt with fellow producers RL Grime and Ryan Hemsworth, seamlessly ran through a mix of distorted, chopped-up hip-hop and trap beats, it seemed near impossible that the audience would give him any attention, with many using the flashlight on their iPhones as markers to help their friends find them.

Shlohmo

Simply put: Shlohmo is an underrated DJ. Watching him run from one track to another, I was continually surprised by the directions he chose to go. Tracks like “Apathy”, a part-shoegaze, part-trap wall of noise, become a completely different experience on a massive sound system compared to my causal listening on a pair of cheap headphones. Though most of the crowd hardly noticed his set, I thought Shlohmo was an excellent opener. Great work, Henry.

The auditorium quickly filled in leading up to Flume’s performance. As the bros, ravers and scantily clad women packed into the floor area, I chose to take a seat on the upper concourse. The house lights dimmed, and Flume slyly emerged onstage to a roaring applause, backed by a visual setup consisting of neon cubes and a massive LED screen, which seems obligatory for any up-and-coming electronic music producer these days.

Jumping quickly into his older material, Flume instantly set the crowd off playing “Holding On”, “Sleepless” and “On Top” one after another. Though Flume is touring in support of his sophomore effort Skin, it was a smart choice to kick off the show with some older tracks. The contrast in how robust Flume’s production skills are from his self-titled debut to his more recent studio effort were entirely apparent, especially leading into his booming remix of Disclosure’s hit “Magnets” featuring Lorde.

Flume

Perhaps the most impressive part of Flume’s live production is the choreographed lighting to accompany his music. On tracks like “Smoke and Retribution” (a personal favorite), a wall of strobe lights would flash with every stomping bass kick, blinding the crowd only momentarily before bringing them back to the kaleidoscope color scheme and accompanying visuals. It’s great that Flume has honed in the visual art direction of his album artwork and incorporated it into his performance — something about those surrealist floral designs just seemed to fit so perfectly with what Flume is all about.

Moving into fan favorites like “Say It” and perhaps his best track, a remix of the Disclosure track “You and Me”, the show ended as quickly as it started, but perhaps that’s because the setlist was perfectly woven together. Moving the energy levels up and down combining that with his charming Aussie voice from time to time, it’s clear that Flume knows how to work a crowd. As the crowd cheered and hollered for an encore, he reemerged to play one more song, his collaboration with Beck entitled “Tiny Cities”. After 90 minutes of booming beats as well as dancing, this track was the perfect cooldown for what was an incredible show.

Flume knows that you don’t need to be standing on top of a giant-sized Macintosh to put on an impressive show. His art direction, live production and setlist tie together the appeal of his music with enough lights and colors to serve as an accoutrement rather than a centerpiece. In the increasingly unimaginative world of live mainstream electronic music, artists like Flume are the beacon.

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, Flume, Shlohmo, Vince Staples, WeDidIt

With a packed crowd in SF, Aaron Maine shows he’s building something special in Porches

September 26, 2016 by Laura Tsu Leave a Comment

By Laura Tsu //

Porches with Japanese Breakfast, Rivergazer //
The Independent – San Francisco
September 18th, 2016 //

Aaron Maine has written music under a number of different monikers, including, but not limited, to Aaron Maine and the Reilly Brothers, Space Ghost Cowboys and Ronald Paris.

As Porches, though, Maine has found success in composing honest, disrobed songs in his full-length releases Slow Dance in the Cosmos and Pool. Following shows in Berkeley and Southern California, the New York outfit made a stop off in SF to perform for a jam-packed audience at The Independent on a Sunday night.

Opening the evening was Rivergazer, the creative outlet for Porches guitarist Kevin Farrant, who produces melodies that combine interluding minimalism with catchier synth textures, building up to some dramatic danceable hooks. Many of Farrant’s songs address darkness and beauty, and a haunting falsetto and salient pauses further dramatize the content.

Michelle Zauner’s band Japanese Breakfast delivered an exuberant set to dial up the crowd’s energy. Zauner, despite being rather petite in size, seems to almost never stop moving. As she swayed with each song, she showed her wide vocal range as well as her diverse songwriting.

Japanese Breakfast

Zauner certainly knows how to sing delicately and tug at the heartstrings, but she can also scream her emotions out (something that you’re more likely to hear in her other band, Little Big League). The last song of Japanese Breakfast’s set, which Zauner has said is about falling in love with a robot, deviated from the group’s indie-rock sound for more of an electronically-driven foundation that incorporated auto-tune in her voice. She also gave a special shout-out to local Bay Area songwriter Jay Som, who supported Japanese Breakfast and Mitski during their U.S. tour this year.

For Porches’ headlining set, Maine stepped onstage with five supporting musicians joining him, including his girlfriend Greta Kline (better known by her stage name Frankie Cosmos). Maine and Kline collaborate on each other’s musical projects, with Maine serving as Kline’s drummer for Frankie Cosmos.

At The Independent, Maine built melodies with his guitar while Kline switched from bass to keyboards and even contributed vocals. He crafted an austere stage presence as he unveiled poignant vocals and slow, gyrating dance moves rather than showing ounces of energy and offering excessive banter. Doing so didn’t prove any lack of confidence on Maine’s part, but it did indicate his own artistic expression in performing the music impartially and modestly. By the end of the evening, Maine had showcased his music just as he had presented himself — seemingly simple, yet thick with emotion.

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Japanese Breakfast, Porches, Rivergazer, The Independent

Brainfeeder drops the funk on its Oakland brethren

September 22, 2016 by Molly Kish Leave a Comment

Photos by Marc Fong // Written by Molly Kish //

Brainfeeder at The Fox featuring Flying Lotus, Parliament-Funkadelic, Thundercat, Shabazz Palaces, The Gaslamp Killer //
Fox Theater Oakland – Oakland
September 15th, 2016 //

Last Thursday, the prolifically experimental, Los Angeles-based record label known as Brainfeeder took over the Fox Theater Oakland. Filling the venue with the brand’s diverse roster of talent and flavor, label founder and futuristic producer Flying Lotus headlined a massive lineup that included its latest acquisition, Parliament-Funkadelic, in addition to performances by Thundercat, Shabazz Palaces and The Gaslamp Killer.

The Gaslamp Killer ushered in the early arrivals with his signature sound of instrumental psychedelia, revving up the sold-out crowd with his visceral beats and transient energy. Shabazz Palaces followed in a somewhat uncharacteristically stripped-down set. Missing their usual visual art-infused stage production, the duo muted its typical abstract style and instead delivered a hard-hitting set that relied on Ishmael Butler’s (aka Palaceer Lazaro) and Tendai “Baba” Maraire’s intense vocals and percussion.

Subsequently, free-form jazz virtuoso Thundercat (born Stephen Bruner) took the stage and feverishly plucked his way through a comprehensive set of solo material and collaborative hits that he worked on with Flying Lotus and for Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-winning album To Pimp a Butterfly last year.

Flying Lotus

Parliament-Funkadelic, who signed to Brainfeeder last month, elevated the funk vibes to their highest level before Flying Lotus’ headlining slot. To kick off the set, George Clinton threw the audience for an unexpected loop and shifted the mothership’s groove into uncharted territory with some unreleased, aggressively charged hip-hop. Though some longtime fans were put off by the new tracks, it did seem appropriate that the forefathers of the Afro-futuristic movement showed their penchant for pushing the envelope, especially in this particular context. But by the fourth song, P-Funk had returned to their signature sound before bringing out the entire Brainfeeder family to kick the show into hyperdrive and get fans on board for the galactic journey they were about to embark on.

Brainfeeder founder, producer and unapologetic cultural mouthpiece Flying Lotus (born Steven Ellison) ended the night with a mildly controversial headlining set. Walking onstage and making what any FlyLo fan would recognize as an off-colored comment on the current presidential race may have proven too brazen for those not used to his brand. He let Captain Murphy out of the box a little early and road the wave of confusion into a heady, bass-driven assault on the conflicted crowd, providing the distinct audio punctuation point for the night’s bill of artists. Playing several tracks off of his 2014 LP You’re Dead! as well as various hits from high-profile hip-hop emcees like Travis Scott and Kendrick Lamar that he has produced over the years, Ellison stunned us all with his double-screen, audio-visual stage setup and plenty of bone-rattling bass drops.

The three-night Brainfeeder showcase, which included a stop at the Hollywood Bowl last weekend, was truly an experience to behold. Regardless of who you went to see, eyes were opened and brains were fed — so to speak — thanks to the sonic diversions that continue to make the label one of the most important players in shaping the future of music.

Brainfeeder at the Fox Theater Oakland - Shabazz Palaces

Brainfeeder at the Fox Theater Oakland - Thundercat

Brainfeeder at the Fox Theater Oakland - Parliament-Funkadelic

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: Brainfeeder, Flying Lotus, Fox Theater Oakland, Parliament-Funkadelic, Shabazz Palaces, The Gaslamp Killer, Thundercat

The Avett Brothers take us inside their new album for an intimate performance at Apogee Studio

September 21, 2016 by Josh Herwitt Leave a Comment

Photos by Davis Bell // Written by Josh Herwitt //

The Avett Brothers //
Apogee Studio – Santa Monica, CA
September 19th, 2016 //

Before The Avett Brothers were ever THE Avett Brothers, Seth and Scott Avett were Margo and Nemo. Margo was Seth’s high school rock band, and Nemo was Scott’s band that he formed in college. While Seth’s band would eventually merge with Scott’s to form an even bigger Nemo, it wasn’t until the two brothers self-released their debut EP, titled The Avett Bros., in 2000 that their partnership as an eclectic folk-rock outfit was realized.

More than 15 years later, The Avett Brothers are riding high after their ninth and latest studio album True Sadness debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart when it dropped back in June. The LP, which Seth describes as “a patchwork quilt, both thematically and stylistically,” drew its fair share of applause and jeers from the music media, but in the file-sharing world we live in now, selling 40,000-plus copies in an album’s first week ain’t half bad.

The Avett Brothers & KCRW Music Director Jason Bentley (center)

Currently on tour in support of True Sadness, The Avett Brothers followed up their Sunday set at KAABOO Del Mar with a private show in Los Angeles for KCRW’s Apogee Sessions the next night. Tucked away on the eastern edge of Santa Monica along an industrial stretch, Apogee Studio is a hidden gem in LA’s ever-growing music scene, a state-of-the-art recording studio that at times doubles as a petite concert venue with a maximum capacity of 200.

What you might not know, though, is that The Avett Brothers are more than just musicians. As we found out during KCRW Music Director Jason Bentley’s interview with Seth and Scott prior to their performance, both are visual artists as much as they are musicians. The sheer number of hours spent creating the album cover for True Sadness more or less proves their attention to every last detail, from the melodies they write to the stories they tell with their lyrics. Of the 14 songs they performed at Apogee Studio, eight of them were from True Sadness, and rightfully so. The Avetts have come a long way since their days as Margo and Nemo, and with legendary producer Rick Rubin at their side throughout it all, there’s no need for them to look back now.

Setlist:
D Bag Rag
True Sadness
Laundry Room
Satan Pulls the Strings
Morning Song
Divorce Separation Blues
You Are Mine
Fisher Road to Hollywood
Smithsonian
Ain’t No Man
Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise
No Hard Feelings

Encore:
Stay All Night
Murder in the City