SAT | JUNE 23 | KOO’S

SUMAKO by LEE MEREDITH
Koo’s calendar is part admirable fringe experimentalism and part Melrose/Santa Monica-style goof rock—never ever could I have imagined the day when bands playing Koo’s would proudly display blurbs comparing themselves to Third Eye Blind. But this is a new Koo’s and to put it constructively, they are [...]

By Peje Bejarano

PHOTO by LEE MEREDITH
SUN | JUNE 17
HEAVENLY TRIP TO HELL, THE SPOOKY, RESEVOIR TIPS, THRILL BILLYZ, VIOLENT DRUNKS, ANIMALS
VAULT 350 | LONG BEACH
Inside: A huge, churning, sweaty pit full of teens—surrounded by older, industrial, metalhead, and punk parents standing and nodding their heads. Two guitar chords screech “dah duh dah duh dah duh [...]

By Doran A. Walot
THURS | MAY 31
UNDISCLOSED WAREHOUSE | LONG BEACH

PHOTO by LEE MEREDITH
With Kim on drums and Matt on two electric keyboards (on a setting best described as “baseball stadium organ”) this New York-based duo engaged a crowd in the most physical indie-pop mosh pit I’ve ever encountered. Following at least three less-than-well-matched openers, [...]

By Chris Ziegler

PHOTO by LEE MEREDITH
SAT | MAY 26 @ {open}
{open} pays rent off books and makes friends off nights like this—the Free Moral Agents in front of a crowd so local and affectionate that singer Mendee Ichikawa took a second to scout the room and then said, “I think I like every single person [...]

By Harry Kellerman
@ QUE SERA | SUN MAY 20TH

PHOTO by LEE MEREDITH
Veer Right Young Pastor are a case for the short set list, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. A short set is ideal when a band is out of their element, and the other acts tonight had nothing in common with [...]

Embracing the devil that is karaoke
By Ellen Griley

ILLUSTRATION by SARAH TILLMAN
If I hadn’t known better, I could have sworn I was standing in a Midwestern dive bar: to my right there was a peach-fuzzed boy wearing a tight-fitting, faded New Kids on the Block T-shirt; onstage, a man bellowed Creed’s “With Arms Wide Open.” But, [...]

Quiet Grace
By Harry Kellerman

PHOTO by CHRISTINA LIMSON
SAT MAY 12 | SHE SELLS CDS BY THE SEASHORE | LONG BEACH
This was the second-ever show at She Sells CDs by the Seashore, a really warm and inviting space—small, but not crowded—with serious potential to bring good, all-ages shows back to Long Beach. (Remember those?) Foot Foot, a [...]