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Archive for the ‘Beach Bunny’ Category

[ATTENDED: May 23, 2023] Beach Bunny 

When this mini tour was announced I was pretty psyched.  My son and I have seen PUP and loved them.  My daughter and I have seen Beach Bunny (twice) and loved them.  The only problem was that it was at Rooftop Pier 17–a massive pain in the butt to get to.

But I grabbed tickets anyway and surprised them earlier this month.

When PUP ended the place cleared out some.  There were definitely fans of both bands there (in fact, they had toured together five years ago), but a lot of the more hardcore PUP fans took off, which was nice.

I used the intermission time (since our space wasn’t that great anyway) to look at merch and use the bathroom.  When I came back up, my daughter had moved further back (she says she can see better from the back, which is kind of true, but there is the huge problem of drunken hangers on hanging on and talking back there).  My son, on the other hand, pressed forward and wound up just five people from the stage. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: May 23, 2023] PUP

When this mini tour was announced I was pretty psyched.  My son and I have seen PUP and loved them.  My daughter and I have seen Beach Bunny (twice) and loved them.  The only problem was that it was at Rooftop Pier 17–a massive pain in the butt to get to.

But I grabbed tickets anyway and surprised them earlier this month.

I assumed that PUP would go on last as they are the louder band.  But, in fact, they went on second. And that may have been wise as many of PUP’s more bro fanbase left after their set.

But as they were setting up, the sun hadn’t set yet and PUP came out to the orchestral version of their album (they just released some kid of answering machine version of their album from during the pandemic, which I’m pretty curious to hear).  They had a cool evening sky and marveled at being on a rooftop in New York City (it is a very cool venue).

And then they were off.  They opened with the two songs they closed the show with last time.  This being a shorter set, it was more of a greatest hits and less of a celebration of the last album.

There’s only one rule at a PUP show.  Look at your neighbors around you, have fun and look out for each other’s safety.  Then the moshing began in earnest. (more…)

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[ATTENDED: May 23, 2023] Pool Kids

I think I heard of Pool Kids about a week before this show was announced.  I really liked their mix of punky alt rock and really cool guitar shredding (so much finger tapping).

I was thrilled that they were opening this show.

The Rooftop at Pier 17 is a great venue but it is a huge pain in the ass to get to.  Last time, we drove in and looked for parking for about 20 minutes.  This time we drove to Hoboken and took the PATH train to World Trade Center.  It was about a ten minute walk but we stopped or food.

We had left the house at 4 and wound up being late for Pool Kids who went on at 6:30.  So I don’t imagine going  to too many more shows there.

We saw about three Pool Kids songs and they were great.  The band has great on stage presence and clearly were cool with a large crowd.  Vocalist/guitarist Christine Goodwyne was fun with a powerful voice that held high notes and also screamed with rage.  She and second guitarist Andy Anaya played some great harmony solos together too.

Bassist Nicolette Alvarez took lead vocals on one song, but mostly held down the low end.  And drummer Caden Clinton somehow made a lot of noise on a drumset that was off to the side (and was much smaller) than Pup’s massive kit behind them.

I think we came in during “Arm’s Length.”  But I was really excited that they saved “Conscious Uncoupling” for late in their set.  It’s the first song on their album and is a perfect statement about the man.  Great vocals, a cool riff and tons of energy.

I’m really excited they’re doing a headline tour later this year so I can catch a full set.

  1. Swallow
  2. That’s Physics, Baby
  3. $5 Subtweet
  4. Arm’s Length
  5. I Hope You’re Right
  6. Conscious Uncoupling
  7. Talk Too Much
⊗ Music to Practice Safe Sex To (2018)
¶ Pool Kids (2022)

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[ATTENDED: May 18, 2022] Beach Bunny

T. was really into Beach Bunny when we saw her back in November of 2021.  I was pretty surprised that she was going to tour again in May of 2022 (in fairness, the 2021 tour had been rescheduled twice and I think she was ready to play new stuff, but she had all the gear from the old tour so….).  Plus, this new tour moved her from the 1500 capacity Union Transfer to the 2500 capacity Fillmore.

I had really enjoyed her at Union Transfer and was looking forward to what she’s do at this show.

Last time the stage was filled with old video game cabinets.  This time it had old small TV screens.

Lili Trifilio came out with bunny ears on and jumped right in with “Oxygen.”  The crowd seemed very young to me (which, I guess to me they were very young, but I believe the Fillmore was designed for a largely under 21 crowd).

My daughter seemed a little overwhelmed by the crowd and the show and decided to hang nearer to the back.  She felt like she could see better, which may have been true).  But i always feel disconnected from the show when I’m too far back.  (more…)

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[ATTENDED: May 18, 2022] Ky Vöss [Wednesday cancelled]

T. was really into Beach Bunny when we saw her back in November of 2021.  I was pretty surprised that she was going to tour again in May of 2022 (in fairness, the 2021 tour had been rescheduled twice and I think she was ready to play new stuff, but she had all the gear from the old tour so….).  Plus, this new tour moved her from the 1500 capacity Union Transfer to the 2500 capacity Fillmore.

Of course I got her a ticket!

It also happened to be the same night as my rescheduled (three or four times) Deftones show which I was incredibly excited to go to.  Which my son really wanted to go to having recently gotten into the Deftones.

I tried so many different ways to make this night happen for all of us.

Perhaps I could get a ticket for him for Deftones and we could go together.  Mine was GA, but GA was upselling for like $300 (NO!).  I could get him a seat in the balcony–that would suck) and even that was upselling for like $175 (NO!).  (more…)

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[ATTENDED: November 11, 2021] Beach Bunny [rescheduled from March 28, 2020 at First Unitarian Church and then May 24, 2020 at Union Transfer]

When my kids were little I was always driving around to some activity or another.  Well, how psyched was I to be able to drive one kids to a concert last night and another kids to a concert tonight?  And both were for bands I like, too!

I didn’t realize the full history of this show for Beach Bunny.  When the tour was first scheduled, they were supposed to play at the First Unitarian Church.  At some point, the venue was switched to Union Transfer, which is a pretty huge jump.  Then it was postponed for a year and a half and by that time she had built up such a big fanbase that the show sold out.

I’m not sure when my daughter had gotten into Beach Bunny, but I knew of them from some buzz on NPR.  I’m not sure I Would have gone to this show on my own, but I was pretty psyched to go once we got tickets.

Beach Bunny was a project for Lili Trifilio which eventually expanded to include Jon Alvarado on drums, Matt Henkels on guitar and Anthony Vaccaro on bass.

I told my daughter that we should be able to get up pretty close to the stage.  Wrong!  This sold out show was not going to hold back.  I told my daughter that the crowd would probably be a lot of short girls (which I have found to be true at certain younger bands).  Wrong!  There were people of varying (and large) heights crowding around to see this band which was getting pretty hyped of late.

The set was pretty spare with two video game cabinets on either side of the stage.  But Beach Bunny did not skimp on lights.  Each song had a different feel to it, with a song in the middle of the set featuring simply a spinning disco ball.

Lili was a great front woman, she was sweet and engaging.  It must be a weird feeling being that young and having a big room hanging on your every word and knowing all of them.  She wasn’t especially animated–that job seemed to belong to bassist Vaccaro whose big haor and frame provided for a lot of movement on the far side of the stage.

She played songs from all through her career (which was much longer than I was aware of).  Although I think the biggest responses came from the album songs and the new EP, Blame Game.

Even though I’ve been to Union Transfer a lot, I let her choose where we would stand–I’d already been wrong about two assumptions.  I tried to encourage her to push into open spots, but she was too shy.  Rather, she chose a spot near the side of the stage which ha a pretty good view and also allowed us to not participate in the one big crowd participation moment.

There’s the original poster for this tour back in 2020).

She went all the way back to her first release, Animalism for “Six Weeks.” They lowered the lights and Lili asked everyone to squat down and hold it.  She played the quiet intro to “Six Weeks” and when the vocals kicked in everyone jumped to their feet.

Her songs were so catchy and fun and yet lyrically they had a message of empowerment for the young girls.

I was kind of surprised that my daughter wasn’t dancing and going nuts with the other girls (who were probably a little older than her), but I could tell she was having a great time from the way she kept inching closer and closer as the show went on.  And the way she insisted on getting pictures taken in the venue and in front of the stage.  It was pretty sweet.

As was the fact that she wanted to buy a vinyl single (I’ve started her on a vinyl path already, gods help me).

They encore featured a fun version of Katy Perry’s “Hot n Cold” which everyone more than happily sang along to.  The final song was a rocking “Painkiller.”  And then it was over.  But we got home early enough that she could easily make it to school the next day wearing her Beach Bunny sweatshirt.

  1. Prom Queen ♣
  2. Love Sick
  3. Cuffing Season Ø
  4. Oxygen
  5. Promises Ø
  6. Good Girls (Don’t Get Used)
  7. April Ø
  8. Rearview Ø
  9. Entropy [new]
  10. 6 Weeks
  11. Dream Boy Ø
  12. Nice Guys
  13. Colorblind Ø
  14. February ©
  15. Sports ♣
  16. Blame Game
  17. Boys ©
  18. Cloud 9 Ø
    encore
  19. Hot n Cold (Katy Perry cover)
  20. Painkiller ♣

⇔ Blame Game EP (2021)
Ø Honeymoon (2020)

♣ Prom Queen EP (2018)
© Crybaby (2017)
ANIMALISM EP (2015)

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[ATTENDED: November 11, 2021] Miloe

When my kids were little I was always driving around to some activity or another.  Well, how psyched was I to be able to drive one kids to a concert last night and another kids to a concert tonight?  And both were for bands I like, too!

I didn’t know Miloe, and they were a little hard to get details about because the band is so young.  Miloe is the brainchild of 20 year old Congolese immigrant Bobby Kabeya.

He put out an EP called Greenhouse during the pandemic and has had a few other songs percolating for a while.

Bobby was a great frontman.  He told us that these shows were the first time he’s played in clubs–his previous touring experience was house parties. Obviously this was his first time away from Minneapolis, too.

Miloe’s record is full of laid back, breezy indie pop with pretty guitar melodies and delicate vocals delicately delivered over songs “influenced by Congolese rumba, reggae and African folk sounds.”

Bobby was quick to smile and marvel at where he was.  But he was also quick to totally rock out.

Most of the songs had a soft shimmering guitar sound.  Interlocking guitar lines from the two guitars fleshed out the sound.  But a song like “Yellow” started out quietly, like a sweet summer song complete with some “la las” and then it just crashed away into a satisfying noisy conclusion, with both guitarists going nuts.

The one thing that made me laugh was that Bobby’s bassist was easily a foot taller than him, so when they stood next to each other it was quite dramatic.

I found out this fun tidbit.  He wrote his song “Winona” about Winona Ryder.  But, and here’s the fun twist, he discovered her through Stranger Things, not one of her Gen X projects.   The song is about how a friend of his looks like her.

I didn’t catch all of the songs he played, but I know he played “Winona,” “Yellow” and “Motorola.”

I really enjoyed his set.

 

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