[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.
- Prom Queen ♣
- Love Sick ⇔
- Cuffing Season Ø
- Oxygen
- Promises Ø
- Good Girls (Don’t Get Used) ⇔
- April Ø
- Rearview Ø
- Entropy [new]
- 6 Weeks ∀
- Dream Boy Ø
- Nice Guys ⇔
- Colorblind Ø
- February ©
- Sports ♣
- Blame Game ⇔
- Boys ©
- Cloud 9 Ø
encore
- Hot n Cold (Katy Perry cover)
- Painkiller ♣
⇔ Blame Game EP (2021)
Ø Honeymoon (2020)
♣ Prom Queen EP (2018)
© Crybaby (2017)
∀ ANIMALISM EP (2015)
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I’ve been a fan of Kevin Devine for a few years. I feel like I’ve seen him a bunch because he so often plays around here. And yet I have only seen him three time (twice solo and once with his Goddamn Band). I would love to see him again especially with his band.
I was really bummed when this show was postponed. I was even more bummed when it was moved to the Church. I really liked the venue when we first arrived, but by the end, I was hot and sweaty and crowded and worn out.
