Better late than never. Work obligations, the oppressive cold bearing down, and all that. But last Sunday, a distant and rapidly fading memory now, I braved the elements (snowy, windy and cold as they were) to see three really great L.A. bands at T.T. The Bear’s Place in Cambridge. And as I so often am at these times that finally inspire me to get my ass off my small island and down from the North Shore into the city, I was cold, lonely and bereft of inspiration, desperately in need of an indie band live music fix. These guys really delivered for me.
Local Natives, with guests
Local Natives were up first. Fortunately I was only a few minutes late for their set, as they were the one of the three I had not seen before, having had the great pleasure of catching The Union Line and Voxhaul Broadcast at two separate shows during my recent trip to L.A. Local Natives were just wonderful. Clearly loving to be there performing, even for very few people, their enthusiasm came across very strongly, and added that special quality to their obviously skilled musicianship to create some very captivating music. Their set ended with a seriously jamming version of a song called “Sundance” (I think?) “Sun Hands”, on which they were joined by members of Union Line and Voxhaul Broadcast, making for a crowded and festive scene on TT’s small stage. Since I wasn’t familiar with their music (only briefly visiting their MySpace page beforehand), I can’t say anything specific about the songs played, but I really enjoyed them, and picked up their “split single” (with The Union Line) that they had available. Which I highly recommend.
The Union Line, with guests
The Union Line came on next, and again, quite a class act and I was as impressed with them as when I first saw them at that strange club called Slidebar in Fullerton (with The Deadly Syndrome and Earlimart – wow, what a lineup!). In any case, they’re rootsy and rocking, with some wonderful percussion (loved the serious grooving on the bass drum). They performed songs from their debut album, and ended with a marvelous version of “Rich Man’s Tune”, supplemented on stage with no less than six members of Local Natives and Voxhaul, beating Local Natives’ previous “T.T.’s onstage record”. And they’ve just been featured on Groupee.com.
Voxhaul Broadcast, no guests
Voxhaul Broadcast blew me away when they supported The Movies at their Spaceland residency show back on December 22nd. They did so again tonight. Psychedelic, bluesy, spacy, dreamy, rocking, jamming… great, great stuff. I also really like David Dennis’s vocals. Go grab their CD “Rotten Apples” at either iTunes or Amazon, and see them live when you can. Their tour with Local Natives and The Union Line continues through Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada, before heading back home to California. And hopefully they’ll all be back on the East Coast very soon.
I’ll leave you with this: superb L.A. bands, and amazing enthusiasm, especially considering what a grind this tour must be, traveling around in freezing temperatures with inappropriate footwear, and playing in tiny clubs. Their contagious joy of performing live, even though they were playing mostly to each other on this cold and dreary Sunday night. But they didn’t seem to care, even when I apologized for the lame Bostonians who couldn’t leave their homes to support these immensely talented musicians. Their positive and vibrant attitude, and deep appreciation that I made the effort to get there (right back at ya, guys)… All this really impressed me. Please come back again soon! [It’s much nicer here in the Springtime, really!]
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Cathy
Awesome bands, i may be incorrect but i believe where you stated the song is called “Sundance†it’s actually called sun hands. just fyi, unless they recorded a new song called Sundance…. :]