Thursday, May 24, 2012

Best Coast @ The Wiltern, Los Angeles. 5-18-12.


I owe Rivers Cuomo and Weezer a lot. Sure they've deteriorated into a campy joke rock band these days, but they've given me tons of great music/memories over the years, and are also the lads who first exposed me to Best Coast when they tapped Bethany and Bob to open their 2010 Memories tour. I was in awe of their stripped down femmed out Beach Boys meets Ramones sound. A new fan was born.

This was my first time seeing Best Coast since then but the year long wait was worth it. They were headlining their first big time show at the Wiltern. New album out, new touring band members, playing swanky venues...it appears that big things are happening in the Best Coast camp these days. We arrived during the end of Abe Vigoda's opening set. JEFF The Brotherhood was next. I can honestly say I dug their fuzzed out, crunchy rock'n'roll attack. I think I'll be keeping my eye out for them in the future.

 
Best Coast took the stage around 10:30pm and their sleuth of adoring, mostly female fans, went nuts. I gotta say, I'm still not used to these normal people concerts where attractive people tend to congregate. I'm used to scores of sweaty dudes and the occasional trophy girlfriend at metal shows. Nothing prepared me for the amount of hot ladies roaming around the Wiltern. Imagine all the models from those American Apparel ads showed up, had a few drinks and started dancing. Thank you Best Coast. Thank you.

Oh yeah, so the band was amazing. The new lineup is superb. When I saw them open for Weezer they were a trio without a bassist and a "eh" drummer. Their new drummer is solid as hell and the addition of a bass player made a world of difference. The band's sound was more full and powerful than last time. Also, Bethany's voice was simply stellar. I remember her having trouble singing "Island In The Sun" with Rivers in 2010, now she was belting out Fleetwood Mac covers like a champ. They played pretty much all of their debut album Crazy For You as well as a bunch of new material off The Only Place. All the new songs sounded great, meaning I have to get off my ass and get the record all ready. Tons of fun with Best Coast at the Wiltern. Tons.

14 comments:

  1. These guys sound so good man, you definitely owe Weezer for introducing you to these guys, they're great.

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  2. Really enjoyed the video. This isn't the type of music I normally listen to but I'll definitely be checking out more from them. I normally listen to either Underground Hip Hop or old Delta Blues. This would be a nice change of pace from time to time though.

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  3. I am in awe of Best Coast. I didn't discover them until their album became available for a free preview on NPR Music. From the first song I was hooked. It's fun, lovely, and simplistically meaningful. It's the music that you want in your head when you're walking down the sidewalk on the best day possible. Why would you [listen to] anything else?

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  4. A friend of mine told me tales of how she was molested by a load of girls at metal shows. You seem to be going to the wrong ones. The chicks might be hot but they probably aren't freaks at normal shows. Then again Justin Bieber is probably considered "normal" and her fans are freaks. It sounds like they did pretty good. It's great they're improving and moving on to bigger things, and hopefully that trend will continue.

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  5. Will give a listen. So you swept concert for trophy girlfriends? Hmm should start series to give the score of quest ;)

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  6. So that's where all the nice ladies go for concerts? They sound really nice, I'm impressed and surprised I haven't heard of them before. A new fan was born today as well.

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  7. They don't sound too bad what so ever. Never heard of them, but will surely look up more now.

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  8. I only knew of them from their "Our Deal" video. Sound great.

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  9. I think I found me a new band interest of mine! :D

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  10. i think i saw these guys once on SNL, im pretty sure

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  11. Mmmm, regular people concerts. Man, I miss those.

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  12. Sounds like it was a great concert

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  13. supporting Weezer and doing Fleetwood Mac covers... I'm off to check out more of their work

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  14. the vocal is pretty, unfortunately, as usual, I have no idea about them until now. hmm..you seem to be the best person to keep me posted with this sort of stuff :D

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