Some bands have a very intricate sound, quite difficult to talk about, sweating all kinds of influences, and which could be described so many different ways. That’s about the case of the LA band Rumspringa, with its garage rock, full of bluesy guitars and psychedelic riffs.
Drawing a large crowd for their set, Rumspringa was one of the bands playing at the Bootleg theater on Monday night, where they actually have an April residency.
Lead vocalist Joey Stevens seemed to be playing complicated finger-picked riffs that sounded very distinct, as if the instrument was doing its own thing, above the wall of guitars and beats à la Built to Spill, played by Cecilia Della Peruti, Ricardo Robles, and Andrew Parker respectively on guitar, bass and drums.
If their name is also an Amish rites of passage (I have no idea why they chose it), their sound is both crisp and bouncing, as people began moving their bodies more and more as they were progressing in their set. But I guess there is more than these long groovy blues-funk jams into their music, and I was hearing here and there some more exotic element without exactly putting my finger on it.
Joey Stevens was often helped on vocals by Cecilia Della Peruti, and with their well-crafted songs, their perfect execution, their capacity to draw such a crowd on a Monday night, I was expected to be more impressed,… and I am not saying I did not enjoy their set, but I realize right now how hard it is for me to talk about them for a reason that escapes me. May be I was confused a little by their style, good, but not really triggering any true emotion that makes us connect with a specific music.
But I did enjoy ‘Criminal Love’, one of their songs, that I unfortunately caught in the middle: