I am so impressed by Best Coast, they can actually start a riot! I don’t know if it was because Pasadena was kind of a hometown for Bethany Cosentino, but what a scene on Saturday night! Security guards were holding the barricades like at a punk show, people were surfing the crowd like at a Fucked up concert. It was wild, hot and damned crowded! Pasadena is an ancient town and may be the streets are somewhat narrower than in Los Angeles, this, or it was really crowded!
Bethany, she is so loved that girl! Guys screamed at her they wanted to have her babies (I am not making this up) and girls yelled as if they wanted to be her. They even threw a bra at her, why a bra? ‘It is my first bra!’ she said as a reply to the crowd.
Dressed in black, and accompanied by her drummer Ali Koehler, and her guitarist Bobb Bruno, wearing a Public Enemy ‘Fear of a black planet’ t-shirt, Bethany seemed completely at ease on stage, not letting a second to the public for cooling downbetween the songs.
But Bethany may have been a little irresponsible at the beginning when she said, ‘Whatever they tell you, don’t listen!’ and I am not sure what she meant, the show had already started late as the police could not clear up some fire lanes invaded by the crowd around the stage. Then it went out of control, people got pushed and crushed, and I was happy to be on the side of the stage where I could observe without too much damage.
But if she had encouraged disobedience, she said later to the crowd to stop pushing ‘or the cuties in the front will be smashed!’
Despite the undergoing riot, the band managed to go through a set composed of famous songs from their ‘Crazy for You’ album, and some new ones. Among the ones I recognized, there were ‘Crazy for You’, ‘Summer Mood’, ‘Goodbye’, ‘Boyfriend’ (which just fired up the riot), ‘When the Sun Don't Shine’, ‘Each and every day’, and she dedicated ‘I Want to’ to Pasadena, ‘This one is for you!’… As if the crowd needed more encouragement!
Needless to say that every single lip was singing along with her, but not too much effort there!
She made an allusion to her roots in the neighborhood ‘ I grew up in Glendale, I was going to Pasadena all the time, I just know the Cheesecake factory is there, that’s all I know!’ Bethany made sure we knew she was one of us, but she did not make it sound like another Jenny-from-the-block Lopez thing, she looked sincere. And to make sure we felt completely at home, she talked about Snacks her cat and how she had thought about bringing him at the festival.
By now, everyone has heard their fuzzy sound, sun-soaked and all fogged by the 60s surfing pop of the Beach-Boys, with Bethany’s strong vocals repeating over and over some miss-you-want-you-boy-crazy lyrics. It was immediate gratification for the crowd and the fans. It sure was pleasant, and rich in harmonies, with a lot of ooooo-aaaaaws.
I just got the feeling I was hearing the same song over and over again, but in this early summer, it was just perfect. So I put my large sunglasses on, I did not think too much and enjoyed the music and the craziness around.