These mini music festivals which pop up each year are fantastic, especially those unexpected like FOMO held during a slow-show-post-N.Y.E. week at the Echo and the Echoplex last Friday night. FOMO stands for ‘Fear Of Missing Out’ and if you were already afraid to be missing out on January 3rd, it was the place to be. Me? I am always afraid of missing out, as there are so many budding bands in the area and more and more every year it seems. FOMO is a bit like Echo Park Rising (same place, but late August) and it was a good way to start the year, with right away an overdose of music: 11 bands split on two levels, between the stages of the Echo and the Echoplex. Plus it’s very possible that I have attended the humble beginning of a few bands which are going to blow up very soon. I managed to see more or less everyone with more or less success, running up and down the stairs,… Ha! Talking about the fear of missing out!
Bogan Via was a duo (Bret William Bender and Madeline Miller) both playing synths and singing girl-boy harmonies with ethereal voices. They had quite a unique sweet sound, some kind of electronic-dance-y-folk especially distinctive because of these voices going almost operatic over playful beats. It was a sort of mix of solemn lyrical ascending melodies and dance beats, very indie-charming and Bender’s baritones had a bit of Klaus Nomi’s church baroque charm. I read that they have a debut album, ‘Wait Up’ with a song entitled ‘Kanye’, and this sounds just cute!
I didn’t see much of Spazzkid playing downstairs at the Echoplex, an electronic act embodied by a guy named Mark Redito who was producing some light, bubbly and funny beats with lush voices. His repetitive music sounded colorful and it was a bit… Manga-like music, I would say? It even sounded like video game music at times. I only listen to his upbeat, dynamic Japanese (?) candy-electronic for a few minutes, but people around me were having a very good time.
Liphemra’s music was very hard to figure out, they were a lot of them on stage with a central female singer (and occasional drummer) and lots of layered fuzzy guitars, but the large crowd packed around the stage was probably telling me something. It’s true that Liv Marsico (the singer) has participated into many other bands’ lineups, such as Stone Darling, Gothic Tropic, and Tapioca & the Flea, but this new project did not remind me of any of these ones. For their Facebook description, they wrote this only sentence ‘I do whatever I want’, and damn, I guess this is very fitting what I have heard! Marsico’s voice was high and haunting over noise guitars, weird jazzy experimentation, and some explosive moments. Overall it may have been dark gothic and certainly mysterious.
Tall Tales and the Silver Lining at the Echo was far more classic sounding, but there also was a lot of people on stage, 9 or 10 I can’t remember. There were a violin player and also a pedal steel player, which probably tell you a lot about their Americana, folky, jangly, rambling music. It was laid-back porch music to relax during breezy summer nights, a bit melancholic, but overall sounding like the classics of the American songbook. Should I even say they sounded a bit like the Eagles? Hey, it should be a compliment after all, but I am not sure how this is received these days!
Back downstairs, at the Echoplex, Wet & Reckless were some of my favorites: three pretty girls who play aggressive edgy music, fronted by a thin blonde (Emily Wilder) with a commanding voice and a badass attitude, delivering her songs as if she were… either Johnny Cash or auditioning for a Quentin Tarantino’s film. She hardly sang actually, she shouted standing strong and none of them seemed to be the type giving you nice girl-group harmonies. Jessica Gelt had killer bass lines and, with their stripped-down punk style, they went to the essential, making clear that they were not the kind of women to mess up with! They are about to release an album, which may sound a bit like these songs.
Kera & the Lesbians were probably the highlight of the night for me. I had seen them before and couldn’t wait for another time. You have to know, Kera is quite the character, bouncing like a cat, expressive like a clown, going through funny-goofy faces faster than you can process, and playing a dynamic, romantic, gypsy cabaret with her band of… lesbians? They were all men as far as I could see, but seriously this woman is the bomb. With a hardcore haircut, she was jumping from a gypsy-punk song (she should open for Gogol Bordello) to a more-oldie-Hawaiian-romantic one, but all of them had this bipolar rhythm, jumping at your face in the most unexpected manner. She announced their residency at the Echo in February, and honestly, Los Angelinos, you should all circle one of these Mondays on your calendar, as you should see these lesbians live! You will thank me for this!
