California and life on the beach has apparently inspired many bands, and if Pangea is another quartet playing some of these surf-y pop-punk-rock with upbeat riffs, their set at the Echo on Monday night was fun…. and way too short; but it was probably not their fault as there was an unexpected change in the line-up which forced the bands to shorten their performances. But it seems that every time I go to these Mondays free shows at the Echo, I discover another band that shows how rich the LA scene is. Actually they are from Newhall, but this still counts!
They played very fast, but they knew to slow down at times, to leave room for some poppy melodies sung by two singers, and there was something in their songs that was reminiscent of the sound of the 60s, especially during these slow-down parts, without sounding nostalgic at all however. Their songs had funny titles, like ‘Too drunk to come’ which was a sort of hybrid between a punk song and an almost doo-wop-y tune.
I guess that their too-short set did not let people doing any moshing-surfing but the crowd were really into it, dancing and jumping. The surfing guitar and the fast drumming was omnipresent and I was quite disappointed when the singer (I think his name is William) said it was their last song whereas they hadn’t played more than 4 or 5 songs! I wanted more of these crazy optimistic soundwaves.
They have released a 10-track record ‘Jelly Jam’, that you can listen to or download for $5 here: http://togetherpangea.bandcamp.com/album/jelly-jam