Photos and review by NOTES FROM VIVACE
POMONA, Calif. – The 2024 music festival season is underway in Southern California. One festival called No Earbuds Fest took over two venues (The Glass House and The Haven) in Pomona last Saturday.
No Earbuds at its heart is a boutique public relations and consulting music firm. Their Instagram says: PR and consulting for the underdogs. With that, this festival was for those underdog bands that many of us cheer for more than the bands that headline the much larger festivals.
There are a number of DIY festivals that one can catch in Los Angeles. The larger ones being Happy Sundays in Long Beach or Echo Park Rising in Echo Park (I’ve been repeatedly told that this festival is put on by Echo Park and not The Echo) that are scheduled for August.
There is also a trio of smaller festivals that are happening this coming weekend: Americana West Music Festival at Hotel Cafe, Dum Dum Fest at The Echo, and June Gloom which is also going to occur at two different venues (Boomtown Brewery and The Other Side). What makes No Earbuds Fest unique is the fact that this festival brought bands in from across the country. We’re talking bands coming in from Brooklyn, New England, Philadelphia, Raleigh, Seattle, Tallahassee to name just a few.
The No Earbuds Fest started up at 2 p.m. at The Haven. La Fonda came in from Seattle with melodic vocals that quickly blasts into hair flipping joy. This band has to get special praise. They were the first band up and then were seen having fun late into the night as the festival switched over to The Glass House. The band Cheridomingo had the best comments of the festival, “I feel like we’re growing a special bond . . . we’re best buds. You’ve become part of my cellular structure.” Upfront were a trio of young female fans. When the set ended, two of the friends were trying to get the band to notice their other friend. A band member handed her a guitar pick that she held with reverence and then one of the friends said, “She just paid $50 just to catch one band.” https://www.instagram.com/lafondamusic/
Perennial out of New England had an album to promote, Art History. And they put on one awesome performance to sell it. One could argue that the bands at The Haven put on better set performances than their counterparts at The Glass House with Perennial being at the top of that list. J.R. Slayer’s song “Seawall” got a call out from the audience to play it again.
Grave Secrets knows how to compose those guitar licks and won’t hesitate to scream their lungs out. They started their set a few minutes early. What did that result in? Their set ended before their slotted time and the crowd demanded an encore. Start early and the sound person gives you the thumbs up to play an encore that got the crowd into a circular mosh pit to the lyrics, “I wanna f*ck sh*t up.” One couldn’t help but notice one individual in the mosh pit who just was drained out and had to take a breather. After catching her breath, she jumped right back into the mosh pit.
Los Angeles-based band Talker thrives with female angst of romance and growing into adulthood. The song “Twentysomething” got the crowd screaming “Holy Sh*t” to the lyrics “But I’ve got no job. Depression. Just turned 26 and I lost my insurance and my therapist is too expensive.” Talker’s debut album I’m Telling You the Truth comes out June 21st. Closing out The Haven was Dollar Signs. Punk band with a blasting trumpet, “Sorry, I apologize so much. I hope I don’t F*ck us up.”
Teens in Trouble opened up the festivities at The Glass House. The band has an indie pop / rock sound that has a cheerful persona. The band was at the end of a three stop tour across California with festival mates La Fonda. Lead singer Lizzie Killian is a California native who moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. Nothing against Carolina where you get to enjoy that intense Duke-Carolina rivalry, but maybe the band will consider moving to Los Angeles some day.
Jhariah gets the award for makeup. The band had yellow daisy flowers pasted to their faces. The crowd sang the lyrics to the songs. Jhariah probably also gets the award for fan favorite. Follow Jhariah on social media.
Queen of Jeans gave the crowd a genre switch up with a folk rock set. One could see this band playing right next to a waterfall in Iceland (though perhaps not the Gullfoss waterfall, because you do want to hear the band). “I don’t care if you want to leave here. And I won’t care if you think I’m square. I don’t care if I’m going nowhere. I should’ve taken my own advice.” Fans lined up to buy their album, all wanting their albums signed by all members of the band.
I did write above that the bands at The Haven put on the best shows, but We Are The Union has to rank right up there. The band included two trombone players who danced through the set and got that crowd clapping and moshing all at once. The band is punk with just a touch of Frank Sinatra crooning. With two trombones, there was a lot of use of those spit valves, which Pool Kids had to deal with.
Pool Kids came on with their pop punk sounds. They came in from Tallahassee, Florida and it was their first set in Los Angeles in a number of years. Two fans were ready for that first set in years, wearing snorkel masks. Those two get the award for best fans of the festival.
Glass Beach closed out the night. The festival had actually run on schedule (which is rather impressive for a DIY festival) until Glass Beach, which had an unannounced technical difficulty. The set was delayed by about twenty minutes with the band assuring the crowd that they were still going to play the set. Now what was the technical difficulty? Perhaps it was some missing cool high tops?
Probably not, but the funniest moment of the set was when bassist Jonas Newhouse took a seat on the stage rise and started putting on some high tops just before the set began. Along the way, they explained how to tie up those shoe laces. Someone in the crowd could be heard saying, “Those are nice shoes.” The band can change it up at a moment’s notice. Chill piano playing can quickly turn into a guitar powered indie rock before going into a quiet classical (as in classical music, not classic rock) finish.
Got to give it up to the fans who enjoyed the mosh pit from start to finish and to No Earbuds for putting on a well-curated line-up.
Links to bands:
https://www.instagram.com/lafondamusic/
https://www.instagram.com/cheridomingo/
https://www.instagram.com/perennialtheband/
https://www.instagram.com/jrslayerjams/
https://www.instagram.com/grave.secrets/
https://www.instagram.com/talkerceleste/
https://www.instagram.com/dollarsignstheband/
https://www.instagram.com/teensintrouble/
https://www.instagram.com/jhariahclare/
https://www.instagram.com/queenofjeans/
https://www.instagram.com/wearetheunion/
https://www.instagram.com/poolkidsband/
https://www.instagram.com/glassbeachband/
No Earbuds website