Photos and review by NOTES FROM VIVACE
LOS ANGELES – Sunflower Bean shook the Zebulon foundations on Wednesday night with their rock inspired tunes that often merged with metal. The band had double reasons to celebrate as they just released their EP Shake on their 10th anniversary. The packed fan base at the venue was there to enjoy the moment with the hardcore fans showing up as soon as the doors opened to pack the front of the stage.
The set included all five songs from Shake, which left plenty of time for favorites such as “I Was A Fool” and “Easier Said.” The set started off with a couple of songs from their new EP. First up was “Lucky Number” that harkens back to peak Heart rock-metal riffs. It was followed with the one night stand lyrics “I don’t even know your name, But I love you all the same” of “Teach Me To Be Bad.”
A couple songs later the band introduced the song “Serial Killer.” Guitarist and vocalist Nick Kivlen teased bassist and vocalist Julia Cummings that this was a song not so much about a serial killer, but about her childhood. That got Cummings to give Kivlen the amusing middle finger. For this band, ten years together solidified the bonds of friendship. Of course, is the song about Cummings’ childhood? Maybe, but it is also a song about not being overwhelmed with adulthood. “When I was younger, someone said to me, Life Would only get harder . . . The things you’re scared of don’t really exist . . .”
The band played two songs from their 2018 Twentytwo in Blue album, seamlessly transitioning from “I Was A Fool” to “Twentytwo.” “I Was A Fool” goes into a shoegaze direction and then the band smoothly shifted directly into the dreamy “Twentytwo.”
The song that perhaps meant the most to the band was “Easier Said.” Cummings mentioned at the start, “This next song, I remember when we played it at The Echo . . . The Echo maybe . . . it was the first time that a group of people sang our lyrics back to us. Back then, I think it made me cry a little bit.” The band then went on an extended jam session, exploring the music composition nuances over an 8 minute span.
What moment got the loudest cheers from the crowd? Well, some of the songs got people pogo dancing. Others had the audience singing along. And, of course, at the end the crowd cheered loudly.
Forget all that though as those don’t rank anywhere close to what got the loudest cheers. As the set reached the end, Kivlen turned towards their drummer Olive Faber and mentioned that people shouldn’t forget about Faber who didn’t have a microphone to make her vocal presence felt. Cummings started off the clapping and cheers that lasted a good long while.
With a thanks to the audience for showing up, “You didn’t just watch Netflix at home, you went to a f*cking show,” the band ended their set with the title song from their Shake album. A song with eerie vocalization of word “shake” spliced into the song throughout, the band rocked the crowd into the night.
If you were unable to get blasted into space this go around, the band mentioned that they’ll be returning to Los Angeles in the Spring of 2025.
Opening up the night was Los Angeles’ own Dove Armitage aka Quincy Larsen. Larsen has been a part of the music scene for a number of years, playing in bands like Cat Scan and Kevin. Those bands unfortunately broke up, but that led to Larsen starting up the dark “avant-pop glitch rock” of Dove Armitage.
As the crowd waited and wondered where Dove Armitage was, Larsen walked through the crowd in an unassuming way, wearing a hoodie. Once on stage, she took control of the stage with confidence and staccato vocals, eventually stripping off the hoodie to reveal goth punk fashion.
A few songs into the set, she introduced herself as Dove Armitage. She then asked the audience, “On the count of three, everyone say their names!” Names were yelled back. To end the set, Larsen tossed out kisses to all.
Sunflower Bean setlist: Lucky Number, Teach Me To Be Bad, Evil Dreamers, Who Put You Up To This?, Serial Killer, Champagne Taste, Angelica, I Was A Fool, Twentytwo, Easier Said, Somebody Call a Doctor, Shake.
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