Photos and review by NOTES FROM VIVACE
LOS ANGELES – The KennyHoopla set started off with The Echo stage lights turned down. Tracks played quietly over the speakers. Someone in the audience screamed out, “Let’s f***ing go!” Up on stage he appeared and the calmness of the night ended immediately.
As KennyHoopla performed the opening tune “silence is also an answer//,” he stalked the stage. At times, he approached the front of the stage, checking the enthusiasm level of the sold out crowd. He requested that everyone get closer to the stage. As soon as the front was packed in, he took a running leap into the crowd. It was a signal for sure. The rest of the set was a parade of crowd surfers – with one particular fan dressed as Spiderman having the time of his life.
With a pop punk sound, KennyHoopla had the crowd pressed to the front where a sea of arms were raised high throughout much of the set. KennyHoopla says he broke out onto the scene in 2021 when he dropped his mixtape “SURVIVORS GUILT: THE MIXTAPE” in collaboration with Travis Barker. To the great enthusiasm of the crowd, he performed six songs off that album.
Perhaps the song that got the most approval from that album was “hollywood sucks//.” Yes his song titles include two slashes. The music video features both KennyHoopla and Travis Barker atop a double decker tourist bus while singing, “Hollywood sucks, I’m moving to Wisconsin. Hollywood sucks, can you please move your Prius? You are not fucking Jesus, he hates LA.” It would seem that the Echo Park crowd was in total agreement with those lyrics. KennyHoopla might have a problem with Hollywood, but he loved his Los Angeles fan base and screamed out at one point, “Can we fall in love, LA! Can we lose ourselves, LA!”
Other highlights of the set included “9-5 (love me)//” and “estella//.” Before “9-5 (love me)//,” he told the audience, “I just want to say I appreciate all the support you’ve given me.” Before he could even finish that sentence, he cracked up laughing as his guitarist was tuning during the emotional moment he was having with his fanbase. He then requested that everyone take out their phones and turn their flashlights on.
As the set was reaching a conclusion, he told the audience during “estella//,” I’ll give you everything I got, if you give me everything you got. Deal?” What did that mean on his part? It meant getting on the drum set twice and doing backflips.
Opening up the night was Suzy Clue. With a nu-metal Evanescence attitude, Suzy Clue still brought a degree of modesty to her set. The New York based artist asked the crowd early in the set, “Does anyone remember my name? I feel like a stranger to you guys. I hope not anymore?”
Some in the crowd had given her music a listen prior so she wasn’t a total stranger. At one point, someone yelled out for her to sing her biggest hit to date “Remember Me.” She responded with “Psychic” as that was indeed her next song. She took the opportunity to crowd surf, losing her white belt in the process. She made good use of the belt, afterwards.
After a failed attempt to put it back around her waist, she used it as a pseudo-whip, swinging it high above her head. Before she closed out her set with a cover of Kittie’s “Spit,” the crowd yelled out for an additional song, but she politely nixed that idea as she told the audience, “I only have one more. I’m a new artist, you all.”
KennyHoopla Setlist: silence is also an answer//. keep a window open//. MARRY KILL F*CK//. even as if never//. plastic door//. smoke break//.SABOTAGE//. 9-5 (love me)//. inside of heaven’s mouth, there is a sweet tooth//. hollywood sucks//. too many jocks//. orphan//. estella//. how will i rest in peace if i’m buried by a highway?//.
Suzy Clue Setlist: Ask Me. Holy Touch. Frozen. Rest My Mind. Remember Me. Attached. Uneasy. Spit (Kittie cover).