Photos and review by NOTES FROM VIVACE
LOS ANGELES – UK alt rock band Basement will release “Wired,” their first album in eight years and they have been holding listening parties across select US cities. They held a trio of events across Los Angeles that hit a peak with a secret show at Milky’s (in the Los Angeles neighborhood of El Sereno), which is a “space for integral expression where counter culture communities can flourish.”
Driving by the Sound and Fury hosted event, there was a long line of people hoping to catch the band. One person on Instagram commented that they had waited four hours for the opportunity to catch the band. As no doubt anticipated, Los Angeles was the perfect city to build hype around the album release. At one point, lead singer Andrew Fisher told the crowd, “A few people asked why we chose to do something in LA. I mean, this is why, you guys are amazing. We’ve recorded three records in LA. We’re super grateful. Thank you.”
As for the album, the band’s press material says “. . . ‘Wired’ had to be their most decisive artistic statement yet. A bold musical swing that people will either love or hate, but that absolutely can’t elicit a muted reaction from their fans.”
The band opened up the night with a couple songs from that upcoming album. They started the set with “The Way I Feel.” Then the album’s title track broke the audience’s inhibitions. The crowd pressed ever so closer to the stage. The more adventurous squeezed their way through the wall of bodies to climb onto the stage where they immediately flung themselves into the crowd. Some went head first. Others leaped backwards. A few did flips.
The band then waited no longer to play their most beloved tune, their 2012 hit song “Covet.” Fisher was fully energized by the enthusiasm, his footwork full of springing and hopping. Over-all, you could tell that the band found the emotional response to their tunes over-whelming, “I’m not the best to articulate, but this is awesome.”
As the band’s set hit the back half, they introduced additional songs from the upcoming album with the more dreamy “Broken By Design” contrasting nicely with the rest of the set. To close out the night, the band played two songs from their music catalog. If the crowd could get any more enthusiastic, it did when the band announced that they were playing “Are You The One?” as their penultimate song. Arms were raised in the audience. Fans continued their leaps into the audience. And one could hear a lovely unifying chorus to the lyrics, “Waiting for the end.”
Opening up the night was the ethereal 16 Underground and their dreamy tunes. They aren’t alternative punk rockers and yet their set showed the diversity of the audience’s musical tastes. When the band ended their set, Basement fans requested their setlists. Not only were there requests for the setlists, but also that those lists be signed.
Basement Setlist: The Way I Feel, Wired, Covet, Whole, Earl Grey, Pine, Spoiled, Head Alight, Time Waster, Broken By Design, Are You The One, Promise Everything.
16 Underground Setlist: Heat, I Want To Know, Can You Hear Me?, Without a Trace, Fate, (Song 4), Chasing a Comfort.
