Who's playing this Saturday?

This weekend Saturdays at 7 returns to VDGN on Abbot Kinney, one of our favorite bite-sized venues, presenting Jack Fargo, Grave Waves, Justine and Leo, and Sidney Bird.

Jack Fargo brings the party vibes.  His songs are bite-sized chronicles of life in Los Angeles’ locales, dealing with the people and the prices, and healing in the beauty of it all.  Having grown up in Memphis, Jack’s lyrics offer a fresh point of view on the madness and triumph of life in Southern California.  His latest single, “Drugs on the Weekend”, well, just go listen!

Grave Waves, through the power of Rock n’ Roll and a wide vocabulary, is a great background to a day at the beach.  One might call their sound SoCal Beach Rock, but that’s not complete.  There’s inclusions of The Runaways (“Cherry Bomb”), and recurring intrusions of Punk, which altogether makes for a fun ride.  Their latest, “Mental Vacation”, is fairly self-explanatory, but the beauty of this song, and in much of Grave Waves’ music, is in how the music meets the lyric.  

Justine and Leo: the power couple of Pasadena.  They’re the real deal.  Justine has that soaring vocal quality that will absolutely knock you over, and Leo can play so many keys at once the folks at JPL study his approach to light speed as he pushes the boundaries of precision.  Their sound ranges from outer-spaced Vulfpeck, to funky Evanescence, rounded with echoes of Q.  Their latest release, “Let Me In”, pushes the sonic envelope toward Weather Report/Jaco, providing a warmth and nostalgia for the lyric which tells of rebuilding love.  

Sidney Bird describes herself as Cactus-Pop, and that seems a fitting genre title.  It’s a big country, we need more genres for country music.  It’s quite the distance from Nashville to Phoenix, Sidney’s hometown, both geographically (about 1,500 miles) and culturally.  There is a definite Route 66, Monument Valley sound.  Her latest release, “Heaven’s Gates”, explores moral confusion, what’s right and wrong, and who decides.

Listen to all the artists here