Northern Tier

I saw Kishi Bashi on a Monday night in Downtown Los Angeles. Sweet Loretta opened for him.

Sweet Loretta isn’t normally what I gravitate towards. They’re a little too clean, too put together, a bit to handsome. Their music is very much reminiscent of that wildly optimistic indie pop that was raging in like ’08/’09. Think The 1975, MGMT, The Jonas Brothers and you’ll get the feel. They sound put together. I generally like my guy groups a bit off. Their songs don’t sound like there were frequent fights about where a chorus goes. No tension. Hell, the show even started on time. My eyes drifted to the right and saw some teens in a group having the time of their lives then I instantly got it. An old friend of mine coined the term “county fair rock” to describe the sound of indie. I’m pretty sure it was a pejorative. I wouldn’t throw that label here but funny enough I heard a guy in the crowd say something eerily similar.

Something about bands playing Springsteen covers pokes a weird pain spot in my brain. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. Sweet Loretta played some Springsteen, they killed it. He’s such a clear influence on their music – that exact sound – that he could get.

Kishi Bashi is quite the sight to behold. I feel in many ways that no matter how much music I consume there’s always some hidden part of music-dom that I’m completely unaware of. The world of ukulele girls, Rush cover bands, Folk Punk, and bands that exclusively cover video game music. I can get most of that. Kishi killed his show and got me thinking about all this stuff. His music sounds like things you’d hear at a parade. The music you can only make when your influences are literally everything you’ve ever heard and you have the talent to match.

I should probably mention that Sweet Loretta is the backing band for Kishi Bashi. Makes sense actually.