Bad Suns
The Observatory
1/25/15
L.A. band Bad Suns received an unprecedented amounts of “I love you” screams, immediately following an intense lyrical devotion to “Transpose” the groups first song of the night at the Observatory.
Christo Bowman (vocals), Miles Morris (drums), Ray Libby (guitar) and Gavin Bennett (bass), released their debut album Language & Perspective last July and are quickly elevating their profile in the indie rock scene. Their bouncy beats and hook heavy chorus' recently landed them a performance slot on Conan O'Brien as well as three sold out shows, in Southern California, to kick off their 2015 tour.
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Singing “Take My Love and Run,” Bowman theatrically ripped off his jacket, exposing his white muscle tee and tattoos. Libby and Bennett's long dark hair hung over their face, as Morris thumped his drumsticks down, all three seemed to be lost (or more accurately found) in the catharsis of their art. Bowman danced and flirted with girls in the audience, flipping his sun-bleached layers as he made love to the microphone singing “Dancing On Quicksand.”
They pause to catch their breath and Bowman says, “2014 was quite a fruitful year for us! We played in the Constellation Room here, last April, and since we've released a full-length album. If you've been with us since the beginning, this song is for you.” Then began “Matthew James” and the crowd went wild giving Libby the widest grin, an endearing and appreciative reaction to a crowd that adorned him.
“God dang, Santa Ana!” Bowman yelled. “You know, sometimes you write a song and you have no idea what the words mean. A few months later you do and I love this song very much.” They played “Twenty Years” off their EP Transpose. Guzzling water bottles between songs, they moved on to perform “Learn to Trust,” “Pretend” and “Sleep Paralysis” as hands waved back and forth. Bowman dove off the stage into a crowd of high school aged girls, incapable of keeping him afloat, and when he made his way back to the stage he took a painful nosedive. The mic went cla-punk as eye brows in the crowd furrowed but Bowman seamlessly moved on to another thought, “You know, you have no idea what's going to happen when you're writing songs. Sometimes this happens, so thank you very much for that.”
The band closed out the show with their song “Cardiac Arrest” as the crowd chanted for the encore. They came out for two more, including “We Move Like the Ocean” and “Salt” a favorited track that Junior Sanchez has remixed. The crowd sang, “These memories are nothing to me just salt!” Screams were exerted one last time before the crowd dispersed and the longest line of parents you ever did see ushered their kids into the car just after midnight.
Set List
Transpose
Take My Love and Run
Dancing On Quicksand
Matthew James
Twenty Years
Learn to Trust
Sleep Paralysis
Pretend
Learn to Trust
Sleep Paralysis
Rearview
Cardiac Arrest
Encore
We Move Like the Ocean
Salt
See also:
The 50 Best Things About the OC Music Scene
The 50 Worst Things About the OC Music Scene
The 25 Greatest OC Bands of All Time: The Complete List
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