Photos & Review: The Front Bottoms
Featuring: The Front Bottoms, Brick + Mortar, Diet Cig & Sun Valley Gun Club
The Observatory North Park, San Diego CA
4/18/16
Photos and review by: Tracy Galarza
Full photo gallery HERE.
In between Coachella appearances, The Front Bottoms hit The Observatory North Park in San Diego bringing along Sun Valley Gun Club, Diet Cig, and Brick + Mortar for a high energy show.
I don’t know what it is about The Observatory North Park’s box office but it always takes forever to get sorted. I got inside just in time to catch Sun Valley Gun Club’s third song. They reminded me a lot of Nora’s Breakfast Club mixed with the rad guitars of Built to Spill. If you’re into the classic indie bands of the 90’s, Sun Valley Gun Club is the band for you.
Diet Cig is hands down the most adorable two-piece band I’ve ever seen. But don’t be fooled, they can absolutely shred. Drummer Noah Bowman kills it behind his drum kit while frontwoman Alex Luciano has more energy on stage than I’ve had the entire week. She’s graceful as hell too even as she jumps and kicks about the stage. Diet Cig is the band you are missing from your life.
Brick + Mortar blew my mind. For the time they were on stage the band totally engulfed the crowd into their awesome, albeit weird world. They are without a doubt the kings of crowd participation. Balloons, confetti, alien blow up dolls, a freakin’ air mattress for prop jester Richie Brown to crowd surf on, and so much more. All to the tune of some rad jams. Brick + Mortar’s show is nothing if not an incredible time. Do yourself a favor and check these guys out if they’re ever in town. They deserve your support and you deserve a fantastic show experience.
Finally the band of the night hit the stage to Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.” The Front Bottoms went straight into “Laugh Till I Cry” and the crowd went nuts. Crowd surfers made their way to stage as the audience sang their hearts out to every word. I always get a kick out of how relatively calmer bands get the rowdiest crowd response. It’s all the feels I suppose. But the guys ran with it as they played fan-favorites like, “HELP,” “Peach,” and “The Beers” among many others. In between songs frontman Brian Sella told us about their Coachella experience and how he had met Guy Fieri at the festival. He did say he was having more fun playing the show this night then he did playing Coachella, but he hardly remembered Coachella so. Without a doubt, the guys have come a long way from playing the extremely small capacity Voodoo Room at the House of Blues. It’s nice to see the band come into their own and see how their live show and production have progressed. They switched their red inflatable tube man for a bubble machine but he still managed to make an appearance during “The Beers.” They ended the night with “Twin Size Mattress” with the help of the other bands on the bill. It was the coolest. Even if you don’t have tickets to Coachella weekend 2, worry not because you still have plenty of chances to see the guys on their current headliner. Go sing your heart out.