Music Related: At Echo with Kitten + The Postelles
“Kitten with a Whip” via: alycamus
The Skinny: On June 28th, I finally got to see Kitten the band at Echo along side with The Postelles, Pageants, and Pan Am. I arrived 2 acts late with a group of friends but we got there just in time for Kitten, The Postelles, and some beer.
The Good: Kitten’s Chloe Chaidez and it’s pride of instrumental beasts, were everything I thought they were going to be. They rocked out like overachieving child prodigies infused with some Rage Against the Machines, making people over 30 feel even older with their long bursts of energy. Their music was melodic when it needed be and controlled chaotic when it was time to let their youth shine through. It was just a fun experience and I couldn’t help but smile like as if I was watching a bunch of kids achieve something people twice their age could never. They are a talented and hungry group and the more crazy they acted on stage, with their hair twirling about and their sibling love punches towards each other’s backs, the more engaging the show got. They also sound completely different from their recordings. Their live sets, like “Chinatown” and “Kitten with a Whip” had more raw energy, as it should, and I loved it. I’ll be looking forward to seeing Chloe Chaidez rise to fame and into hearts of young aspiring musicians younger than her.
The Postelle were solid too, and if weren’t for a few helpful loud female fans in the way front, I think their time spent at Echo would have been a dud. Their music was melodic and for some reason it reminded me of when Michael J Fox played at his mother’s prom in “Back to the Future.” I thought they had that classic 60’s rock sound at times and I read somewhere that they were like The Kooks and The Strokes. Since I’m unfamiliar with those bands at the moment, all I can say is that I just liked how their music sounded. It’s just too bad their vocals got drowned out by the bad levels in the speakers. And on a side note, one of their band members looked like Jim Halpert from The Office. It was kind of humorous….if you’re into the whole “who looks like who in the world of television sitcoms.”
The Somewhat Bad: While watching Kitten play their set, one of Chloe’s friend, who was drunk off his rockers, got on stage with her and had a nice personal moment. After that, he got back to the floor and started slamming into the female section of the crowd like as if it was a mosh pit. I shouldn’t judge…much, but that was pretty weak and I think he even dropped his butterfly knife in the process.
“Hey Chloe’s buddy, if by some small random chance you read this….if the knife is yours and you want it back, the bartender at Echo has it.”
And the only somewhat bad thing I have to say about the Postelles is that, since I was standing in the center and near the stage, lead singer Daniel Balk; who comes across looking like Screech and the Artist formally known as Prince, kept on indirectly looking towards my direction, lifting up his shirt and exposing his man boobs. It was pretty uncomfortable, so I had to hide behind one of my friends so she could endure the blunt of that awkward glare.
The Bad: While Echo usually has great opportunities, at cheap prices, to see up and coming music acts, the place suffers from painful levels in the sound system that range from blood piercing high pitches to drowning out lead vocalists. Either their equipments are just old and decayed, the venue is too small, or their sound engineers just aren’t that good when there are too many instrumental elements or band members to take care of.
Would you come back again? Despite the sound system, Echo is still a great place to find good live acts, street tacos, and easy parking…so yes.
More Info: The Echo | Kitten | The Postelles
– MJ
p.s. Nico Vega, Kitten, and Two Door Cinema Club……are off the bucket list, next up….yeah yeah yeahs!
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