The crisp dreamy vocals and bright lead guitar overlaid a dirty and distorted rhythm section to bring a sound of uninhibited joy to the Paradise Rock Club as Best Coast played into the night. Best Coast came to town with newest album, the dynamic and upbeat California Nights, in tow. Lines of people before the show extended several store fronts as youthful fans waited for the Boston stop to begin. Most of the crowd were full states of happiness and welcomed the band with cheering admiration. It was a night were the vocals and guitar danced with one another and against the thundering rhythm section to paint a summery garage Californian beach bum pop portrait.
The raw mood began with opening act Bully from Nashville, TN, who confidently pronounced their style upon the dense sea of onlookers. Bully were out to promote their debut album Feels Like and lead singer Alicia Bognanno’s scratchy shouting vocal lines and the simple yet appropriately driven guitar and drums built a vortex of punkish songs that pulled any meandering thoughts from my head. The kind of thing that such fast paced lo-fi sound is best suited for. For that I found Bully an excellent opener and I am excited to see where this band goes.When some of the songs became gentle in the vocals, volume, and tempo it only went to amplify the intensity Bully would bring back their rough wall of noise. This was particularly effective on their song “Trying” with a lyrical and rhythmic pulse and uncompressed dynamics that scraped away the lull in anyone’s mind.
Bully managed to get the heads bobbing from the crowd; some feet moving too I think. The mainly white, fairly young audience, tested out the waters with dance moves they hoped to use when Best Coast played. Bully concluded their set and received a loud and warm round of applause. The air soon became thick with the buzzing and excited chatter that always seems to proceed the headlining act. The kind of excitement when people cheer on roadies as they appear on stage to prep the amps.
Enter Best Coast, lead by Bethany Cosentino, cracked open the bottled up anticipation and the night with “The Only Place”, a fast rocker with a raw guitar and Cosentino’s clear voice. Around me the crowd went nuts, throbbing themselves in the direction of the stage. The music blared a pop tune over steady drumbeat. It was a shining streak, a blade that cut the energy wide open with catchy pop. People bounced with the people as the air shook with the echo chamber choral of Cosentino’s vocals. On “Fine Without You”, the girl in front of me dressed in a studded demin jacket, went crazy with her side to side, and back to front, sporadic motions. She shouted admiration and moved so vigorously that I feared she might smash into my photographer’s camera. At the end of the song, my photographer and I agreed to escape to the balcony for calmer shores.
With “The End” and its surfer and sand castle sound, I watched the crowd sway to the crooning vocals that pulled them into the music. Then, out of the blue ocean came darker shaded middle bits with hypnotic minor chord progressions. It had a certain bluesy element to it that favorably caught my ear. As did the shoegaze intro of “California Nights” where Best Coast channeled the sound of Ride in a talented arrangement of reverb heavy romanticism.
The air filled with bright licks from lead guitarist Bobb Bruno, a man who looks “destined to be a lead guitarist” in the words of my photographer. His long matted hair hung over his crouched and huddled physique as he plucked away shimmering notes over the pounding rhythmic elements of the rest of the band. The lead guitar shined and played off the vocals throughout the night. While the rest of the band built a foggy atmosphere of varying speeds, Cosentino and Bruno exchanged a music dialogue that was simultaneously upfront and withdrawn, mixing and mashing their way around the backing instruments. It was the sound that defined the concert.
Yet it wasn’t all bright jangle pop. “I Don’t Know How” had a nice country yearn to it and “Fading Fast” had a Paul McCartney and Wings circa 1970s upbeat vibe. Both songs held together by the romantic, radio friendly lyrics that the crowd repeatedly sang along to. The air was ringing with an elated audience with a pumped up set of emotions. To reflect and highlight this mood, the lights ranged form bright purples and pinks, to full bodied oranges and reds, to hazy blues and greens. The light with the music swirled around the audience and upon the playing band. Best Coast did little movement themselves, instead they were more focused on the songs as the stood on the colorful stage.
Towards the end of the concert, Best Coast appropriately plucked away with the emotional Dear John Letter of a song “Goodbye”. The guitars and bass hummed as the drums plodded against tom heavy beat. Again the bright vocals and guitars bounced off each other and around the packed music hall. But the night was not over, and with the tried and true false ending many bands do before an encore, Best Coast quickly broke out the classic hit from their first album, “Boyfriend” to raise the crowd one last time. The floor shook as the fans stomped their feet and Best Coast played away in admirable fashion.
Truth be told I had been in a moody, ponderous sort of state the whole night and I times I felt oddly juxtaposed against the lighthearted anthems of some of Best Coast’s work, however I could appreciate the effort and the love that Best Coast gave and received. Their fans were happy for the night that was performed with utmost professionalism. Maybe I imagined it, but I thought Cosentino herself was in a distracted emotional state, because as she walked off for the end of the show, she wore a look of deep concentration. Maybe she had a lot on her plate, or maybe I just thought that because it was the state I was in. Regardless, she was able to put on a tight show, her and her band mates gave Boston their all, and it did not go unnoticed.