On Thursday, the 31st I went out to one of my personal favorite venues, the Hi Hat, to catch the Tiny Stills record release show. For those unfamiliar with the space, the venue is located in Eagle rock along a strip of dive bars and quality eateries ranging from ramen, Mexican, and the sweet treat donut friend in close proximity. The location itself has a burger spot, Burgerlords, that operates during the venues closed hours. Once the sun has set you are finally able to make your way to the front, meet with security for a wristband if your drinking and then a ticket window to get scanned in. Inside you are greeted by a photo booth, two pool tables, bar, a separated staged, and small seating area along the back of the building facing the stage. The lineup was set with four acts: Crooked Teeth, Blushh, Sundressed, and Tiny Stills
(Crooked Teeth 1-2, Photos by Andy Garia)
To start off Crooked Teeth, who are signed to Rude Records, made sure to let the early crowd know its ok to get close to the stage and enjoy the show. As I made my way in closer I ran into Shay, the band’s photographer and girlfriend to Adam, the drummer, not to be confused with Adam who “fucking shreds” as Tyson, the band’s lead singer shared. Shred he did as the three-piece jumped into a string of emo-punk tunes about dealing with oneself and detachment from the world of a young adult. I found myself unable to speak as “Helpless” a song about the very same began to play. As with this style of music, most of the lyrics revolved around longing, rejection, redemption, and seeking out a solution in the future of one’s life and was a good opening to what was to come for the rest of the night.
(Blushh 1-3, Photos by Andy Garcia)
Blushh came on soon after a quick gear swap. I was initially drawn into the event because their lead singer Shabnam, had curated a stage at Broke LA and had appeared again at Welcome To Junior High event I attended where she released a zine Sunnyside-up #2 with Sunflower Pop. Soon after I found out she was also in a band and thus I’ve come to know Blushh as a four-piece band that utilizes their singer’s name to tie into the infamous line “Not too Shabby” to ease in the crowd to their tunes. Tracks like “Wake Me Up” continue that playful vibe of a girl whose grown content with wasting time alone in her room while thinking of how much better things could be if someone could take her out shopping. Follow this same train of thought and then a song like 25 becomes quite somber in tone. It is a very personal track about a “former friend” who committed suicide and the line “You were fine alive at 25…” show along with the crocodile tears that this was the best way she could deal with this trying event. Still with a show that must go on Blushh continued with their set and made sure to thank all the acts that were to perform that night.
(Sundressed 1-2, Photos by Andy Garcia)
Sundressed was up next. The four-piece out of temple Arizona brought the indie emo rock that has an infusion of a country twang to their sound. Having created a split LP with Secrete stuff out of Nashville you can see a bit of that flair with the group’s singer/guitarist Trevor during his soaring vocal queues. Justin, the bass player will also work on harmonizing with a few of these numbers which is a great treat and pulled me closer to the stage with each song. Tracks like Autopilot bring out the fusion of sounds to a cusp and have us ride the wave of longing and letting go. Still, their infectious melodies timing keep the show at a high energy, or enough to have two bros begin to spin each other in the middle of the set.
(Tiny Stills 1-2, Photos by Andy Garcia)
Tiny Stills the headling act was ready to close out the night with their new release Laughing into the Void. Fronted by Kailynn West, petite in statue by comparison to her bandmates makes up for her lack of size with a voice suited for their power punk songs. She shared how the long road to making the record was a lot harder then she expected. Her band mates joked about how Kailynn would manually press each record herself as she finished her thought. Soon we the audience were confronted with songs like “Don’t call me a catch” which tells an all too familiar story of men objectifying women yet the turn is her stance not to stand for that and break away from being called a catch. The message is clear, there’s no need to feel alone with these types of thoughts as we are all either acting out these truths or reeling from an experience. Still, the show went on to share much of the newly released tracks and the tunes came off with catchy guitar riffs that had the crowd bouncing about.
Crooked Teeth have a break in performances but the rest of the acts continue touring. Sundressed is headed into the American heartland but return to the Los Angeles area in August. Blushh have an ep release show of their own on the 15th at Weber Rations. Tiny Stills return on the 22nd at Lucky Strike live in Hollywood.
