Review Wed Apr 15 2015

Beat Kitchen Rocked Out With Colleen Green and Upset

By Julian Ramirez

When this show was first announced it was only the pairing of Collen Green and Upset, who had just released I Want to Grow Up and '76 EP respectively. The lineup for this show at Beat Kitchen slowly grew larger as the date crept up. Two local acts, Sam Vicari and Impulsive Hearts, were added to the already worthwhile show. Little did I know that I would walk away from this show with a couple new bands to follow and a greater appreciation of the ones I already loved.

It would be fitting to say that Sam Vicari, who opened the night, was the odd man out considering he was the sole male frontman of the night. Luckily the pressure did nothing but let him shine with his guitar driven power pop songs. At times I wished he had a full band backing, especially after hearing some of the songs on his album Giving Up. Even so, Vicari was able to hold his own with just his electric guitar and songs filled with lovelorn lyrics. Vicari finished off his set with a surprising gentle cover of The Ramones' "I Wanna Be your Boyfriend", which he dedicated to Colleen Green and Upset.

I was out ordering a drink during opening moments of Impulsive Hearts, but I quickly abandoned that pursuit after hearing them through the swinging door of the venue. Frontwoman Danielle Sines had an great presence on stage, belting out her songs while guitarist John Paul rocked out beside her and Dan Julian trounced the drums. Their songs have an almost surf rock sound to them, but with a surprising harder edge to them live. Their final song MDB solidified the band's place in my heart. The song had the whole band at their best, with Sines voice reaching a beautiful peak singing "I can't sleep when I'm wit out you." They were a great highlight of the night and pretty much stealing the show for me.

Collen Green began her time by adjust her levels, teasing out the beginning of a song. The tease never really came to fruition as she checked the tune of her guitar and prepared her drum machine, asking the crowd if everything sounded alright. Not too long after she donned her sunglasses, completing her onstage persona and quickly jumped into "Pay Attention". Green doesn't need much to come off as one of the coolest people in the world as everyone in the crowd clung to her every move. She sang every song with an effortless precision, catching the perfect mood of her dreamy songs. "Wild One" Her set was entirely made up of her latest album I Want to Grow Up and the crowd was completely charmed by the affair.

Green finished off her time at Beat Kitchen with an inspired final three songs. She played both parts of "Things That Are Bad for Me" back to back. The first half rattles on as a self-betterment ode while the second half slows down to a hazy crawl with its opening lines of "I wanna do drugs right now/I wanna get fucked up, I don't care how/I wanna feel high right now". Green's resolute strumming of her guitar, with its multicolored scrawling of "Happy Bifday Jeff" across the front, sent chills down my spine during the song change between part one and two. It's such a sudden shift of tone that parallels the differing ideals and produced one of the most rocking moments of her set. The back and forth of these sentiments is prevalent throughout I Want to Grow Up. The eponymous song of that album followed, full of desire and need to find something more beyond those constant but necessary vacillations. It was a great cap to the fantastic solo set.

Upset finished the great lineup with the most punk drenched songs of the night. Unfortunately, a few audience members had filed out after Colleen Green and missed a tremendous, albeit short set. Ali Koehler, formerly of Best Coast and Vivian Girls, cracked jokes and lead the band through the rapid fire set. Bassist Rachel Gagliardi and and guitarist Lauren Freeman were a joy to watch but as amazing as the strings were it was near impossible not to gaze toward the back of the stage at Patty Schemel who was completely thrashing her drums. When all these elements linked together Upset seamlessly played songs off of '76 EP with furious speed. The Charlie Brown linked "Linus" was incredibly amped up and careened to its finish. Covers of Jawbreaker's "Do You Still Hate Me?" and Green Day's "J.A.R" were made completely their own.

Between songs they bantered with a certain casualness reserved for close friends just hanging out. They deftly referenced Louis CK bits and recalled a tale of throwing up pot chocolate bars at airports to ease the fear of vampires. There was also a lot of honesty with Koehler lamenting the thought of playing "Wonder" live, noting the difficulty of playing one string at a time. Nonetheless she played on, proving how uncalled for her misgivings of her ability truly were. Upset's set came to end only two songs later, which was slightly disappointing, but at least what was presented was a fantastic example of pure punk fun.