Los Angeles – The Troubadour got hot and heavy this week with scintillating sets by the indie-pop-based In The Valley Below (shown above) and neo-soul act Caught A Ghost. While the two Los Angeles-based bands have very little in common stylistically speaking, neither had any issues getting the large crowd whipped up into a dancing fervor. Both Caught a Ghost and In the Valley Below have steadily gained fans as they have spent the last few months touring in support of their debut albums, Human Nature and The Belt, respectively. After the back-to-back performance on Wednesday night, it is no surprise to see why these bands have been making waves.
After the two opening bands (Decorator, Paper Pilots) got things started, In the Valley Below was next up on the bill. The band is largely based around the songwriting duo of Jeffrey Jacob and Angela Gail. The two transplants met in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park and found common musical ground, creating “mostly music that we would want to listen to.” The two band mates are certainly not alone in that sentiment, as the crowd grooved along with their sweet boy-girl vocals and danceable beats. Best New Bands last covered them in September as they opened for The Airborne Toxic Event in San Francisco. The highlight of In the Valley Below’s set was “Peaches,” the song that has caught the band a ton of buzz over the last few months, including an appearance on “Late Night with David Letterman.”
Trading off lines throughout their set, the two members of In the Valley put on an intensely sensual performance. At various points throughout the song (and their set as a whole) Gail would make her way over to Jacob’s microphone, face to face, staring deeply into his eyes – despite the fact that she was holding her own microphone. Whether these emotions were sincere or just a performance for the crowd does not matter; either way the duo was highly effective in bringing added depth to their songs through their emotive performance.
After In The Valley Below finished their set, the buzz inside The Troubadour continued to grow as Caught a Ghost took the stage. Best New Bands covered the band when they were opening for Youngblood Hawke this summer. Led by Los Angeles local Jesse Nolan, the band fuses a variety of disparate influences into a fairly cohesive final product. Caught a Ghost brings a fervent grassroots following, which was highly evident as nearly everyone in the audience danced and sang along with the band’s progressive blend of soul. While the band has performed with as many as nine members on stage, on Wednesday they performed with a “Spartan” six-piece lineup, including a horn duo.
The clear highlight of the entire night was their high-flying single “Sleeping at Night.” The thumping bass, “Bombs over Baghdad”-esque descending keyboard line, fat horn section and blue-eyed soul vocals sent audience members into a boogieing frenzy, to the point that one had the undeniable feeling that something special was being witnessed.
The rest of the band’s set did not quite live up to the energetic apex that was reached with “Sleeping at Night” – that is until the band unveiled a new song from their upcoming album. “Victory Lap” has all of the energy and funk of “Sleeping at Night,” suggesting the band plans to continue heading in this more up-tempo direction.
In The Valley Below and Caught A Ghost are concluding their 2014 touring schedule and will take a break heading into the New Year.
Photos: In The Valley Below – Above By Corey Bell Slider By Matt Matasci – Caught A Ghost – Uncredited
Matt Matasci
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