Los Angeles – Unless you are punker-than-thou or living under the proverbial music-news rock, you probably know that April 10 marks the start of the first of two Coachella festival weekends. Tens of thousands of hipsters and not-so-hipsters descend upon Southern California’s desert, seeking out the latest and greatest in the alternative music world – and many of them spend the night in Los Angeles before making the drive out to the Coachella Valley. Presumably of those that stay in Los Angeles, quite a few would want to check out a Thursday night show at the most well-known venue in the bourgeoning “Northeast Los Angeles” scene.
So with the enormous event that is Coachella drawing thousands of outsiders into the city, a larger than anticipated, decidedly fashion-forward crowd descended upon the normally low-key stage of The Echo to witness Burger Records standouts Tomorrows Tulips. The three members of the Costa Mesa based band took the stage as several eccentrically dressed attendees shuffled around the stage, looking as if this was some sort of Halloween party in April.
With the duo of guitarist Alex Knost and bassist Ford Archibald along with their drummer sporting bleach-blonde hair, the band’s image conveyed a “beachy” aesthetic; though this aesthetic was mirrored at times in their set, it was never in an overt or contrived manner. The most beach-like element of their set was its resemblance to a tsunami, starting mellow and pleasant enough but eventually building itself into a massive, rolling, destructive force.
Best New Bands reported on the band’s live sound way back in 2011 when they opened for Jahmeel and New Year Sun Bear. We described Tomorrows Tulips as “featured surfer-esque guitar sounds with simple lyrics reminiscent of SF buzzband Girls.”
Tomorrows Tulips kicked off the set with the pleasantly chugging bass line and dark but catchy melody of the title track off their most recent LP, When, getting things off to an upbeat start. The addicting melodies continued as the band followed up “When” with the criminally short single “Baby.” “I Lay In My Bed” had a surreal, retro vibe to its chord progression, making it sound pulled straight from a David Lynch scene; the deadpan vocals of “Stay Glued To You” gave it a chilled-out, lo-fi quality.
Tomorrows Tulips are certainly not a band that likes to conform to one song style or sound, other than having a preference for jangly, slightly skewed, sun-baked guitar-pop. However, by the end of the set the band was ready to bring some punishment to the audience, as they closed out the night with a torrent of guitar and bass squalls. By the closing bars of the song, Knost had utterly wrecked his guitar; a couple of broken strings hanging off his guitar’s neck. As the band left the stage with feedback ringing through the sound system, Knost approached the stage as if to send off the audience (and really, address them for the first time all night), but turned away at the last second, instead wordlessly heading to the green room.
Tomorrows Tulips are preparing to embark on a European tour throughout the month of May, with stops in both the United Kingdom and continental Europe.
Check Tomorrows Tulips website for more information on dates and tickets.
Photo of Tomorrows Tulips by Matt Matasci
Matt Matasci
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