live show report: Cheekface
Sometimes it's fun to trace a particular musical enjoyment back to its origins. For example, why was I at the Cheekface show last week? Well...
I'd seen the band name bantered around "music Twitter" a bit but did not investigate...
...then writer Jami Fowler did a list of her top 10 Cheekface lyrics for The Alternative. Cheekface have good lyrics, I saw, interesting...
...then it really solidified when I was doing a spot of research in advance of talking to Katie McTigue, aka Pacing, for the interview we did while playing some virtual chess (I put "playing" in quote for me) and saw she was a big fan of Cheekface. I listened to their KEXP set and was like, ohhhhh ahhh...
...and then I listened to a bunch of their songs, and the faint whiff they gave off of the band Cake—funny punchlines, killer basslines, dance-y energy, droll sing-talking, etc.—was enough to get me to play them for my Cake-loving husband in the car. I think it was "Featured Singer" that got him to be like, ohhhhh ahhh...
And then they were playing at the Teragram Ballroom, and we went, and Katie aka Pacing was there! And Kabir from Sun Kin! And Jamie from No Earbuds! And my husband's friend from back in New York when they both participated in an improv-based children's entertainment company! Cheekface brings the people together.
The show was simply incredible. East L.A.-based band Yungatita opened with a wild blend of pop rock, punk rock, psych rock, noise rock, you name it...everyone onstage was always doing something interesting (headbanging, playing guitar high over head, etc.) and lead singer Valentina Zapata possesses both an engaging belting voice and a deeply hardcore death metal scream, both used to great effect. I especially liked the song "2 Cigs," because what is more powerful than two cigs? Call me when you find something more powerful than a pair of cigarettes. I'll wait.
And Cheekface ripped it. Coming off a big chunk of North American tour, they were tight as hell and missed no beats. Greg Katz was resplendent in a short-sleeved button down whose vertical stripes vaguely reminded me of Neapolitan ice cream. The band's stage presence leaned toward the charmingly dramatic: drummer Mark Edwards arrived onstage alone before the rest of the band filed in and observed the audience with professorial somberness; Alex "AJ" Johnson from the band Why Dogs Why, who provided keys and percussion on this Cheekface tour, really made a meal out of certain musical cues—stretching an arm over veeeeerrry slooowwwly to whack a tambourine, for example.
The songs from latest album It's Sorted all sounded amazing. Amanda "Mandy" Tannen slammed out super-clean basslines that inspired one's ass to move, and Katz effortlessly balanced intricate guitar work with the delivery of those dense loaves of lyrics. I particularly enjoyed his tacking a nice slice of Hall & Oates' "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" on the end of "Largest Muscle," because I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. I can go for that, yes can do.
Cheekface are definitely stars, but so are their fans. I cannot actually remember the last time I went to a show where the audience was this engaged. They did not miss a single call-and-response ("Yo"—"Shut the fuck up!" "Listen to your heart"—"No!" etc.), danced wildly, purchased and wore a great deal of merch, and, by the end of the six times Cheekface played their short and raucous ode to a very large and convenient serving of tubular pasta (that would be "Noodles") had formed a slow conga line that agitated itself into a joyous mosh pit. They were seriously down to clown, and it was beautiful to see. With fans like these, I think Cheekface are set up nicely for whatever the next level might be.
I like going to live shows in Los Angeles, if you have a live show in the Los Angeles area you think I should go to, let me know.
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