Cold Showers almost popped the roof off the Satellite up into the sky with their loud and proud, post-punk radness. Opening up for La Sera, the fairly new Los Angeles band who is working on their debut album—really impressed the crowd. Frontman, Jonathan Weinberg had a mysterious geek-chic-ness to him as he swayed around the stage in his highwaters while exuding some deep and charming vocals. At times he almost reminded me of a young Ian Curtis sans the spastic shakes. This dude had the whole vibe going on.
Handling a righteous guitar with enough fuzz and reverb to blow your ear drums on fire, their guitarist (whose name I don’t know) did a really kick ass job of keeping the vibe high when the drums got to mundane. Sorry, I hate to say it but there wasn’t much to the female drummer, but a steady smooth flow of the same beats song-in, and song-out. Although, Cold Showers produce music that is dark with a hypnotic post-punk-feel that almost makes it okay to have the percussion come off a bit zombie-like, the drums were a bit lackluster. Watching the drummer is one of the most exciting parts of a live rock show, but the chick behind the sticks needed a lot more fire and variety. She could definitely step it up a few notches and own that stage presence. Her dueling vocals with Wienberg however, were a very nice way of bringing both light and darkness into their music. She had that female touch that makes any male-vocal-dominated track all the more enticing.
Altogether, Cold Showers were a throwback pleasure to see live. They bring back that reckless, wanting and weird 70 post-punk vibe with a side of shimmering pop. Their music is crunchy, sweaty and sexy all at the same time. Cold Showers are one of the better L.A. bands to protrude out of this music bubble we all seem to love and hate. One thing for sure, with bands like Cold Showers, they make us love that bubble.
Cold Showers are working on their debut album and are parlaying at SXSW this week. The band is off to a great start and with a few tour notches under their belt they just may hone up to some even bigger chops and blow our minds in the coming year. Keep an eye out on these guys.
Oh yeah, we also got some photos of La Sera. You can peep the entire photo gallery below.
Words: Sandra Burciaga
Photography: Monique Hernandez
Cold Showers
La Sera
Click through the photo gallery below for more photos of Cold Showers and La Sera!
