Best Coast show fans at The Echo what "California Nights" are all about

One minute. That’s how long it took tickets to sell out to west coast favorite Best Coast‘s show that took place Thursday night at The Echo. Tickets went on sale just 48 hours before Bethany Cosentino and her cohorts would take the stage, and they didn’t last long.

By 7:30 p.m., the line was around the block of The Echo, full of people waiting to get in. By the time Best Coast hit the stage around 10:15, the anticipation was almost too much for many people in the crowd.

Cosentino shared that the band’s new album California Nights is due out on May 5, and she and her laid-back bandmates shared three songs from the upcoming release. Along with the title track, “Heaven Sent” and “Feeling OK” were played, and the songs suggested that Best Coast has definitely grown. They’ve moved away slightly from the simplistic two-minute songs with repeating verses and these songs were fully-fledged and could be as radio friendly as anything they’ve produced in the past.

These songs were surrounded by old favorites, those same songs with the catchy melodies that you could learn all the words to in 10 minutes. “When I’m With You,” “Our Deal,” and “I Want To” were just a few of the classic jams that Best Coast played during the course of their set.

Early on in the set, someone — okay it was me — shouted to Cosentino between songs, “You’re a badass!”

“No, you’re a badass,” Cosentino shot back. But it’s true. Cosentino has a certain charisma on stage that gels perfectly with her look — all decked out in tattoos but dressed in a nice skirt. Cosentino is the perfect marriage of Courtney Love and Sheryl Crow — she’s got Love’s voice (but not personal issues) to go with the pop-minded songwriting of peak Crow.

Guitarist Bobb Bruno, who has been with Cosentino since Best Coast’s beginning in 2009, is the perfect yang to her yin. He’s a lot more quiet of a presence on stage but his aura is strong. The other touring members of the band all played their parts well and helped carry each tune.

Best Coast also dusted off some of their much older material, including “Honey,” a song that they admittedly haven’t played much in the past. The overwhelming positive reinforcement when Cosentino mentioned this fact suggested that this was a crowd rife with passionate longtime fans.

Cosentino and her band continued to shred, including an elongated instrumental jam that came at the end of one of the songs midway through the set that had the crowd wildly impressed by their chops. Cosentino made it a point to thank the crowd for their ongoing appreciation of them as musicians and wanted to make it clear the feeling was mutual.

For the encore, Best Coast finished off the night with three of their older songs. “Bratty B” kicked things off and with one song left to play, everybody knew it would be “Boyfriend,” which is probably their most well-known song to date.

The band was in fine form considering they hadn’t played since October, and these could have been the debuts of some of the newer songs. With a new album due out, 2015 could prove to be a monumental year for the Los Angeles favorites.

Three-piece Sad Girl provided an energetic opening set to begin the night. With a sound that could’ve made them tour buddies with the fictional band from That Thing You Do!, the dance floor was moving early and often. Their cover of No Doubt’s “Sunday Morning” even had Cosentino gushing when Best Coast took the stage.

Words: Mark E. Ortega

Photography: Wes Marsala