New Los Angeles psych band, Vinyl Williams headlined the Bootleg Theater this past Friday, Nov. 30 with support from Gazoota. We’ve been blogging up a storm over Vinyl Williams, led by the 22-year-old Lionel Williams. Not your average psych band, Vinyl Williams takes a more holistic, artistic and cultured approach with his level of psychedelic influence. With elements of 80s dark wave, krautrock and Afrobeat rhythms, his music is eccentric and polished to create a foreign sound that your mind can’t help but want to explore. Aside from producing finely crafted tunes, Williams is also an accomplished visual artist with astounding original works fit to complement the style of his music. You can check out his art work, here.
After becoming aurally addicted to Vinyl Williams debut album, Lemniscate, it was great to finally see him live with a full band. The kid even had a gold alter with a funky crystal ball to add to the trippy ambiance. Very talented on the vocals, Williams is also a shredder on the guitar. There were numerous times where he was just wailing away on his guitar leaving blurred hand trails because of how quickly his hand was strumming. Altogether, Vinyl Williams’ live performance was pretty good, however, the vocals need to be bumped up as they were getting flushed out by the heavy instrumental sound. There are so many beautiful harmonies and whispering chants on Lemniscate, that it would be nice to hear them throughout their live performance as well. The sound isn’t the greatest at Bootleg Bar, so we look forward to hearing Vinyl Williams live again at the Echo on Dec. 12 supporting The Soft Moon. Buy your tickets here.
Supporting Vinyl Williams were Gazoota. They put on a very fun show full of fiery psychedelic pop tunes that got hips shakin’ and girls swooning. We also got some photos of them below!
Photography: Monique Hernandez
Vinyl Williams
Gazoota
Click through the photo gallery below for more photos of Vinyl Williams and Gazoota!
