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Wild Belle at Santa Monica Pier's Twilight Concerts 8/17/17. Photo by Derrick K. Lee, Esq. (@Methodman13) for www.BlurredCulture.com.
Wild Belle at Santa Monica Pier’s Twilight Concerts 8/17/17. Photo by Derrick K. Lee, Esq. (@Methodman13) for www.BlurredCulture.com.

Santa Monica, CA- Elliot and Natalie Bergman are Wild Belle and on August 17th, 2017, they opened up the Santa Monica Pier’s “Twilight Concerts” musical offerings. Formed in 2013, and releasing their first album “Isles”, the band got some attention with their songs “Shine” and “Keep You”, getting some pretty high profile placements in popular television shows and motions pictures (Grey’s Anatomy and Pitch Perfect respectively). Their sophomore album, “Dreamland”, was released in 2016, and they’ve been touring since to spread their sonics to the masses.

Backed by a full band, the brother sister duo took the Twilight Concerts stage as the sun slowly laid to rest in the west and played a set that gave the audience a sampling of their diverse musicality. Their music, which is infused with elements of funk, pop and reggae, provided a very complimentary soundtrack to the sunset hour.

I was able to catch Wild Belle last year when they performed for KCRW and the Anenberg Space for Photography’s “Sound In Focus” concert series, and if there were any significant differences between the two performances, my take-away would be that I felt like the band made much better use of Natalie during the performance. Without being constrained with a guitar wrapped around her torso for this show, her performance seemed to be more free and adventurous, giving Natalie a real presence up on stage.

Whether intentional or not, I thought that Natalie’s presence got better and more animated as the performance went along as she showed more of herself – literally- to the audience. Wearing sunglasses and a fashionable hat to start the set, as those accessories found their way off her face, it really felt like her performance got bigger and more animated when each article of clothing was put aside. Maybe it was because I could see the focus in her eyes without her sunglasses, or maybe it was because she was able whip of her golden locks back and forth without her hat … whatever the case, it definitely made for a more entertaining performance.

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