LOS ANGELES, CA- It’s good to have friends who live and breathe the local music scene. I wanted to make plans with a friend, and it turned out that that friend had plans for me. @lamusicscene_ (Gary) had set up another evening of live music at his residence, and my friend was gracious enough to extend her +1 to me. With Dolly Dagger, Young Winona and Desert Sparrow slated to perform, it was like I was given a Willy-Wonka type golden ticket.
The weather, however, would cause some issues and, I’ll let Gary explain the hiccups that were experienced throughout the evening:
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The “hiccups” notwithstanding, the show went one, and all in attendance were treated to some musical moments that you’d be hard-pressed to find otherwise.
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I was long overdue to see Dolly perform again. The last time I saw her perform, she fronted the band Doctrin. While Doctrin’s music is still streaming on DSPs, some of the band’s socials have been deactivated, so I’m going to assume that Dolly has moved on from that project (I probably just should have asked her at the gig… lol).
Musically reborn as Dolly Dagger, with a new tattoo recently inked by the “young” lady below to memorialize the new direction, Dolly has released two singles, the most recent being the track “Say What You Want To”- which absolutely shreds. She’s also promised to release more music (both originals and covers) throughout the year.
Dolly had some fun with her acoustic performance, joking with the crowd, and playing a cover of TLC’s “No Scrubs”. But what I loved most was hearing her original songs given the acoustic treatment, especially “Break and Bend”. I love how that song sounded acoustic so much that I literally forgot to take any video until the last 5-10 seconds of the song. If she ever released that track as a vinyl single, the acoustic version should definitely be on b-side.
I was introduced to Young Winona’s music late last year when they opened for Broked Baby at the Moroccan Lounge. Digging their hard-hitting alt/grunge sound, I’ve been following them since.
Taking the stage solo, with the weather getting progressively colder, Cassie took the stage armed only with her electric guitar, and still gave me that engaging sass and energy that she gave me when she was backed by a full band over half a year ago.
What I found particularly interesting about Young Winona’s music was when it was stripped down to just one guitar and vocal how much the songs changed. Had I not been familiar with them already, I would have thought they were totally different songs. Take for example, “Killer Daisies”. The recording, and performance with a full band, sounds and feels completely different when the pulsing drums and additional distorted vocals are removed. Either way, I was still digging the tunes, and that’s mostly because Cassie is such a solid performer… even in the 40-degree chill.
After Young Winong/Cassie’s performance, the decision was made to abandon Gary’s homemade stage and bring the last performance of the night inside where it was considerably warmer. Considering that Desert Sparrow’s frontwoman, Kylie Adams, was wearing a backless ensemble, I’d say that that was a wise decision. Quickly setting up in Gary’s living room, Kylie, and two members of her band proceeded to rock the room with their psychedelic-infused folk-rock.
Where I loved that Cassie and Dolly gave me new takes on their music, I loved Desert Sparrow’s stripped-down performance equally as much for giving me very faithful renditions of their recordings. The two guitar backup certainly helped maintain the original aesthetic of the recorded music, but Kylie was drive pulse of each song with her crystalline vocals and her steady tambourine skills.
Being that this lineup consisted entirely of artists hailing from Australia, it was a real treat to the band perform a song by one of my favorite Australian bands: INXS’ “Never Tear Us Apart”. I’m really looking forward to catching the full band rock out sooner rather than later.
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