[twitter style=”horizontal” float=”left”]

[fbshare type=”button” width=”100″]

[pinterest count=”horizontal”]

Porches at Santa Monica Pier's Twilight Concert 7/14/16. Photo by Derrick K. Lee, Esq. (@Methodman13)

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE REST OF OUR COVERAGE OF SANTA MONICA PIER’S TWILIGHT CONCERT SERIES

Opening for BØRNS was the New York-based Indie Rock band, Porches. Its founder, Aaron Maine, has explored many music styles throughout his career, but with Porches’ latest album, “Pool”, he uses the indie electronic genre as its foundation and utilizes elements of other genres in flourishes to fill out its sound. I knew little about this band, so seeing them perform on the Santa Monica Pier would basically be my introduction to them.

Taking the stage to perform for a crowd of over twenty thousand people, nerves seemed to creep in at the start of their set. Their confidence wasn’t helped any on the first couple songs with the technical problems that effected their keyboards.

Aaron, killing time as his keyboardist made sure all of the keyboard’s plugs were properly connected, gazed into the audience with a sense of awe and gratefully proclaimed, “This is absolutely amazing. You have us, and we have you. It’s a beautiful thing … And I love my new hat.”

After interacting with the crowd, it felt like Aaron and the band loosened up a bit. They grooved a little more and smiled little more. As Aaron sang and performed each song, the band members interacted with each other, even exchanging what appeared to be inside jokes. I was personally digging the eclectic music they were playing, getting down to the house elements of the music and the subdued, new wave vocal stylings of Aaron. But what really stood out with Porches’ performance was the relationship that this band had with their fans who were in the audience, and the sheer appreciation that they even had fans in the audience at all.

“I can’t believe it, you guys are sick. Shoutout to everybody who came out. For Porches. A lot of you didn’t, but a lot of you did.” Sincere awe. Clearly this concert performance was on another level for them and Aaron made sure that we knew how much it was appreciated.

If there was any doubt that their own fans were in the audience, all you had to do was look around as Aaron rendered his subtle choreography to the music. Their fans followed suit. When he subtly clapped the mic with his hands, their fans, on cue, clapped along. When he put his hands in a triangle form above his head, the audience, on cue, followed suit. Music synchronicity. Beautiful to watch happen.

Follow Porches on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE REST OF OUR COVERAGE OF SANTA MONICA PIER’S TWILIGHT CONCERT SERIES

If an image below is pixelated, please click through the “view full size” link for a better view.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE REST OF OUR COVERAGE OF SANTA MONICA PIER’S TWILIGHT CONCERT SERIES

LIVE CLIPS