LOS ANGELES, CA- During my drive up from the Carlsbad Lagoons to Los Angeles after ringing in the New Year with friends, I tuned my stereo onto a random Spotify playlist with up and coming alternative rock acts. There was some Bully. Some Snail Mail. Some Young The Giant.
Then suddenly, I heard a familiar voice. It was my friend Sarah Green and her band Spare Parts For Broken Hearts and their latest single “Mush” In that moment, I felt like a proud father watching his kid score a winning point in a game. I’ve championing this band for a long time, and I was just giddy that someone somewhere felt the same way about them that I did.
My sense of pride, however, turned to that sense of shame a father feels when he’s derelict in his duties of taking care of his kids when I realized that in 2018 I only got to see them perform twice (albeit one of those times was in Austin, TX). That being said, I made it a point to catch them play an opening set for Miserable at the Moroccan Lounge.
I arrived the venue a little early, and I got to catch up with Sarah, Jonny Cifuentes (bass) and Jessica Lankford (drums) in the green room for a few minutes. Sarah ribbed me a little for missing out on a lot of the 2018 local gigs. I deserved it … but damn, I sure did miss out.
Their set at the Moroccan Lounge showed me that their live performance has aged like a fine wine. Their songs are always a pleasure to hear live, but since they’ve been performing the songs in their repertoire for a while now, they play around with some of the arrangements, letting loose by mixing up tempos and even subtly exploring the sonic landscape of each song by changing up chord progressions here and there. Those little nuances are like ear-candy for me; a little bit of a Christmas surprise for my ear-holes.
I know that the band is currently in the process of prepping to record new material, and I can’t wait hear some more new jams when I hit up more of their shows this year (I promise, Sarah!).
Spare Parts For Broken Hearts has two LA gigs in March: One at The Smell March 1st celebrating the return of DumDum Zine, and another March 21st at The Hit Hat for Dr Martens Presents. I”ll probably be making it out at least one of those gigs. How about you?
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LIVE CLIPS
