Mary Bell / OC Weekly

Psycho De Mayo
Downtown Santa Ana
May 5, 2013

What do you get when you combine over 40 psychedelic bands from around the world, a massive sound system, three surrounding stages, a packed street fair and enough reverb to rattle your brain right out of your skull? Around here, we call it Psycho De Mayo. As you may have read last week, OC's first annual psychedelic rock fest converged on Downtown Santa Ana yesterday just in time to collide with one of city's busiest days of the year. How did it go? Here are some of the highlights.
PHOTOS: Psycho De Mayo Shots From the Main Stage

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Torey Mundkowsky

The Killers
Honda Center
May 1, 2013
Never underestimate the power of a kick-ass, midweek rock show. Last night, the Killers' Sin City swagger was enough to rev up an entire stadium of fans at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

While a sold-out arena show might seem to come off as effortless for a band of this magnitude, it's actually quite a feat for a rock band in an area where plenty of local fans have already blown their concert budget on Coachella. Luckily for us, the Killers don't adhere to any set music scene (nor political scene, for that matter) and, therefore, know how to put on a great show that not only sounded fabulous, but also satisfied fans of all stages of the band's sound. Speaking of which, Battle Born, the band's fourth and most recent album, was released last September and was initially met with mixed reviews, as the band's sound went from an initial dark, dancey, synth-rock to a much earthier--dare we say heartland rock?--point of view.

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Patrick Montes

Iamsu and Problem

Earlier in the week, we declared that Iamsu!'s sound "may very well be some of the funnest hip-hop to listen to right now." Clearly, then, our enthusiasm was about to spill out onto our keyboards when we saw his name booked to perform alongside LA's Problem (who is apparently awesome to be around and whose company offers experiences of a lifetime according to our sister paper, LA Weekly) at our favorite local place-to-see-rap, The Observatory. Ninety-nine percent of the time, a Wednesday night does not end in witnessing two crowned sentinels of party music recreate the celebratory subject matter of their songs. At best, our Wednesday night out and about means a dinosaur age rock band or a newer indie band that takes themselves too seriously. It's a tragedy, really.

Iamsu! & Problem came out to the introductory volley of "MDA" and their parts on E-40's "Function," and from then on out proceeded to flip the Observatory into their own private bash. It went from being a beloved Orange County venue to the party-house that Iamsu! & Problem built. Despite the unusually-underpacked audience, the entire place looked as if the old hyphy scene was being resurrected live.

See Also:
*Iamsu! Makes Party Rap With a Purpose

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isthistobe/Instagram

An abundance of hoodies and the heavenly stench of pot dominated the crowd at the Observatory last night as the Chicago trap duo DJ J2K (born Josh Young) and Autobot (Curt Cameruci) better known as Flosstradamus unleashed their beats in Santa Ana as part of their Underground Nights US Tour. The boys were all Chi-town swag, letting their thug flag fly as the18-and-over crowd went wild, twerking and getting down to their hip-hop, dub and trap-inspired set. Although the genre is getting a lot of slack for being so hyped up, the boys proved they have been taste makers for well over a six years and know just how to get the crowd turnt up (yes, "turnt" is the technical term). The show was sold out and everyone was in attendance including fellow DJs like Gladiator and LOUDPVCK.

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While masses of music fans were in the desert in Indio celebrating the great Coachella Music and Arts Festival last night, several hundred diehard punk/thrash metal/crossover fans invaded the Observatory in Santa Ana, for an all day event that started at 2 p.m., with a Black Market Swap meet, featuring tons of and vinyl records. DJ sets were provided by DJ Big Mike of Poor Kids Radio and Special guest DJ MissBliss. This show also felt like a detour since they'd just been tapped to co-headline the controversial festival Punk Picnic that was supposed to happen last weekend but was cancelled at the last minute.

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Mary Bell

Before embarking on the desert as part of Friday's Coachella lineup, Passion Pit made a pit stop (no pun intended) to Los Angeles' Club Nokia. Led by frontman Michael Angelakos, the electro-pop quintet made quite a spectacle during its pre-festival performance.

Before stepping foot onstage, the band was preluded by a cacophony of found noises and haunting organs and violins. The guys casually waltzed to their places and then suddenly lights began to strobe and each member frenetically pounded on his instrument before transitioning into "I'll Be Alright," off their critically acclaimed sophomore release, Gossamer. Their set list was a nice mix of new and old tunes, and when they played "The Reeling," off 2009's Manners, Angelakos taunted the audience. "Alright Los Angeles," he yelled. "I know how loud you can get!" He held out his microphone, still positioned snugly on its stand, out into the crowd, and his fans cheered, accepting his challenge.

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Katrina Nattress

Beach House
The Glass House
April 10, 2013

It's that time of year again, when the lucky few (or around 100,000) ascend to the desert on two special weekends for this thing called Coachella. Maybe you've heard of it? Supposedly a bunch of cool bands play, and because of that, they can't tour around Los Angeles. But there is a loophole, and it's called Pomona.

Because it is just far enough outside of L.A., bands are able to play pre-Coachella shows at The Glass House and Fox Theater, and those of us without the financial means--or will--to endure an expensive, scorching three days in the polo fields are still able to catch some of the festival's big acts (huzzah!). Last night, Beach House kicked off the string of amazing acts playing Pomona in the week to come (The Postal Service, Modest Mouse, and Phoenix are just a few others), and The Glass House was filled to the brim.

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Oliver Scherillo / OC Weekly

Ariel Pink

Burgerama 2
The Observatory
March 23, 2013

Beer was flowing, burgers grilling and music blaring as day two of Burgerama picked up where Friday left off. By the end of the night, the walls of the venue were moist sweaty and the concertgoers were sweaty and smelly. Both hallmarks of a good punk/garage/indie rock show.

Starting an hour earlier, Saturday's bill was deep with talent. By the time dusk was settling in, the music kicked into high gear. Enough of the jibba jabba, here's what happened (note: we're using the same one cassette to five cassettes formula to grade the performances):

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Oliver Scherillo / OC Weekly

Black Lips

Burgerama
The Observatory
March 22, 2013

Last night, Burgerama turned The Observatory turned into many things--a giant house party, a BBQ, perhaps even an old-fashioned kegger. For the sake of Burger Records, we'll just compare this to another independent event: Factory Records parties of the late '70s in Manchester.

The crowd, with the average age being no older than 19, snowballed into a huge punk rock party, with Burger Records and their cavalcade of bands from OC and beyond. Think Dazed and Confused but instead of the partying point being the water tower, it was a venue in a Santa Ana business park.

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Mary Bell / OC Weekly

Imagine Dragons and Atlas Genius

House of Blues

March 19, 2013

For a band that's had, at least on the surface, a meteoric rise, Imagine Dragons sure know how to play things cool. Playing to what they said was the smallest venue on their North American tour, the Las Vegas-natives demonstrated that they have a strong catalog beyond their two hit singles and have the rare ability to make a crowd swoon, while entertaining them in the process.

Though they were formed four years ago, 2012 was the year when a larger audience took notice of the band. First with "It's Time" and more recently with "Radioactive," Imagine Dragons have won their share of both the radio listeners and hardcore fans.

Mixing these two types of fans is challenging for anyone, but for a band with just one full-length to their name? Well, on the surface that would seem difficult, but much to my surprise, the crowd consisted primarily (and by primarily, I'll estimate it being about 90 percent) of loyal fans. Not just your run-of-the-mill loyal fans, but hardcore we-know-every-word fans. Impressive.

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