The Start of Something Special

You know when you read that first line of a book or hear a piece of music that just grabs you? You know you're in for something special, and that's how my New Year started.

I was in CA visiting my family and I got to hear the phenomenal band Hippie Cream at this fun club in Venice called Good Hurt. My little bro, Sean, is the drummer for the band, and they've been steadily growing in recognition and reputation. :)

I'm just so proud of him, because he's a cool cat to begin with, and he's played with some really neat bands, but this one... there's just something special about Hippie Cream.

They were the early band at Good Hurt, so there were only a few people there, but we all could feel the fun factor increase a hundredfold when they started to play, and everyone went nuts for them. Even the other bands that were arriving to play later in the evening were like, "Wow! Glad we got here early to hear you guys!"

It made me think of all those great "beginnings" where audiences got to first hear The Doors or Oingo Boingo in whatever small setting they first rocked. Those are two bands whom I really love, and ironically Hippie Cream reminds me of them. Apparently I'm not alone in this, because Hippie Cream reminds everyone of their favorite band! One guy at the show said they reminded him of Elvis Costello. Another person said they were like The Grateful Dead. I also sense a bit of Bob Dylan in their material, and yet they still have their own wildly unique sound. It was a blast to be part of that.Even some of my pictures of them turned out psychadelic. :)

Ironically, their performance made me think of the musical theatre scene, because that scene has been growing much more pop-rock flavored. Heck, musical theatre has been rocking since HAIR and Hippie Cream would be a great comparison to that freedom-loving scene.

As I watched them perform and then watched some of the other bands, I was reminded of my musical theatre audition classes. Strange parallel, I know, yet you can learn so much by watching AND doing. For example, if you have a group of 12 performers, and 10 people decide to do slow ballads, but 2 performers decide to do something wildly different, guess who's going to standout? This isn't to say the balladic folks aren't going to work... some of them work really well. Look at Evansence. But I think the thing that works so well with Hippie Cream is that they are unfettered, and I know I've always felt more successful in auditions and performances when I'm letting everything flow like these guys were. They're just having fun - whether they're rockin a punk-flavored tune like Cuddles the Vampire, which played on the radio on KXLU's Demolisten 01.02.2009 or crooning some crazy country love song like, "Pray That When I Die" that's on their latest album, On The Moon. They are unique, and they're just letting their sound out and having fun doing it. It's awesome.

If you want to catch them, they've got some gigs at The Beachcomber next weekend and will be back at Good Hurt in LA on March 22nd.Boogie on!