This summer, the Levitt Pavillion located in the heart of MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, will host 50 free concerts of all genres open to the public for the 12th year in a row. Thursday, June 28, hosted garage-rock acts Hooveriii and Feels for in intimate, yet highly engaged audience.
Around 8:00 p.m. concert-goers were mostly sprawled about the grass, which slanted conveniently upwards the stage, with a group of people toward the front of the stage getting into Hooveriii. The L.A. based act was outfitted with a typical rock band setup, with the addition of synth and a wailing saxophone. The band played in a jam-y style, often starting rhythmically, adding screeching guitars, maybe a saxophone solo or two before rolling into heavy, headbang-worthy breakdowns. The large LED screen directly on top of the stage provided trippy visuals for those sitting further away. They closed their set with a particularly stretched-out, jam-y track which was mostly instrumental with the addition of a few “We did it again” spoken lyrics, very much in the vein of LCD Soundsystem.
While Feels set up for their performance, the Levitt’s “hype man” got the audience’s attention. A couple of food trucks were available for the crowd, who ranged from LA hipster to local families. “Y’all ready for some loud music?” the hype-man yelled at the crowd as L.A.-based garage rockers, Feels, took the stage.
They began their set right away and played a mix of newer songs and tracks from their self-titled album. The crowd directly in front of the stage grew slightly, and most of them headbanged along to heavier songs like “Running’s Fun” and faster, more punk-forward songs like “Play It Cool” were met with more of the crowd moving their bodies, some dancing along spastically. For one of the songs, singer Laena Geronimo put down her guitar and walked to the front of the stage area, walking around windily as she sang along to the music before breaking out into punk rock screams.
Feels capture the art of slow/fast, soft/hard exceptionally well, as singers Geronimo and Shannon Lay harmonized in a folk-like manner and took turns singing on the majority of the songs. “Apparently Fishbone’s tomorrow?” Geronimo laughed as she gave the Levitt Pavillion concert series a shout out. The band played off each other so comfortably, headbanging along and constantly moving around, completely lost in the music.
The Levitt Pavillion’s concert series provide’s a wide array of music to the L.A. community, hosting live music every Thursday-Sunday through September 2nd. Catch the full lineup of free concerts here.
Setlist:
- Car
- Running’s Fun
- Awful Need
- Find A Way
- Unicorn
- Play It Cool
- Toll Booth
- W.F.L.
- Sour
- Post Earth
- Deconstructed
- Tell Me
- Close My Eyes