With its newest release Floating Features (out via Hardly Art), surf-rockers La Luz released one of the years best albums that is an absolutely stellar follow-up to 2015’s Weirdo Shrine. In fact, the last time we saw the band was earlier this year at Elsewhere where we were expecting to hear more new material but didn’t get much at all. As soon as we heard they were coming back to New York City to play Baby’s All Right as part of this years Northside Festival, we knew exactly where we’d be on June 9th.
Along for the ride and opening things up were Gymshorts, who’s high-energy got everyone inside of Baby’s moving and jamming along the entire time. The interplay between guitarist/vocalist Sarah Greenwell and lead guitarist Devin Demers was infectious throughout their set and even the rhythm section of Chris Faulkner (on drums) and Michael Younker (on bass) got in on some of the action. They all looked like they were having a blast up there smiling and joking throughout the set which definitely is always good to see. Hopefully, we get to catch them again as I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of them in the future.
This was also a different La Luz than we were used to seeing as the band was playing as a three-piece and with their usual lineup of four. There wasn’t much banter at the beginning of their performance, but mid-set guitarist Shana Cleveland paused to let the crowd know that their fourth member and keyboard player Alice Sandahl was not there due to a family emergency. While it was my first time seeing them as a three-piece, they still pulled their sound off flawlessly and only made us hungry to hear those new songs as a full band even more. Standout tracks were “Cicada,” “You Disappear,” “The Creature,” “With Davey,” and “I’ll Be True.”
For more photos of Gymshorts, as well as the setlist and the full gallery of La Luz, see below:
Gymshorts:
La Luz:
La Luz setlist:
1. Floating Features
2. Cicada
3. You Disappear
4. Call Me In The Day
5. The Creature
6. Sunstroke
7. With Davey
8. Loose Teeth
9. Mean Dream
10. Easy Baby
11. California
12. Sure as Spring
13. I’ll Be True
14. Don’t Leave Me
15. I Wanna Be Alone (With You)
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