An Intimate Evening with Milo Greene
presented by Noise Pop & Culture Collide
You guys. You need to listen to and love Milo Greene with me. It started with little, meaningless flirtations with songs like “1957” and “Parents’ House” on Spotify. I often numbly comb through indie playlists while working and flag the ones I like. Then I feel silly when it takes way too long to realize I’m flagging the same artist’s different songs over and over again, and Milo Greene was one of them.
After last night, it’s official. It’s a full-blown Milo Greene love affair and I’m not even ashamed of being the other woman.
Let me tell you about last night’s Intimate Evening with Milo Greene presented by Noise Pop.
The Venue
First, after much debate, I wore my new army green jacket from Shein and bright red lipstick because I wanted to look the part of the savvy music blogger. I look like Barnie due to purple lighting in all the pictures though, so it’s TBD whether I succeeded. I hesitantly told the bouncer I was “on the list” as I wandered into the Swedish American Hall around 8:30pm after coffee and truffle fries across the street at Ovok. I’d never been to this venue before so I was psyched to see fat stringed lights strewn across wooden beams over a small set up of unassigned chairs, each adorned with a flyer and pin.
The Openers
An adorable 5-part band called Over the Trees from Norway was already playing when we walked in. The smily tambourine player/vocalist with a man bun was hands down my favorite. He hit the most ridiculous notes while smiling so big I couldn’t help but beam right back. I had never heard these guys before (they only have two songs on Spotify), but I’m definitely adding them to the new music rotation. They have a Young the Giant feel to them and their accents and broken English as they introduced their songs was the cutest thing ever. Hand claps, woo hoos and fun beats to dance to– can’t top that from an opener. I hope to see lots more from them soon.
The next act was a couple from Ecuador and Peru called Karate Dancer. The female vocalist wore a rad sweatshirt meets chic dress ensemble and Chad insisted that her face looked just like Anna Kendrick’s (I don’t see it). They were both pretty nervous, fumbled around a lot on stage while talking over each other and had several technical sound issues — I especially liked when the male counterpart asked over the mic, “Please can you put sound in my ukulele?” — but I liked their sometimes spooky bass lines and dancey techno sounds mixed with vocal harmonies. They don’t have any songs on Spotify yet and they said this was only their fourth concert ever, so we’ll see what happens with them next.
Milo Greene
Then came Milo Greene. They’re a 5-part band from LA, and the four vocalists (Marlana Sheetz, Graham Fink, Robbie Arnett, Andrew Heringer) sat in chairs up front while the drummer (Curtis Marrero) chilled in the back. The band is super versatile in that each song features different band members’ vocals/switching up instruments and while “Parents’ House” has a dark, ethereal sound, “1957” amps it up and you can’t not sing along to “I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go” despite the heartbreaking lyrics. The male singers voices are all distinct and they’re all complemented by Marlana’s incredibly smooth vocals. She shook an orange-shaped maraca in between playing the keyboard and guitar, so that’s an automatic win.
Robbie’s parents sat in the front row directly in front of us and he teased his dad saying he could only get so intimate while he in the front row. Graham rambled about Tia and Tamera not being actual twins, reminisced about 3LW and encourage audience interaction between sips of whiskey–naturally he was my favorite. I consistently got chills throughout their performance and despite Marlana’s concern that she was “too pitchy” (she wasn’t), super nervous and couldn’t find the guitar stand, they were incredible live. If you ever get a chance to see them, do it, do it, do it! Be sure to check out “White Lies” and the rest of their new Control album here.
Culture Collide 2015
See the rest of the Culture Collide 2015 lineup here.
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