Photos by Sergio Estrada
We let the freak flag fly high this past Saturday at The Hi Hat. Boasting a lineup that proves there’s no shortage of great band names – The Hi Hat sold out early on in the night as people promptly congregated to catch openers S*ut Island, and stayed to the end for South Bay weirdos, Fartbarf.
After linking up across the street at The York, we headed over to the venue in time to catch The Manx. As LA’s self-describe “goo-core” band, the five-piece took the stage covered in some kind of green dye while wearing nothing more than what appeared to be green adult diapers/spanx. These madmen were a blast of energy the whole set as they powered through with their demented brand of psycho folk-metal.
To be real, our main reason to venture out into the evening was to see our old pal Holly perform with Treasure MammaL – a Phoenix-based performance art group (band?). So after all the goo from The Manx had been cleared, Treasure MammaL took over the stage with their huge blow-up lawn decorations attributable to various holidays, drum set, and spandex-sporting go-go dancing parishioners. It was feel good music from start to finish, and included some unexpected covers along the way (e.g. Cline’s Titanic song; red hot chili peppers). And even with the tight space/packed crowd, Treasure MammaL got the whole place involved in the performance via mass chest bumps, bridge and tunneling, and a good ol’ fashioned conga line – much of what you’d expect from a Dan Deacon gig.
I’ve long been curious about the Neanderthal-looking wild dudes of Fartbarf and was happy to check ’em out. The Hi Hat was packed real tight for their synth-based spud-rock. Unfortunately I had to bail a bit early in the set to head home to my 5 week-old baby girl, but Crystal and Sergio stuck around and had this to say: “The drummer is siq! This was the first time seeing Fartbarf and [we] were into it. The drummer is super talented and all the synths and sound effects were cool and impressive.”
