Show: Pepper
Date: October 9, 2011
Venue: Club Nokia
City: Los Angeles, CA
Pepper
Photos by Nicolas Bates
Written by Katie J. Norris
Club Nokia is a one-room venue with the bar in the back, merchandise set up on the left, the sage as the main focus at the back of the room, and an open, wood dance floor. In combination with the venue set up and the audience’s attitude and clothing style, it was relatively reminiscent of a high school dance. This show brought in a younger crowd and everyone was milling about within their clicks stationed all over the floor. As the night went on and the beer cups emptied, the room felt a little more “unchaperoned.” As soon as Pepper took the stage, dance competitions promptly ignited and the clicks began branching out. Lighted Chinese paper lamps dotted the stage behind the three-member band that had started jamming out a poppy reggae/rock tune. The club instantly transformed into a chill, SoCal summer-eve party. Pepper’s performance style would have almost reflected the roots Kingston Yard reggae style if it weren’t for the overpowering Hawaiian flavor of the young band. Pepper has island reggae at its soul, but their outfits are one thing that completely abandons them from the rasta vibe. White boys wearing clean t-shirts, jeans and baseball caps isn’t exactly true ragamuffin attire, but it fits great with the Cali rock theme they ascribe to. Its heavy metal meets reggae meets garage band, and, therefore, they are playing to the perfect audience.
Bass player/vocalist Bret Bollinger was incredibly fun to watch. He had a theatrical inflection when he sang that gave him a commanding presence on stage. Guitarist/vocalist Kaleo Wassman was impressive with his vocal quality as well. They sang and played as good live as in any of their albums. But when it came to visuals, their bare stage and casual costume choice left the audience with no real surprises to keep up the hype, which was kind of a shame. Oh wait, I suppose I forgot to mention drummer, Yesod Williams, taking off his shirt and doing a full-on belly dance—despite the rest of the bands’ protests. After the crowds’ cheers and lots of laughter, Bollinger spoke into the mic, “This is our profession because of you.” Keep sippin’ those beers on stage guys, I think we just got started!
Pepper played many songs from their Kona Town album—considered one of their greatest releases—including “Face Plant,” “Stone Love,” “Tradewinds” and “Ho’s” to name a few. They also played more recent hits, “Wake Up” and “Mirror.” On stage these guys have humble personalities with great senses of humor who love to party. They even invited the entire crowd to join them at the bar across the street after the show. I must admit, they are the perfect party band. After some guitar shredding solos, they segued into “Blackout,” a song from their album Pink Crustaceans and Good Vibrations. This was the crowd participant, heavy metal meets summer-Cali reggae party song of the night. Everyone was shouting the rhythmic chorus of “Black.” “Out.” Pepper followed with a bow and a stage exit, and came back on for a three song encore, the last of which had everyone’s hands in the air waving from here to there. It was a high-energy show that ended in satisfaction.