Best Coast – Cargo, London 02/08/2010

04 August 2010, 10:10 | Written by The Line of Best Fit

(Live)

Best Coast’s music is the aural equivalent to a sunny day in southern California and, being a SoCal native myself, their sold out show at Cargo really hit home for me. You don’t have to be from the land of milk and honey to understand their music though, which was made apparent by the Londoners who seemed to feel the same way I do when they hear those crazy/lazy lyrics and fuzzy guitars.

Never really having an official drummer, the band had been composed of just front woman Bethany Cosentino and lead guitarist Bobb Bruno, but after an audience member exclaimed drummer Ali Koehler, of Vivian Girls, to be her favourite, Bethany announced that Ali is now officially a part of Best Coast. Together these three have got a great dynamic and their stage presence has really grown since the previous times I have seen them in L.A. They were very charismatic during the entire show, poking fun at each other and getting involved in conversations with the crowd as well. Bethany’s infamous cat, Snacks, was the hot topic of the night and she even admitted to messing up during one song because she was thinking about him. Moving on to the actual music of the show; Bethany has definitely found a niche in writing about lusting after boys and sunny days and she certainly knows how to portray these emotions with her voice. ‘I Wish He Was My Boyfriend’, the hit off the new album, Crazy For You, amped up the audience participation as all the girls, and boys, danced and sang along as if they felt the same way. They catered to the guys also, covering ‘I Want To Be Your Boyfriend’ by the Ramones.

The set ended with their most well-known song ‘When I’m With You’ which seemed apt. There wasn’t much cheering for an encore but luckily Bethany got back on stage anyway to play ‘Up All Night’, a rare Best Coast song whose lyrics and melody really pull at your heart strings. She was having issues with her mic and Ali stepped in during the middle of the song to try to fix the problem causing Bethany to lose her focus and not finish the song which was a bit of a downer. She redeemed herself though by covering ‘I’m So Bored’ by her boyfriend’s band Wavves. This proved to be the perfect end to the night as the crowd went wild and flocked to the merch table when it was all over and I left with a greater appreciation of their music than I had the first time I saw them.