Photo by Skylar Smith/Daily Titan Staff Writer

By Skylar Smith
Daily Titan Staff Writer

Last Friday, the Anaheim House of Blues in Downtown Disney showed off Southern California’s rising indie stars. The bands in attendance were The Union Line, The Living Suns, Moostache, The Rye Douglas Band and The Steelwells.

The audience was mostly made up of friends, fans and family of members of each of the bands, leading to an incredibly friendly atmosphere. Most of the people at the show knew the bands in some way or another, and several of the band members were on the main floor watching other bands with their friends.

At most concerts there is a tension in the air between sets as everyone waits for the headliner to come on. However, between sets at this show everyone was content to to grab a drink or meet with the band members at the merchandise booth.

People went in and out throughout the night, and moments before the band they were waiting for took stage, friends and family lined up at the front to support the band.

Some of the audience stayed through the night and some band members even sneaked friends back stage to hang out.

The highlights of the show for me were The Union Line, The Steelwells and, surprisingly, Moostache. To be honest, when Moostache took the stage, I thought they were a bunch of high school kids, but as soon as the lead singer, Patrick Wardell, started singing, I was taken aback by the amount of soul and maturity his voice had. Every one of their songs was catchy and they looked extremely comfortable on stage. Wardell even hopped around on stage without any socks.

The next band was the Rye Douglas Band that filled the venue with noise and reverb. The most impressive song on their set was a pitch-perfect cover of “Paranoid Android” by Radiohead. Although it wasn’t their own song, they got a lot of attention and several audience members were singing along.

After that was Fullerton native The Steelwells, who must have had lots of fans because once they took the stage, the venue began to fill up quickly. Several girls in the front row were singing along to nearly every song.

The best things about The Steelwells were their songwriting and professional attitude. If there was any band there that night that had the audience transfixed it was The Steelwells.

Lead singer Joey Winter jokingly expressed the stress of being a modern indie band. “You’ve got to keep up with Twitter. You’ve got to keep up with Facebook and MySpace,” said Winter.

With catchy songs like “El Capitan,” “Bones” and my personal favorite, “Big Yellow Sky,” The Steelwells are a band to keep your eye on and could easily become a local favorite.

The most exciting act there that night was The Union Line. Many of their members come from Saddleback College and the surrounding area, and brothers Adam Sabolick and Jordan Sabolick used to be members of a band called Spacepilot, which was made up of mostly Starbucks employees.

The Union Line had most of the audience bobbing their heads from the beginning. Midway through the set, several audience members were shouting for them to play their hit “Pearls,” and they obliged. “What was that? Pearl?” said Adam Sabolick smirking at the audience. “Well, you’re in luck cause that’s next on the list.” Jordan and Adam were great at chatting up the audience, causing many laughs between songs, as the band members tuned their instruments and talked to the sound booth.

The most interesting thing about The Union Line was how often several of their members traded instruments. Throughout the show, three of their five members played the bass, guitar, keyboard and the giant bass drum on stage at least once in the set.

Once The Living Suns took stage, everyone was already in a great mood and several band members came out from backstage to check them out. All in all, it was a great night for getting to know Southern California’s local music scene.

As the show ended, family, friends and fans of all the bands walked into a rain swept Downtown Disney. It was a perfect picture of a very important part of the Orange County lifestyle.