Photo by Vanessa Martinez
The sound of the words mosh pit, brings to mind images of rock or metal shows, but hundreds of Orange County surf pop fans proved it could be done even to the slow tempo songs of Best Coast.
The band played an exciting setlist for a full audience at the Santa Ana Observatory on Saturday night.
The majority of the audience members were female.
They weren’t afraid to get into the pit and mosh to the indie beats of vocalist and guitarist Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno, who was on guitar.
The set, which ended early compared to other concerts at the Observatory, consisted of 14 songs along with four others from their encore performance.
Fan favorites included “Something in the Way,” “Crazy for You,” “Mean Girls,” and “Boyfriend,” which energized the audience and the mosh-pitters, who took out their lighters and swung them to the slow beat of “Mean Girls.”
Even during slow tempo songs fans moved around in the mosh pit, although it meant doing so to a slower beat.
Selina Singh, a student at UC Riverside, said she enjoyed the show put on by Best Coast, who she’s only begun listening to recently.
“I definitely made a good decision in buying that ticket last minute,” said Singh.
Cosentino and Bruno put on a stellar show for their fans by interacting with them and seeming to enjoy themselves onstage while Consentino took small from a beer cup from time to time.
Bruno, who plays various instruments for the band, said he had a good time performing for the fans.
“The crowd was really energetic and we’re really grateful and we love them,” said Bruno. “I’m really touched that they came out to see us and were so enthusiastic—it was awesome.”
During their encore performance, the band covered and added a Best Coast twist to Nirvana’s “About a Girl,” generating cheers from Best Coast and Nirvana fans in the crowd.
At the end of “Boyfriend,” the last song of the night, Cosentino dove into the pool of fans in the pit.
This resulted in cheers from the crowd as she crowd surfed her way back to the stage as fans reached out to touch her or hold her hand.
“I think Beth just wanted to do that,” Bruno said. “She tried to get me to do it but I was afraid I’d hurt somebody.”
Before crowdsurfing and before playing “Mean Girls,” Consentino tried to persuade Bruno to surf the crowd, improvising a short and melodic song repeating lyrics “Bobb, Bobb, Bobb / Big, bad Bobb,” over her guitar.
Cosentino’s crowd-surfing was the highlight of the show for Bruno’s mom, Madeline Walder, and other fans in the audience.
“It was cute, I liked it,” said Wynter Cruz, an Orange resident.
Best Coast will be opening for the band Green Day’s 2012/2013.
Bruno said they are psyched to work with Green Day and that the members of the band are really nice.
“We met them last year,” Bruno said. “I can’t wait to watch Green Day every night. They’re really nice people, so we’re excited to spend a lot of time with them.”
Bruno said he and Cosentino have grown up as Green Day fans.
“It’s an honor to be asked to tour with them. It’s a band that I listened to growing up and same with Bethany,” Bruno said. “It’s really crazy that they like our band now and want to do shows with us.”
Best Coast will join and open for Green Day, during their tour, from Jan. 8, 2013 to Feb. 8, 2013.
Walder, who has seen her son’s band perform at least ten times, said she is excited every time and hopes to make it to their Las Vegas show with Green Day.
“I think that they’re a great Southern California band and there’s a lot of inspiration in their music and it’s all clean, fun music,” Walder said.
Loading ...