It’s astounding that a relatively sleepy city like Santa Rosa can have so many noteworthy bands—the Velvet Teen, the New Trust, The Polar Bears , the Americas—and that they all sound remarkably similar. It’s the sign of a particularly tight scene, as indeed this one is. The Velvet Teen have been the most successful, but my favorite is the New Trust, because of their sleeker sound and Josh Staples’ lyrics and voice.
Now the lines are blurred, since Staples last year rejoined the Velvet Teen, which he left a few years ago to focus on the New Trust. Their show at Homestead Lanes on Saturday reinforced that as a foursome, the band is a more formidable rock machine than ever, loud and bruising. They played some new (or at least fairly recent) songs from what I suspect must be a forthcoming album, since it’s been four years since their last one.
Opening for them on Saturday was Pyramiddd, better known by their other moniker, Starfucker. However, the former may have to do from here on out as a name as the Portland band appears to be getting big fast. They sold out SF’s Rickshaw Stop the night before this show, and Homestead was pretty packed in for their set. Their high-energy, slightly retro electro-indie had me wondering if they could be the next Passion Pit, especially the way the crowd reacted with almost non-stop jumping. It was reminiscent, on a smaller scale, of the reaction Passion Pit themselves got when they had the entire Warfield bouncing up and down at their recent sold-out show there.
