Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Nico Vega



So most people who've known me for more than three seconds know that I like to go to shows and that I have made it my life's mission to find out about new bands every single day (which, for the most part I accomplish with little effort). One such band I found sometime last year, and Faith and I had the pleasure of seeing live at Emo's last Saturday was Nico Vega. Now I've been to a LOT of shows in my life and seen a lot of really incredible bands, but it has been a long time since I've had my face rocked off as hard as I did while standing on the front row of a Nico Vega set. This three-piece, L.A.-based, female-fronted power house plays a unique style of rock that is a bit hard to describe. I definitely haven't heard anyone else doing quite what they do, but I guess if you put Sleater-Kinney, Joan Jett, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Janis Joplin, and a splash of Tina Turner all in a blender it'd come close to describing this genre-defining group. Front woman, Aja Volkman can bring her voice from a gentle whisper to a full-out rock snarl like she was born for it. Drummer, Dan Epand beats his skins like he literally wants to kill something. And guitarist, Rich Koehler has a set-up so complex he actually plays through three different amps at once to achieve their distinctive sound. Their lyrics, though occasionally leaning slightly toward the unwholesome, are nonetheless centered around love and a passion for social justice. And from a performance standpoint these three put on a show that should never be missed. It was unquestionably an experience that I will never forget.












5 comments:

a.susie said...

Love your description.

Anonymous said...

Would love to see your rocked off face! Glad you had a great time. You should be a band or food columnist with your illustrative descriptions. Ever think about it?

Mom

Pinkey the Axe Fairy said...

Yeah I have thought about it but the problem is that I'm not just into one genre, and therefore I'm not the authority on any one band. I dabble in many different genres and can speak half-way intelligently on SOME bands within those genres, but I don't have enough of a knowledge-base to provide honest, accurate reviews that people would actually read. 90% of music listeners are only into a select genre so a blog devoted to a potpourri of everything from arabic folk music to extreme death metal probably wouldn't be very successful.

Anonymous said...

Why not? I'm sure there are plenty of people who enjoy all genres and would love to have commentary on whatever is out there. You could fill that niche.

Mom

Anonymous said...

Why not? I'm sure there are plenty of people who enjoy all genres and would love to have commentary on whatever is out there. You could fill that niche.

Mom