LIVE MUSIC REVIEW:CAYUCAS

I'm wondering what are you thinking

Oh, when you're staring up at the stars

In the sky above

~ Cayucas, 'Bigfoot'

This past Wednesday night I had the good fortune of seeing Cayucas at the Brighton Music Hall in Boston.  I took my friend, Laura O., who recently moved back to the East coast (again) from CA with her family.  Lucky for me, she landed in Winchester this time around so I now have another music wingman in my neck of the woods.  Winchester is a bit of a ghost town in the summer, so Laura has been spending a whole lot of quality time with her little ones (ages 5 & 8).  Needless to say, she was ready for a night out.  She scooped me up around 6:30 and we headed in to grab some dinner before the show.  Neither of us knew how to get to Brighton and Laura is not yet a seasoned Boston driver, so our ride was, well, let's just say it was interesting.  There definitely was some honking, there may have been an illegal u-turn (or two) and I might have had some stern words with Siri when she took us in the wrong direction.  Truth...it took us about an hour to drive 4.5 miles.  Eventually, we arrived and walked over to the Glenville Stops, a lovely and somewhat jazzy establishment conveniently located down the street from our music venue.  The service is not the speediest, though I do think that's part of their vibe, but the food is good and the people are incredibly friendly, so it's worth a visit if you are in the area.  Around 8:30, we walked over to the Brighton Music Hall.  When we got there, the opening band, Hibou, was playing so we made our way to the front and settled in to check them out.  I've never heard of these guys, but I have to say they were pretty damn good in an 80s alt/pop kind of way.  We only caught a few songs, but they hooked us in easily and, by the end, they had the whole crowd moovin' and groovin'.  They are definitely worth a listen.

HIBOU

When Hibou was done, we moved over to the side of the club, grabbed some water, chatted, took the obligatory selfie, enjoyed some good people watching and just embraced the scene, which is often as interesting as the music itself.

At one point, I happened to look up and take note of the sign hanging above our heads (see below).  You can imagine my dismay after I read this.  Yet another night when I don't get to mosh and/or crowd surf.  Dammit.

WTF??!!

Around 9:00 Cayucas hit the stage.  Cayucas is an indie-pop band from Santa Monica, CA lead by twin brothers, Zach and Ben Yudin.  They have a super chill air about them and as they got things going it was almost as if they'd just walked off the beach and onto the stage after a good surf session.  They gave us a few songs from their latest album, Dancing At the Blue Lagoon, and then dove back into their first album, Bigfoot, for a few more, including their well known ditties, 'High School Lover' and 'Cayucos'.

CAYUCAS

Zach and Ben compliment each other beautifully and their vocal harmony is, in my opinion, a lot of what makes their sound so appealing.  As mellow as they are on stage, they definitely seemed to be having a good time with both the crowd and each other.  To my delight, they finished up their set with the 'Bigfoot'.  I will confess that I did shout out a request for this one because it is far and away my favorite song, but in fairness, they did ask.  I doubt they played it because of that, but it is fun to think I might have influenced their choice.  And with that, they were done.  As Laura and I walked out, they were coming back on for an encore, but it was getting late, we were both pretty wiped and we knew we'd be getting up early to deal with our little ones in the morning, so we were officially done.  In the end, it was a great show; short, sweet and dreamy.  As much as I enjoyed hearing them at this venue, I couldn't help but feel like I should have been watching them outside with an umbrella drink in my hand and the ocean lapping in the background.  Someday.  Maybe.

Listen to these:
CAYUCAS
Moony Eyed Walrus


Bigfoot


High School Lover