A psychedelic night: Crystal Antlers, Thursday

LOVE
WHO: CRYSTAL ANTLERS
WHAT: KBeach Concert Series (second in three-band line-up)
WHEN: Thursday night, on stage from about 8p.m. to 9p.m.

WHERE: Nugget Pub & Grill, somewhere on CSULB

WHY: Oh, they're one of a handful of Long Beach bands next in line to be huge

Here's a snapshot of my notes...

• High energy
• Their sound: can be mellow, droopy, intensely psychedelic, even, and then utterly sparkly at the same glittery moment, especially with the boys' charming on-stage chemistry
• Saw some crazy instruments handled by Sexual Chocolate, the band's percussion man, including a minature baby blue piano he held in his hands and blew into like a whistle
• The keyboards were beautiful, fusing and bridging each song with the next
• "A Thousand Eyes" is a hit; it's so popular, everyone went ooh and ahh over it
• The crowd was at a colorful, voluminous capicity (obviously, they were there for Crystal Antlers... 95% of the crowd left right after the last song)
• For the last two songs, two worshipping audience members stood up to sing along literally face-to-face with the band's singer/bass player Jonny Bell
• The boys ended their set, and everyone was happy
• Crystal Antlers hung out to sell their cool six-track, self-titled EP "Crystal Antlers;" some fans asked for their autographs, others for their pictures
• I spoke to Jonny Bell afterwards, too. I was amazed at how sincere and collected he was after all that sweaty, high-energy rocking

Cyrstal Antlers will next play at the Prospector in Long Beach for the Fidotrust Fest on Saturday night.

Photo by Barbara Navarro.

Other music events going on around town tonight...
{open} bookstore, with bands of the experimental genre for Third Saturday on Retro Row
Fingerprint Records, with Silversun Pickups
Grand Prix, with Pennywise
Detroit Bar, with We Barbarians