WASI and Goon at The Hi-Hat

WASI, Goon, The Hi-Hat, May 12, 2017

My old stomping ground of Highland Park sure has changed a whole bunch. Down where this club is located are other great bars and even a small local street charming park on a corner. York Blvd near Avenue 50 looks like Melrose in West Hollywood. I am sure the Occidental College crowd were all around this Friday night. If you were hungry this club also has a food menu as well for some hamburgers and stuff too. Most of the crowd were hanging out having beers and mixed drinks. The age range was 21 to 48 I would say.

The show at The Hi-Hat was produced by Betting Lights. The sound in the club was fantastic. I felt like this was a miniature House Of Blues but more laid back and somewhat kind of a trendy arty establishment. Bands hung around all night and were mingling though out the crowd too. I got a brief couple of moments to chat with WASI who invited me to this show.

Goon came onto the stage to play a set of tunes. They currently have an EP available called Duck Of Punk. They sound like Pavement meet The Church with a blend of The Dream Syndicate thrown in from their youthful days to blend the mix. This combination showed of the great harmonies of the vocals. The guitars were more of an a compliment instead of over taking this band. You can tell this band has got it together with their sound. They have really great songs. Included in tonight’s set of songs they did a Pavement cover song near the end of their performance, but before that they did songs from their EP including Gay Rage and Dizzy. Most of the other songs were new ones that they were trying out. One of the new songs that really stuck out was called Critter. All in all, Goon played 10 songs this evening.

WASI was doing this show in release for their second EP called Coup. Wasi is this extraordinarily talented and charitable band that has performed at Vans Warped Tour as well as LBGTQ Pride Shows. Funny thing is the bands audience is becoming more diverse as far as an audience base goes. Original members and founders Merilou “Cosmo” Salazar and Jessie Meehan are still flowing strong live where their energy conversed into a stream of movement and bouncing around. This bouncing excelled like when the balloons, they had, filled the room that everyone played with to the great music.  From their first EP they played a few songs. During one of them they got the entire band to settle down on the stage floor and sat and played acoustic. The crowd went into a deep appreciation for this.

WASI included a cover song in their set which went pretty well. But tonight was the bands chance to play songs from their newest release and they played a few of them. Floor Talk is one of those song that get you to want to move about. Pselido Halo and Gold were performed as well. One other interesting song of this show was a song called Can’t Dance which was a pop gem. The best of tonight’s songs, Pussy Grabs Back, has been getting the band a lot of recognition.

Having already performed on the Vans Warped Tour and now making an obvious name for themselves too, the independent record labels should start noticing WASI and give them a record deal. With all the fun this band has shown and talents in performance, if I had the money I would put their first full length CD out. WASI already has touring experience so they are a great packaged deal. So go check out WASI when they play again and have a great time …I guarantee it.

(Review and Photos by Jonathan D. Wright)

WASI on Facebook
Goon on Facebook