Stage Buzz: Seahaven
Seahaven – Bottom Lounge 2/22
Depending on which incarnation of Seahaven you prefer — the noisy 2011 version or the placid 2014 version — they fit perfectly between their two headliners (the positively vicious Touché Amoré and positively spacey mewithoutYou (plus Caravels)). Birthed in 2009 in Torrance, California, Seahaven have undergone something of a facelift recently.
Though the quartet rose to alt-rock prominence playing a gloomy blend of pop-punk, emo, and (at their darkest) grunge, Seahaven’s forthcoming sophomore LP Reverie Lagoon: Music For Escapism Only (reviewed in IE’s March 2014 issue) takes a serious turn for the breezy.
This musical ambidexterity makes Seahaven a particularly fun live act. Just as lead singer Kyle Soto lulls the audience into a trance with some half-sung, half-mumbled lust-sickness and a single, reverberated guitar, his band will tear through the calm with the umph of a Pacific tidal wave. Not to get dramatic; by no means did Seahaven invent the quiet-loud-quiet M.O., but they’re sure as hell keeping it alive.
@ Bottom Lounge, Chicago: 5 p.m. Saturday 2/22 (Sold Out)
– Matt Pollock
Category: Featured, Stage Buzz, Weekly
