Review of The Red Pears' Concert | Danny Gutierrez
NOVEMBER 10TH 2022 8PM CAT’S CRADLE BACKROOM
BACKGROUND: The Red Pears are a California Indie Rock band composed mainly of Henry Vargas, Jose Corona, and Patrick Juarez. They occasionally have a fourth friend on stage, Luis!
OPENER: FLOATS
Floats was an energetic punk band. They were bouncing around the stage, enveloping us with sound. Definitely got a DIY punk feel, like I was in someone’s basement. Sweaty and very aware of how much the band was bumping around. The crowd was unfortunately not feeling it so much, except for one dude in the center of the crowd who was jumping up and down gently having a three person mosh. I wanted to be that guy so bad! But alas, fun and energetic band for folks who like to bounce and shove, but this was not the crowd.
OPENER: BENCHES
I hope you like The Strokes! This band was wonderful at their instruments, had some really fun guitar driven grooves. They sounded a bit too much like The Strokes for me to fully immerse myself in the performance and I was very confused at how wild the crowd was going for something like this. But hey! If the crowd is having fun, I’m more likely to bop my head a little. Something I observed is that the crowd got… whiter. Before you read that and say “why does that matter?,” as a physically small Latino concert goer in North Carolina, while it may not matter to some, it matters to others. Overall, they were fine and drew in a fun crowd.
COMPARISON TO PRIOR OPENERS (MARCH 2022): ARCHER OH
The last opener they traveled with was Archer Oh, a young band also from California. Archer Oh was the best opener I’ve seen live, super energetic, amazing vocals, soul-baring lyrics. I considered them a wonderful blend with The Red Pears because of their Surf Rock sound and garage charm. Their recordings don’t do them justice, but live, they truly worked the room. I showed up with no expectations and left a complete fan of those folks! I love a punky delivery and emo heart, and they did not come to play.
THE RED PEARS:
I downloaded their Bandcamp album my first semester at college. I was angry all the time, desperately looking for myself in any form of media I could find. I listened to Hello-Sin-Nation outside of my dorm on a nice day, reflecting on my own, and I felt something other than anger for the first time in a while. I felt comforted, like nothing mattered. It didn’t matter if I failed college, if I failed in love. I became obsessed with this EP. I watched Gentefied on Netflix and there they were again, 1969, their sound followed me. I saw them in March of 2022, following the release of their last album You Thought We Left Because The Door Was Open But We Were Waiting Outside (2021). I missed class to go to this concert, it was a cultural experience I could not miss. I was not going to miss Latinos on stage when indie bands are frequently so… gringo-esque.
This concert (November) topped March by a landslide in terms of the crowd. I feel immediately at home with the ethnic faces in the audience, we shared happy looks, and eventually a few friendly shoves. The music was entrancingly dynamic and inspired, I was impressed with them, knowing they’re hitting shows back to back and still providing a quality show.
There was a sense of community and love for the music, which I had missed at concerts lately. I didn’t know anyone there, but it felt like I knew everyone. The second half of the concert was consumed by a happy mosh pit; dudes apologizing between songs to people who had the biggest smiles on their faces.
“I’m sorry I’m sorry! It had to happen, that had to happen!”
They played from everywhere in their discography as far as I can remember, which is wonderful cause their first album has some moshable classics. Henry hopped into the crowd for Hello-Sin-Nation. All was right in the world.
They came back for a short encore.
Something I will never forget about my experiences seeing The Red Pears, is how kind they are to their crowd. People will line up to talk to them, ask for pictures, I’ve seen them sign someone’s guitar. They shake hands and introduce themselves, they really are three super humble guys. I had a lovely conversation with them about their music and how good the crowd was.
Henry expressed that he saw an opportunity here in North Carolina and that’s why they decided to come back. I noted that the concert in March was good, but this one was the best I’d seen. Henry agreed that he noticed “it was getting there” last time.
They were right about North Carolina.