by Angelina Twist 11.10.23
The Beach Fossils are an indie-rock band from Brooklyn, New York. They’ve been playing together since 2009 and the band currently includes members, Dustin Payseur, Jack Doyle Smith, Tommy Davidson, and Anton Hochheim. On tour for their latest album release, Bunny, Beach Fossils performed at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco Ca., on Nov. 6th. They were joined by bands Provoker and Turnover. With that being said, let’s get into the concert experience!
It was a bitter November evening. I was waiting at the Metro Center for the 17 to come. I was running late and frantically updating my friends, who were waiting for me at the San Jose Diridon Station. The 17 finally came and the bus ride was long and quiet. I tried to nap as much as I could because I had had a long day of work and classes and I knew I was in for an even longer night. I got to San Jose around 5:30ish and immediately ran over to my friend’s truck and we started our trek to San Francisco. In contrast to the bus ride, the car ride was loud and exuberant. My friends were blasting their favorite songs and sharing stories about their trip to a music festival in L.A. that they had just come back from. It took us about an hour and thirty minutes to get to the venue due to traffic, but luck was on our side; we were able to find FREE street parking across the street from the venue. There was no line to get in, and going through security and scanning tickets was a breeze. In my concert-going experiences, these processes usually take a lot longer, but I realized it was a Monday night, and most rational people would not be attending a concert. Once we got inside we all regrouped with friends who had gotten there before us and waited on others that were filing in after. We began to wiggle, and “excuse me,” our way to the front of the main concert room. We waited for about 15 or so minutes for the first band to come on.
Provoker was the opening band for the night. They are a post-punk band from the Bay Area that was formed by Jonathan Lopez in 2015. Provoker is now Los Angeles based and is composed of Jonathan Lopez and Christian Petty on vocals, their live performances feature Kristian Moreno and Wilfred Palacios. Provoker did a great job of waking up the sleepy audience. Christian Petty had a very entertaining and eye-catching performance. There were a few rough patches during Provoker’s performance, mainly the fact that every time Christian moved too close to one of the speakers, there would be loud microphone feedback. It happened quite a few times throughout their performance which was a bummer, but the crowd was beginning to move around and participate in the performance. Christian jumped into the small pit that was beginning to form and danced in the crowd with the audience.
The next band that played was Turnover. Turnover is an indie-rock band from Virginia Beach, Virginia that was formed back in 2009. Members of the band consist of Austin Getz, Casey Getz, Danny Dempsey, and Nick Rayfield. Unfortunately, I got pushed to the back of the room for this set, but obtained a killer view from the peak of a trash can! Turnover had a much more mellow sound compared to Provoker’s previous set. That did not stop the crowd from turning up. It was during this set when the crowd surfing began. Perched atop my trash can, I witnessed my friends being thrown in the air, flipped upside down, and dropped on their backs, all while maintaining a smile on their faces.
After Turnover, was the headlining set, Beach Fossils. I had been listening to Beach Fossils since I was a wee-little emo baby back in middle school. I used to listen to them on the way to school and when I was alone in my room. I hadn’t really listened to them since high school, but my inner-emo child was excited to see them live. My friends and I made sure to get as close as possible to the stage for this set. The band came out strong and ready to play. The audience matched the band’s energy of excitement and immediately started moving at the first strum of the guitar. They played a lot of their new songs, but also made sure to play some of their classics and some of my personal favorites like Sleep Apnea and Daydream. There was a plethora of crowd surfing going on. I would watch the security guards run to the barrier to catch everyone being thrown over. The music was blasting, the crowd was moving, it was a beautiful set! After they played their last song and exited the stage, the crowd started chanting “one more song!” Listening to the audience, they came back and played a couple more songs. Upon their final exit, they threw guitar picks into the crowd and the crowd cheered with joy.