Live music saves.

After having a fairly rough week, WARPAINT’s incredible full set headlining Santa Monica’s Twilight Concert Series at the Santa Monica Pier last night was just what I needed.

Their music is dreamy; it’s transformative; it’s trance-like and groovy. Jenny Lee’s bass and Stella Mozgawa’s thunderous drumbeats set the whole stage into motion as their music floated into the entire boardwalk. Thousands of onlookers from muscle beach sat as crowds strolled the booths, boardwalk, amusements rides and parks. The vibe was everything dreamy.

Pop-funk ska band Wild Belle opened up the night, who I sadly missed (I saw them by gift of a random passerby in San Francisco two years ago and was so impressed by them).

Warpaint is: Emily Kokal (vocals, guitar), Theresa Wayman (guitar, vocals) and Jenny Lee Lindberg (bass, vocals), and Stella Mozgawa (drums). Actress Shannyn Sossamon (and my personal girl crush/pseudo-sissy) was a founding member alongside sister Jenny back in the mid-2000s. She held up drums and it was through their early song “Undertow” which initially drew me to them that remains one of their crowd favorites. (Also featured: “Love Is To Die” and set-closer/first breakout “Beetles.”)

Sometimes, we all need a little live music, motivation and a friend to come along to make things feel a little better.

For this twenty-something broke girl — maybe a little lost exploring this big city on her own — seeing a band of this caliber perform a live show is a crazy way to close the summer.

Warpaint is truly a band that is something else when you see them live. Have you given them a listen before? Let me know what you love about these girls!

Watch my full video review of WARPAINT (with thoughts on live music) below:

With love and honesty,

Rachel

I accidentally uploaded the review on my main channel and these were some comments I received and couldn’t switch over to my other channel. Thank you for your thoughts! ❤