Little Felt Wonders: The Happy Hollows and the Movies @ the Echo September 24, 2007

At some point over the last, oh- I dunno, 9 months or so, the Happy Hollows seemed to burst into popularity around here and pretty much all the L.A. bloggers could not stop talking about them. Suffice to say I was curious. However, I kept missing their shows. This past September they had a residency at the Echo and seeing as how they had a steady date set, and time, it made it somewhat easier to get there. And in my true fashion I kept forgetting until this past Monday, finally. And dammit am I kicking myself now.

There was a strong support line up tonight and I had also been trying to get around to catching Death to Anders. However, the Echo likes to do this thing where they list the bands that are playing, and when you show up, they've thrown the names into a hat and picked at random who would go on first. So, I missed Death to Anders by, maybe 15 minutes. Argh. If you want to read a nice review of their album though, you should click here.

So, the Movies were who started playing once we got there. For whatever reason I had mixed them with another band, possibly Midnight Movies, cause when they took the stage I got a confused look on my face cause they were not who I thought I was going to see. Regardless, the people there LOVED them, and they were entertaining to watch. The lead singer has this deep voice that he uses to shout, and he was dark shades on the whole time he jumps about the stage. The music felt like dark British music, or maybe I just could be safe and lump it with post punk,or not, that might be rude. I dunno. In the end we ended up heading outside due to the crushing crowd in there so we missed the end of the set.

Right before the Happy Hollows came on I figured that while I was here and that it happened to be the rare occasion I was carrying more than 2 dollars on me, I went and looked at the Merch table. And there was a whole treasure trove of felt goodness. They could have been ipod cozies, but since I refuse to buy an mp3 player for the simple reason that I don't need one, I use the cozy now to keep my phone safe from the endless dropping and abuse it goes through on a daily basis. All the little felt things were different colors with different colored owls on the front. I got a very "Fall" one which was brown with an orange owl on it. I *heart* crafts so much. Oh, and I also picked up a cd, in case you're wondering.

So, my best way of describing the Happy Hollows is sweet indie pop with frenetic dancing and noise thrown in for good measure. Sarah Negahdari is a little firecracker who coos songs and then switches rapidly screeching out sounding like Kathleen Hannah's younger sister. She and bass player Charlie Mahoney bop around the stage and look very pleased to be up there, all grins. I feel like whenever I start describing the people in bands I need to go through the roster, so, Chris Meanie plays some mean drums, and I should know, I drum too. Now, since I am relatively new to the songs, I know that they did play "Colors" (which is stuck in my head, even at times when it shouldn't be), and I think the Canal Song and the Monster Song among a bunch of others. I really need to start asking for set lists. Anyway, tonight's show proved that all the hype was much, much deserved. I need to see them again, and also because a friend of mine wants an owl cozy too.

My one only peeve for the night was all the freakin' flash bulbs going off in my eyes. Tonight there seemed to be an obscene amount of people with cameras. I know that when I have my camera on me I like to snap some photos, but these people (not all of the people with cameras I should say, but definitely a bunch) get up in front of you and just bully you out of the way. What the hell guys- and I do mean guys, not a single female doing this tonight- there are some of us trying to watch the show too. Argh, anyway, other than that, rad. Totally rad show.