New wave outfit the Angry Babies perform at the Cinema Bar this week, so they told the News about what they have in store for Culver City…
When did you start playing and performing? When did the band form?
The Angry Babies started from just a few of us hanging out and playing our acoustics together in 2012. New wave was our common musical vocabulary, so that’s what we played together. What started with three acoustic guitars morphed into our current setup with mandolin, accordion, guitar, bass and percussion as we dialed in the sounds we wanted to hear. We started playing out at open mics and local venues together, and once we had enough songs in our repertoire we moved up to booking longer bar gigs. The band dissolved in 2018 when life led several members in different directions, but we were able to re-form post-pandemic and have been building since.
Describe your sound…
We play new wave songs from the 70s and 80s in an all acoustic format. A bit like early MTV/KROQ meets 90s MTV unplugged. A few of the bands we play are Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads, The English Beat, B52s, Elvis Costello, and New Order.
What are your career highlights so far?
While we’ve been playing together for a time, this last year has been the biggest highlight for us. With the addition of our bass player a year ago, and everyone’s schedules working together, we’ve been able to book a lot of new places and play to a much wider audience.
What recorded music is available?
Aside from live shows, our Youtube channel, which is still relatively new, is the best place to hear us. With a year full of rehearsals and performances, it’s been a trick to set time for recording, but the way things are going we will for sure be recording more in the near future.
Have you performed at Cinema Bar before?
We’ve played Cinema Bar once before, on a Tuesday night during the summer, which led to us booking the Oct 4th show. The look and feel of the bar, and the welcoming staff made it feel like a great fit for us, so I was excited to hear our first show was well enough received to be asked back on a Saturday. It was a really fun show to play because it’s such an intimate venue and a bunch of friends were awesome enough to come out, but a favorite memory of that night was a couple who showed up after getting newly engaged that day. They spent the evening dancing and singing along with us and the rest of the crowd, and it was special to think that our show was a significant part of their day.
What can we expect from the set this time?
For all of our shows, we like to shuffle our catalogue in unique ways to keep it fresh, so at the Oct 4th show we’ll be playing something like 10 songs that we didn’t play there the first time. Anyone coming to the show can expect an energetic night of singing and dancing to new wave, played in a way they’ve likely never heard before.
What else do you have coming up?
Coming up we have shows around SoCal ranging from Yucaipa to Manhattan Beach. If anyone wants to be notified when we’re playing in their area, they should follow us on BandsInTown, as well as Facebook and Instagram.
The Angry Babies perform at 9 p.m. on Saturday, October 4 at the Cinema Bar. Go to thecinemabar.com for more information about the venue.
Elsewhere this week
The Culver Hotel will be hosting the likes of Sylvia & the Rhythm Boys, and Scotty Bramer. Go to culverhotel.com for more info.
The next concert at Boulevard Music is on October 3, with Teresa James and Bruce Forman. Go to boulevardmusic.com for more info.