Concert review: Dominant Legs, Young the Giant, Best Coast bands rock Kerckhoff venue with concert

Best Coast, Young the Giant and Dominant Legs
Kerchoff Grand Salon
Thursday, Nov. 11

Update: Check out a full photo gallery here

I rarely take the time to appreciate how beautiful the Kerckhoff Grand Salon really is. With its intimate stage, chandeliers, balcony, long curtains and large windows, the room is basically begging for a concert.

Thursday night, it was filled with the cacophony of CEC’s latest free concert, this one featuring Dominant Legs, Young the Giant and Best Coast.

San Francisco’s Dominant Legs band played an upbeat set of funk-inspired modern rock. At first, I was skeptical that the band would impress, as their first song sounded a bit disjointed. However, by the second song, the band began settling into their groove and began to grow on me. Dominant Legs’ shimmering keyboards and vocals were grounded by their use of prerecorded beats in combination with a live drum set. This led to an incredibly drum-heavy yet airy sound, making the music equally appealing to both the swaying hipster to my right and the couple awkwardly freaking to my left.

Young the Giant was the biggest surprise of the night. The Orange County quintet delivered the most energetic set of the night, hyping up the crowd with their guitar-driven rock sound. The band’s two guitarists, bassist, drummer and vocalist, who spent the majority of the performance hopping around the stage pounding his tambourine, created a driving garage rock sound that had the crowd dancing by the second song. The set was full of memorable moments, including beach balls being tossed around in the audience and the lights being turned off for an entire song, which was instead played under the light of audience members’ cell phones. Young the Giant left the stage to a rousing applause, and certainly gained quite a few new fans from the Bruin community.

Best Coast, a Los Angeles based trio, pleased the crowd with their brand of lo-fi, fuzzed-out surf rock. The Grand Salon was the perfect setting for the band’s style; the relatively small size of the room was filled by the waves of washed-out guitar, while lead singer Bethany Cosentino’s voice seemed to echo off of every wall. Compared to the band’s recording, the drums seemed slightly more prevalent live, but the guitar and Cosentino’s vocals were spot on.

Best Coast played the majority of their debut album “Crazy for You,” playing their main hit, “Boyfriend,” about halfway through the set. The band also played a few songs off their earlier EP’s, including “When I’m With You,” and a slightly faster rendition of “Sun Was High (So Was I).” The set also featured a cover of Lesley Gore’s 1964 hit “That’s the Way Boys Are.”

The band created a relaxing and comparatively down-tempo atmosphere, but kept the audience engaged in the musical experience. They were definitely the most widely known band of the night and many audience members sang along to the majority of their set.

Thursday night’s concert was an affirmation of benefits afforded by a small and intimate concert venue. The three bands were able to engage their audience to put on an incredibly entertaining and memorable show.