The Soft White Sixties, and I'm hooked.

I went to see Beware of Darkness on Sunday, expecting to be very-much entertained by the headline act, wishing it wasn't a Sunday because I had to be up for an early start on Monday and knowing that Sacramento doesn't really go all out to attend Sunday shows. I didn't know any of the support acts, and I had few expectations. I was going to see Beware of Darkness, to take photos, to enjoy the show, because they are one of the outstanding new bands of this decade, in my humble opinion.

I wasn't expecting to be blown away by the support act.

Soft White Sixties, Sacramento

The Soft White Sixties, from San Francisco, did just that.

Octavio Genera, Soft White Sixties

You might call them "pop"--but it's pop of a bygone age, when pop was rock and rock'n'roll and soul, not Gaga and Beiber and wish-wash-insipid; when "pop" was bad-boy Thin Lizzy, and glam-boy T Rex, the wonderful Queen and Freddie Mercury, and a touch, a hint, of Northern Soul, when pop was outstanding and strong and loud and tough-but-approachable and pop because it stood for "popular", not just a limited set of notes and chords. This is real. This is music that takes me back to my roots, and yet feels so much like tomorrow it's haunting. (Indeed, TSWS played the best cover of Children of the Revolution I've heard, and there have been a few of those because it's a great song and most fail badly to do it justice.. Singer Octavio Genera too, he has something reminiscent of Phil Lynnot in the way he performs.) I'd call them rock, and fun, and darnit... you need to get out there and see them, hear them, listen to their album "GET RIGHT". Seriously...

Soft White Sixties

(If you don't know what I mean by Northern Soul, I guess you didn't grow up in England, did you?)

These photos are by no means the best I've ever taken. They are grainy and obscure. (I am soooooo ready for some summer-daylight shows, or some shows where the lightman does some magic and illuminates the bands.) But if any one of these pictures inspires any one of you to go check out this band, these Soft White Sixties, it will have been worth the effort to wring some drops of light out of the camera.
And... I just found another good reason, if not the best reason, to head to BottleRock in Napa. The Soft White Sixties are playing on the Saturday.

Let's go!

Find The Soft White Sixties on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, and music is available from their website through iTunes and Amazon.

More photos from the show:  http://alisontoon.com/tsws

(And if you like the energy of The Soft White Sixties, you might also enjoy Blackjack Billy.)