Review: Sunset Rollercoaster in Los Angeles
THE EL REY WAS FULL AND ENERGETIC when I walked in to see Sunset Rollercoaster. The 5-piece synth-pop band from Taiwan came onstage focused and ready to jam. The band is comprised of Kuo-Hung Tseng (vocals, guitar), Hung-Li Chen (bass), Shao-Hsuan Wang (keyboard), Tsun-Lung Lo (drums), Hao-Ting Huang (saxophone), and former member Shih-Wei Huang (percussion). Of the 5 of them, 4 were wearing hats, which is not an important detail, but I thought it was cute and fun and worth including nonetheless. If you wanted me to delve even further, I would tell you that there was 1 bucket hat, 2 baseball hats, and 1 beanie. But only if you wanted to know.
The lighting at the venue was really colorful, and in conjunction with the synth-y jazzy tunes made for a very exciting and visually stimulating show. I often felt like I was inside of a vintage Nintendo video game. The venue itself feels a bit more upscale, with red velvet curtains and chandeliers throughout the space. This paired with the subtle jazz influence in the music really paired well together to create an unexpected combination of elegance and playfulness.
At one point Huang took a break from the keys in front of him to pull out a saxophone. The crowd went absolutely wild for this, as they typically do when someone pulls out a sax. The entire band exuded a quiet and cool confidence that truly came across. When they played fan favorite “My Jinji”, which now boasts nearly 72 million streams on Spotify, many phones when up in the crowd to record the moment. That track was an epic jam, that proves in my mind that they are poised to release more fantastic music in the future. The various guitar and sax solos throughout that song had people losing their minds. When the almost 7 minute long song ended the lead singer, Tseng, apologized for having played such a long song (not that anyone in the crowd was complaining).
Several audience members were (respectfully) heckling them throughout the set, and I distinctly heard someone yelling “Free Taiwan” at one point. The music and the ambience was very sweet and romantic. In the second half of their set they brought Michael Seyer (who opened that show for them) to sing backup on a song. He also came out holding an EPIC banana shaker that was quite memorable. It was a beautiful track and you could tell how honored Seyer was to be playing with them.
All in all I found this group to be incredibly talented instrumentalists with a unique and relaxing sound. It was exciting to watch them perform and hope they come back to Los Angeles soon!
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