Freedom, Fresh Air, and Love with Crumb and Chicano Batman

It’s 8 pm outside of The Warfield and an eager crowd files into the historic venue, looking up at the beautiful detailing on the ceiling as they secure their spots. Los Retros finishes off their set with groovy hit, “Someone to Spend Time With,” and the crowd erupts with joy. A couple of minutes later, the crowd is graced with Crumb, looking effortlessly cool and immediately demanding the attention of the room. There’s something about seeing Crumb live that brings me back to high school when my friends and I, freshly 15 and 16, were dropped off by our parents in a dark alley in Downtown Los Angeles to watch our friend’s band play at a local venue. This comparison has little to nothing to do with the music played at these shows, but rather the feeling of supporting your friends, in all their youthful glory, as they display their musical talent to a live audience—a feeling of pride and excitement to see people you love performing on stage. Crumb’s origin story reflects the youthful nostalgia of their music, meeting at Tufts University, the group became friends and started making music together, playing house shows and college parties. In 2016 they released their first EP and have slowly grown into the major successes that they are today. You can feel this as they perform; it is as though you are peering into their jam sesh in a college apartment, just four friends making great music.

Behind them are color-changing mechanical flowers opening and closing as they make their way through “BNR,” “Part III,” and “Ghostride.” While Locket (2017) and Jinx (2019) were relatively delicate, Crumb’s recent release, Ice Melt (2021), allows the band to exhibit their edgier side with more distortion and guitar solos. Throughout the set, I am locked into Brian Aronow on synth, keys, and later sax. Many of their songs are keys and synth-heavy, which brings out the dreamy effect in their music. Later, Aronow brings out the sax, adding in the contemporary jazz element of the band’s sound. As the set comes to an end with the crowd’s favorite, “Locket,” I find myself wishing they would stay a little longer.

Luckily, this feeling is quickly replaced by excitement for Chicano Batman, a group with personal significance to me as they hail from East Los Angeles, close to where I grew up. The band runs out on stage, and you have to take a moment to admire just how stylish these men are, from the two-piece white suit to the bomber jackets. A few songs in, Bardo Martinez looks out into the crowd and expresses his love for San Francisco, “That drive into the Bay, you feel the freedom, fresh air, and love.” The four play a mix of songs from Invisible People (2020) and Freedom is Free (2017), and the audience is enthralled, swaying from side-to-side, effectively transported somewhere sunny and warm. The band’s stage presence is truly unmatched, and their positive energy is contagious as we all stand together, taking it in. My personal highlight was singing “Freedom is Free,” and as Martinez got down to his knees, there was a true feeling of leaving everything else at the door and just enjoying the music together. Ending with “Black Lipstick” the band ran off, coming back for an encore only after the audience shouted: “Otro más, Otro más.”