Images: The American Scene, Elder Brother, Souvenirs, Your Life is Over, I Am Terra December 10, 2014 at Eagle Aerie Hall

The American Scene and the Eagle Hall will always be intertwined. The San Francisco-based indie band helped launch the all-ages space early last year, playing a sold out show with Pure Noise Records labelmates The Story So Far.  So it seemed fitting that they’d play one of the last shows of 2014 there, sharing the floor with TSSF side project Elder Brother.

There were a few locals on the bill, but because of work, I made it just in time to catch the tail end of I Am Terra’s set and see Your Life Is Over for the first time. Looking around, I was surprised to see such a big turnout at the venue so early, especially for a local, and YLIO had some really interesting instrumentation that immediately drew me in. Unfortunately, both the band and their fans bolted as soon as their set was done, leaving the room much sparser than I would have liked. There may have been a good reason, but it’s always disappointing to see a local not stick around to support the touring bands.

Souvenirs from Carpinteria, CA were up next. I hadn’t listened to them at all before the show, but now I’m wishing I had so I could have sung along. These guys have some serious potential and I’m hoping to see them roll through town again now that I know some of the words.

I’d enjoyed Elder Brother (featuring Kevin Geyer from The Story So Far and Dan Rose from Daytrader) in a more stripped down fashion at the Warped Tour’s acoustic basement – but it’s a whole other story seeing the full band. They sounded fantastic together. Don’t sleep on this band.

The American Scene is touring in support of their new album Haze, but mixed in quite a few older tracks into the set to keep us fans happy. Hearing “Shape Shifter” from 2012’s Safe For Now live really brought me back to my love of that song. It just sounded incredible. It’s taken a while for Haze to grow on me but hearing the songs live really made everything click, and I was happy to see fans really enjoying the performance.

-Hunter Wallace | https://www.flickr.com/photos/hunter_wallace/