Burning Bash 4

By Esther Sanchez

For the 4th year in a row, the Coachella Valley Music Scene will wind down the summer season with a killer bash that folks will surely be talking about for seasons to come.

Beginning in August of 2011, with the humble beginnings of a house-party in Indio, this event has picked up momentum year after year. Six bands and two of the desert’s favorite DJs make this year’s line-up one that you will not want to miss.

The annual Burning Bash is the brainchild of local rocker, Giorg Tierez.

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Tierez: “Initially, it was focusing around my birthday. Four years ago I had just started my former band, Burning Bettie and I figured it would be cool to have our debut on my birthday and make an event out of it. I invited two other bands to come play, Deadend Paradox and a reggae group called M-13. We ended up having about 75 people show up at my house and it turned into a much bigger deal than we had initially conceived and everyone had a great time. The funny thing is that it was on a Sunday night and most people attending had to work the next day. Even then, a lot of people ended up staying overnight so you know they had fun.”

Tierez continues: “After the surprising success of that event we decided the next year to do it again at a venue so we booked Schmidy’s Tavern in Palm Desert. The line-up for 2012 included Burning Bettie, Deadend Paradox, Drop the World and Giselle Woo. Last year, following the momentum that Burning Bettie had going I got together with my friend Jesse “Toast” Tostado of P-lab Productions and decided to go all out with an all-day 2 venue event. The first half of the day was a pool-party at The Curve hotel in Palm Springs. We had DJs such as Guy Worden and Femme-A along with live dance music from Eevaan Tre & The Show. That night the party continued downtown Palm Springs at BAR with performances by Burning Bettie, Deadend Paradox, Spankshaft and Thr3 Strykes. We packed the house to capacity last year. It was a very successful event.”

The months following the success of the 2014 Burning Bash have been a rollercoaster of changes for Tierez. The single father of a 7 year-old son was dealing with multiple life-changes throughout the past year including a parting of ways with Burning Bettie and the starting of his new project, Monreaux….Giorg was understandably up in the air about whether or not to continue with his annual event. In fact, he felt a bit lost.

Tierez: “With all of the major changes it’s been a really weird time, you know? At the same time, I realized that I needed something to focus on.  I didn’t even have a band at the time, although I had the concept for a band in my mind for a while. So, I went ahead and did what I have been doing over the past few years which is calling up my friends who are artists that I would like to feature and – see who was interested. Then we booked the Hood and here we are. Between the artists, the venues and the fact that this event will once again be the debut of my new band, it’s almost as if everything has come full-circle.”

The 2015 Burning Bash will be a great night to check out local bands who are already desert rock-scene veterans and some who are striving in that direction.

PERISHMENT

Established in the East Coachella Valley in 2005, Perishment recently won a CV Music Award in the category for “Best Metal Band” and their Guitarist, Bobby D Taffolla won the top award in the category for “Best Guitarist.” In addition to Taffolla, Perishment consists of Ruben Gutierrez on vox, Aaron Ramson/bass, and drummer, Tommy Winters. Describing themselves as “a band that started as a traditional, American influenced, extreme thrash-metal band and have evolved into more of an Alt-Metal sound, incorporating a wider range of musical influences from 70’s rock, stoner/sludge metal and shoegaze/dream pop.” Perishment will be releasing their 4th album, Saturnine in the fall/winter of this year.

facebook.com/perishment

SPANKSHAFT

Winners of the 2015 CVMA for, “Best Live Performance Band,” Spankshaft is a high-energy, 5-piece, pop/ska/punk band that consists of Brandon Simpson on guitar and vocals, his brother Brent Simpson on bass, Russ Waldron on drums, Clint Stoker on tenor sax and Scott “Drago” Kissinger on trombone. Hailing from the High-Desert, Spankshaft makes it down the hill often enough to have established a strong fan-base in the low-desert and never leave a crowd disappointed.

facebook.com/spankshaftband

CAXTON

Since their founding in 2008, alternative indie-pop band Caxton has released two full-length albums, a string of EPs, and played countless venues across the southland including The Viper Room, House of Blues, Glasshouse and The Roxy to name a few. Caxton is fronted by the talented and alluring, Christina Reyes on vox/keys, Adam Surdin on guitar, Brett McLaughlin on bass/vox and Brian Pelletier on drums. The four members each provide their own unique contribution in achieving their edgy yet familiar sound. Caxton has been nominated for and won multiple CVMAs including, 2013 Best Local Band and 2014 Best Alternative Band in the Coachella Valley. They are currently working on their newest full-length album to be released later this year.

www.caxtonmusic.com

MONREAUX

Making their public debut at the Burning Bash and consisting of members of other known bands from the area, the bar is rightfully being set rather high for Monreaux. Fronted by Burning Bash host and promoter, Giorg Tierez on vox, the new project has been put together carefully by Tierez who  eventually selected Tyler Emerson/lead guitar, Chris Dub (formerly with Deadend Paradox) on bass, Danny Torres (formerly with Serpiente) on keys and Ryan Anthony Diaz (current member of Foxy Cleopatra) on drums. There is no doubt that many local music fans are on the edge of their seats with anticipation as to what Monreaux will bring to the table.

GRUESOME BLUESOME

Gruesome Bluesome is apparently an off-the-radar type of new project that, I am told consists of members of two local bands, Slipping Into Darkness and Little Red Spiders. Both groups have experienced success and garnered home-town pride through the fact that they have had the privilege of rocking stages at Coachella Fest. That being said, this mysterious new project is definitely worth checking out.

ALEX HARRINGTON

Alex Harrington is a producer and DJ based out of the Coachella Valley who was voted “Best Club DJ” at the 2015 CVMAs. Originally from Northern California, Alex launched his DJ career in 2012 under the alias “All Night Shoes”. Since then, he has dropped the moniker and taken to bigger stages. These events include the Coachella and Splash House festivals. Locally he has taken his sound to the Ace Hotel, Hacienda Cantina, and more. Alex is also a music writer who writes for CV Independent and German-based record label, Nu Disco Your Disco.

www.Alexharrington.com

GUY WORDEN

At an early age, Guy Worden was obsessed with making mixes for his friends. At 14 years old, he wasn’t just making ordinary mix tapes; “I was cutting parts of songs and arranging them to tell stories and adding in vocal samples to make it more interesting. I even took apart my tape recorder so I could manipulate the rubber bands with my fingers to recreate record scratch sounds.” Now a staple on the desert music scene, Worden is one of the founders of Desert DJ Entertainment Group and his talents can be experienced at almost any venue throughout the valley because this dude is everywhere!

facebook.com/guywordenmusic

EEVAAN TRE AND THE SHOW

Eevan Tre and the Show is one of very few local acts that has had the opportunity to grace the Coachella Fest stages. Fronted by Tre himself who also rocks the keyboard, The Show consists of Daniel Manriquez on guitar, bassist David Morales, Nathan Kazmer on drums and percussionist, Victor Tavares. With a playlist consisting of pop and R&B covers that are masterfully interpreted by the ever-so-dreamy Mr. Tre, they have become popular throughout the valley and beyond playing every type of venue one might imagine and consistently convincing crowds to kick off their shoes and dance.