Images: RVIVR, Toys That Kill, New Ruin February 15, 2016 at VLHS (Pomona, CA)

Since the first moments I heard RVIVR’s The Beauty Between, I knew that I must see the band live.  So I was extra hyped to see that they were playing in Pomona, California at VLHS on a weekend I had already planned to be there.  For those unfamiliar with VLHS, it is named after Vince Lombardi High School from the film Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, and is a great intimate venue in warehouse space in Pomona.  It is quite similar in feel to the now-defunct Artistic Armory, only a little smaller.

Even though it was a Monday night and the show was running a bit behind schedule due to RVIVR’s flight from Mexico being canceled, the venue was still packed with excited kids.  RVIVR arrived close to midnight, and after a quick setup broke into “Seam” and “LMD” from The Beauty Between.  As this is the album I’m most familiar with, I was happy to finally get to sing along to “Wrong Way/One Way,” one of my favorite songs written by any band in the last few years.  I always love dueling vocals, and it was really fun to watch Erica Freas and Mattie Jo Canino trading off singing duties because their voices are so different.

The band ended their set with “Edge of Living” from their self-titled record, which had the whole crowd singing “So scared of growing / Old friend hold on” as loud as they could. I hope that in the near future we can finally get them out to Vegas to play some shows.

Opening the show were Toys that Kill (San Pedro) and New Ruin (Riverside). I preferred Toys That Kill’s catchier songs a bit more than New Ruin’s shoegazey sounds,  but both bands gave solid sets.  It might have just been due to it being earlier in the evening, or, at least in Toys that Kill’s case their longevity in the scene (dating back to the late 8os if you count the members’ previous band F.Y.P.), but both bands had a really huge turnout, possibly greater than that for the headliner.

-Aaron Mattern | https://www.flickr.com/photos/akmofoto/