By Tammy Hua
On Saturday, April 9th, the Fox Theater was wrapped with a line of eager fans waiting to see one of the biggest artists currently in the indie rock scene. Hippocampus stopped by SoCal in the city of Pomona, which is home to a significant indie music scene of its own, and gave a theater shaking and speaker peaking show as part of their tour to promote their new album release for LP3.
Opening for Hippocampus was Ginger Root, which was made up of Orange County native, Cameron Lew, and two of his friends from high school on drums and bass, who were accompanying him to play for the tour. Ginger Root put on a funky and fun performance with music that took on influences of Japanese city pop and what Lew has referred to as “elevator soul.” During their set, they played their hit song “Loretta” which went viral on Youtube last year. Lew’s impressive vocals and keyboard playing simultaneously made for an “ooo” inspiring set overall, with stellar performances from his band as well. Along with their music, the performance was paired with a wholesome greeting to Lew’s grandma, who was in the audience, and a comedic moment where he stated “I can’t see” twice, in the middle of one of his songs, when the theater’s lights turned off for about a minute.
Next up were the headliners themselves. As the band assembled onto the stage, the lights and fog machine of the Fox Theater went to work to give the members a grand entrance. They then started their set with Jake on lead vocals and guitar, Nathan on guitar and vocals, Whistler on drums, Zach on bass, and DeCarlo on trumpet. They mainly played songs from LP3 but of course, included some fan favorites such as “Buttercup” and “Bad Dream Baby.” Their set included a variety of styles of music with a good number of songs featuring Jake adjusting his voice with some stylistic autotune, making for quite an experimental set of tracks. Their most popular song (as you’d be able to tell with the crowd’s reaction), named “Way It Goes,” had the audience piling towards the front of the general admission seating and jumping into the theater. During the track, “South,” in which Nathan led the vocals, he sang the bridge and proceeded to swing the mic stand effortlessly to the audience, making for a nice duet between the crowd and the performers. Another standout performance was from DeCarlo, who did a couple of trumpet solos throughout their set, receiving cheers from the audience for each one. Overall, Hippocampus and Ginger Root both gave the city of Pomona a welcome visit with energetic live performances and catchy tunes that their fans will continue to know and love.