It was a hot one outside the Shed last Thursday in Chicago; a whopping high of just barely 100 degrees and a heat index topping out at 114. Despite the sweltering heat, it was the perfect day to have Beach Bunny’s “pool party” at the Salt Shed featuring an impressive roster of feel good alternative bands consisting of Elita, Squirrel Flower, Charly Bliss, The Beths and of course Beach Bunny. The gates to the Shed opened up quite early as it was a jam-packed lineup for a single day and thankfully I arrived just in time to catch Charly Bliss’ set. For how extreme the heat was, Charly Bliss absolutely owned the stage and endured the scorching late afternoon golden hour.
-Andrew Lagunas
There was no pool but there was definitely a party; a party not too chaotic that it had people making the river beside the venue their own personal pool but a party nonetheless. I’m not sure if it was Beach Bunny’s intention to have their first-ever pool-themed mini-festival on a weekday with 100+ degree temperatures and no pool to cool off in but they luckily planned ahead and made sure to have it at the Salt Shed, a venue very well capable of taking care of their attendees with outdoor AC blasting from every which way, plenty of indoor spaces to cool off in, and a collection of misting stations set up through the venue for when concertgoers just need a layer of fine mist to feel at peace with themselves again. As far as the first iterations of festivals go, this one has to be one of the better examples of how to do it right. Granted, Pool Party was a pretty small festival held at a venue that would easily sell out if only Beach Bunny or The Beths were playing solo but still, a lot of things could have gone horribly wrong and they didn’t! Hooray! Now, let’s get into this stacked lineup, shall we?
My deepest, heartfelt apologies to Elita for being forced to play at 5pm when most people who had tickets were just getting off work and driving home in obscene traffic. I myself fell victim to the early start time and made it past security right when they were starting the last song of their set, “Sour Switchblade” from their 2021 EP, Anxiety Angel. I also made it just in time for the first of many artist comments about the heat that would go on to be a running gag throughout the entirety of the festival. I’m not the most familiar with Elita’s work but they, along with Squirrel Flower, seemed a bit out of place given the more power-pop, party-esque summer vibes brought by Charly Bliss, The Beths, and Beach Bunny but I really do think that was purposeful to give the festival a more inclusive feel where there’s a band for everyone to enjoy and I really love Beach Bunny for doing that and not making the whole festival feature artists that sound just like they do.
I can’t begin to tell you how happy and surprised I was to see Squirrel Flower at Pool Party. Going back to what I was just talking about with Elita, I was pretty shocked when I heard that Squirrel Flower was going to be on the Pool Party roster seeing as she’s on the complete opposite spectrum of indie rock when compared to artists like Charly Bliss, The Beths, and most importantly, Beach Bunny. However, diversity is cool! It’s fun! It’s inclusive! It’s Squirrel Flower! Even though she isn’t from Chicago, I still love to call her my favorite Chicago artist seeing as she’s at least residing in the city for the time being so I’m not totally out of line here. For those who aren’t familiar with her material, I always say she writes songs that sound like if Kurt Cobain covered Tom Petty and I will forever die on that hill. Her setlist was an incredibly concentrated mix of all her albums with a focus on her upcoming fourth (fifth depending on who you ask) studio album, Tomorrow’s Fire, set to be released October 13 on Polyvinyl. Although her performance was somewhat marred by the fact you could barely hear any of the beautifully poetic melodies coming from her lead guitarist, it was a great performance nonetheless. Age-old classics like “Streetlight Blues” and “Conditions” never sounded better and her new cuts like “Full Time Job” and “Alley Light” give me new album fever like I’ve never had before.
-Lorenzo Zenitsky
Charly Bliss took the stage as the sun was just setting, and they looked like they were ready to put on a show. Frontwoman Eva Hendricks got the pool party memo as she wore a colorful fuzzy top paired with a hot pink skirt that set the upbeat lighthearted tone of the evening. I immediately noticed her impressively high pitched vocal range coupled with powerhouse guitars backing her up. Opening with their magnificent track “Percolator,” Eva was already energetically jumping around and moving about the whole stage. The crowd matched her energy and got incredibly hyped up during their brief yet energetic set. They also performed their anthemic break up song “You Don’t Even Know Me Anymore.” They performed a couple of new songs called “Nineteen” and “Calling You Out” both of which sounded incredible and I am now anticipating their release. At this point I was honestly so impressed with the amount of energy the entire band was bringing with how hot it was. I had to step inside for a song to cool down, luckily the salt shed plays the performance all throughout the venue so if you ever have to step away from the show itself you can at least still hear it and not miss out on too much.
-Andrew Lagunas
Never had I ever heard a Charly Bliss song before Pool Party and boy, oh boy, are they one for bringing the ruckus. Not a single other band that day brought energy that came anywhere close to Charly Bliss and I don’t think a single person would argue with me. I absolutely adore bands that you can just sit back and enjoy without knowing any of their music not only because their music happens to be great, but because their stage presence is simply off the charts wild. Charly Bliss is a spectacle, first and foremost. They came out jumping and dancing to one of their biggest songs “Percolator” with the biggest smiles on their faces and their sound definitely matched their energy. Most of the songs that followed had that same energy with only around one or two songs that took things a bit slower in their pace but still had that unique Charly Bliss sound. They also covered a couple of new bases with some brand-new songs like the recently released “You Don’t Even Know Me Anymore”, the jealousy-tinged “Calling You Out”, and “Nineteen”, all of which gleefully follow up right where the band left off with their 2019 album, Young Enough.
-Lorenzo Zenitsky
After the peppy performance Charly Bliss put on, New Zealand indie rock band The Beths made their way onto the stage and put on a thrilling performance that was gushing with impressive guitar riffs and a stage presence that left the crowd dancing away the evening heat. “Future Me Hates Me” was the perfect intro song choice, setting the night up for a good time. The Beths have a raw grungy rock sound to them paired with lead singer Elizabeth Strokes' soft pop vocals; you truly get the best of both worlds with this band that is almost reminiscent of that early 2000s radio indie rock. This especially shined through on their performance of their track “When You Know You Know.”
-Andrew Lagunas
Would you believe me if I told you this was my third time seeing The Beths, and my second time seeing them in under a month? Would you also believe me if I told you this shit just never gets old? The Beths are among my favorite bands currently creating and their newest album, Expert In A Dying Field, was head and shoulders above all other releases of 2022 for me. Although this wasn’t my favorite performance I’ve seen of them (their two-night headlining stay at Thalia earlier in the year takes that cake), I was pretty amazed and thrilled for just how pumped the crowd was to see them; never in my life have I seen so many The Beths shirts in one venue before. They played a surprisingly long set of 13 songs with a couple of them being rather unplanned and spur-of-the-moment, which made me feel happy and special if only for a fleeting moment. They opened up with their all-time classic, “Future Me Hates Me”, a song that fully embodies everything that they are to their utmost core and is the only song that should be playing as their inflatable fish rises to its fullest inflated power. About half of their set was dedicated to their new album with expected gems like “Knees Deep”, “Silence Is Golden”, “When You Know You Know”, and the title track, but there were a couple of unexpected cuts in there like the immensely underrated “Changing Of The Weather” and their newest single “Watching The Credits”, a presumed leftover track from the cutting room floor of their last album. They hit all the necessary stops with songs from Jump Rope Gazers like “Out Of Sight”, “Dying To Believe”, and the title track but what made these older songs that much more special was the fact that they spotlighted the ASL stage interpreter and asked her to interpret right on stage with them! If seeing The Beths live wasn’t fun enough, this certainly did the trick; that ASL interpreter sure could dance. Going back to those unplanned, impromptu performances, they did a surprise performance of “Whatever” from their debut seemingly out of the blue, and when they found out they had three minutes left in their set before their designated finish time, they brought out “Uptown Girl”, quite possibly the most aggressive and rowdy song in their whole catalog. The crowd went nuts and the drummer unlodged one of his toms from its spot due to how damn hard he was playing; it was fun all around!
-Lorenzo Zenitsky
As it grew darker and cooled down a bit, the main event was yet to come. The Chicago native indie rock band Beach Bunny finally took the stage and they delivered a hearty set that was loaded with a little bit of everything from their discography. Frontwoman and founding member Lili Trifilio stood front and center of the stage and in front of an enormous inflatable heart that was the cherry on top for a grand conclusion for the evening. The band has found viral success via TikTok and the turnout for the evening was quite impressive! (And a probable reason why the show wasn’t moved inside.) Predictably so, the crowd went wild when the band commenced the intro to their song “Prom Queen,” which is assuredly a fan favorite. The band concluded their set with my personal favorite track of theirs, “Painkiller.” The sudden beat and tempo change in the middle of the song that then transitions into a jam session was the perfect way for Beach Bunny to finish off the evening.
-Andrew Lagunas
Pool Party never really felt like it had festival crowds until The Beths showed up but standing a bit towards the back for Beach Bunny, the size of the crowd really hit me; there were a lot of people there for Beach Bunny’s set and the crowd energy was through the roofless outdoor roof. Just as The Beths had a giant inflatable fish, Beach Bunny had an even bigger inflatable heart with lights that were somewhat in sync with their music. Lead singer Lili Trifilio started the show not with a bang but with some cautionary words preaching safety and care to our fellow concertgoers. It was a real scorcher that Thursday with temperatures well over 100 degrees and even though The Salt Shed and their vendors were doing an utterly fantastic job having affordable, and sometimes free, water in most places, her words definitely still needed to be reiterated for those who needed to hear it. After Lili’s spoken word intro, the band pummeled into “Cuffing Season”, one of my favorites from one of my favorite albums ever, Honeymoon. Over the course of their staggering 20-song set, the band played a surprising number of songs from Honeymoon compared to their newest album, Emotional Creature, which only came out last year. I’m not sure if the album didn’t perform as well as they hoped and didn’t receive the warmest of welcomes but I was quite shocked to only hear three songs from it, which didn’t even encompass all of its singles. That being said, Beach Bunny left no musical stone unturned as they played a little bit of everything Thursday night including virtually all of my favorites. I was most excited to hear songs like “Promises”, “Weeds”, “Good Girls (Don’t Get Used)”, “April”, “Cloud 9”, and “Painkiller”, and wouldn’t ya know it, they played ‘em all!
If I had one setlist disappointment it was not getting to hear “Blame Game”, the title track to their 2021 EP. The band played with an amazing amount of energy which was to be expected given that it was the first time they got to play at their own festival but the crowd was as much to blame for that as anything; Lili didn’t even have to say the word “pit” for there to be one nearly every song. Unfortunately, despite the band playing their asses off, their set was slightly blemished from an array of technical problems that somehow never plagued any of the other bands that night. Multiple times throughout their set, their sound and lights cut out for around a second or two leaving them in complete silence and darkness which even for a second was rather uncomfortable. Their giant inflatable heart also capsized out of nowhere at one point but it did make way for a classic Lili joke. The band didn’t really have an encore of sorts but they did make it a point to remind everyone when they only had two songs left and to make them count (as if “Cloud 9” and “Painkiller” would have anyone standing around twiddling their thumbs.)
Overall, I had a really great time at Pool Party and I couldn’t be more excited to see the sequel sometime next year and what new bands Lili and co. bring along with them. Despite the unfortunate heat, Pool Party more than made up for it with its delicious food trucks, great drinks, water and misting stations virtually everywhere, both indoor and outdoor AC, great sound, great staff, and a super fun crowd! The bands were just the plump, red cherry on top.
-Lorenzo Zenitsky
Despite the short-lived heat wave coming through Chicago, I’d say that Beach Bunny’s pool party was a success. The lineup of bands for the evening made for a lighthearted and enjoyable night of upbeat tunes from some of the most talented emerging bands and is a great alternative to going to a music festival. I’d absolutely love to see Beach Bunny bring this back to the Salt Shed every summer or a similar vibe of this series in the future!
-Andrew Lagunas
All photos by Andrew Lagunas.
Did you enjoy this post and our coverage of Chicago’s arts scene and sometimes beyond? Please consider supporting Third Coast Review’s arts and culture coverage by making a donation by PayPal. Choose the amount that works best for you, and know how much we appreciate your support!