Walking through the doors at the Milk Bar almost threw me into flashbacks of the years I spent on barroom stages throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The crowd was in for an interesting night of music with band styles ranging from a soulful R&B group to your more standard pop/rock ensembles. Headlining the night was a trio out of Berkeley, California called Karmin Line. Formerly known as Leviathan, this group stepped on stage with confidence to put the crowd on their back and usher them into the pre-New Year weekend with catchy rhythms and tight harmonies.
Karmin Line jumped out at me as being unique by having the drummer (Gaitan) carry the majority of the lead vocal lines. He splits time projecting the lyrics with Johnny, the guitar player, but you’ll find that where this group can shine the brightest is when those two voices are harmonizing. Together they blend well providing emphasis, drawing the audience in with an infectious enthusiasm. The third member rounding out the roster is the bassist Connor. While you won’t see him step up to the microphone often he is driving an important part of the group. Rock trios with guitar, bass, and drums have an inherent difficulty in filling out the sound because the instrumentation requires strict balance, but with proper system tuning behind them, Karmin Line would have no issue bringing a big sound to venues of any size.
As a pop-punk style band from the Bay Area there’s already a high bar set for quality. These guys could be on their way to clearing that bar. While they are young and still a bit green on stage they write tunes that will fill the dance floor and keep people moving. They need to put some work into how they deal with transitions, but that’s something that comes with time and experience and if they continue to forge on with the tools they have at their disposal, they won’t have an issue putting that together. Their set blended original tunes, covers, and even a brief a capella hip/hop stint to keep it fresh. While the set became a little disjointed at times, they used the energy and feedback of the crowd to determine where they wanted the musical journey to progress.
The fact remains, the next time you’re browsing a local venue’s calendar and see Karmin Line on the roster (for example, January 4th at Red House) be sure your dancing shoes are tightly laced up, because while you’ll lose track of time while they’re on stage, you definitely don’t want to lose a shoe in the process.
To reach out and get to know the guys of Karmin Line you can follow them on their facebook page.
