NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2025
It was the afternoon of November 19, 2019 when I peeked out the door at the Paste Studio in NYC to see if the next band had arrived yet and I saw two kids sitting on the floor in the hallway like they were in high school. It turns out those “kids” were Lili Trifilio (vocals/guitar) and Matt Henkels (guitar) of Beach Bunny. I thoroughly enjoyed that Paste session (my photos can be found here and the full video here).
Beach Bunny had just been signed to Mom & Pop records and set to release their debut full length record “Honeymoon” in February 2020. The pandemic ended up derailing that tour and, with Canadian travel restrictions, the band was not able to make it to Toronto during their 2021 tour supporting their lates EP “ Blame Game”. However, this is a new year and, with their sophomore record “Emotional Creature” set to be released in July, Beach Bunny finally made it back to Toronto to wrap up their “Revenge of the Riffs” tour at Danforth Music Hall on May 27, 2022! It will also be the first time I’ve seen the full band including Jon Alvarado (drums) and Anthony Vaccaro (bass).
Opening for Beach Bunny was dark synth-pop artist Ky Vöss from NYC, via Pittsburgh and Austin. Her most recent record “The After” was released back in March. Whatever genre you want to call her music, it is very upbeat. I feel like if you want to engage with the dark side, you can sit back and listen to the lyrics. But if you want to have a good time, just enjoy the beats and music. A good time was had by all regardless.
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Next up was shoegaze band Wednesday from Ashville, NC. Led by vocalist/guitarist Karly Hartzman, the band blew through a really fun set, almost most of it was in the dark. With guitarist Jake Lenderman and bassist Margo Schultz head banging on stage right, you couldn’t help but love the energy of this group.
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I’m not sure what to say about Beach Bunny’s live show. There’s so much going on that you don’t know where to look next. Bassist Anthony Vaccaro was bouncing around stage left, flipping his bass, and hair flying everywhere. Then you hear the hard pounding drums from Jon Alvarado in the back. Meanwhile, guitarist Matt Henkels wasn’t moving around much but was ripping those guitar riffs! Of course, the multi-talented Lili Trifilio was extremely engaging, always pushing the crowd for more. At one point, she stopped and said she wouldn’t start the next song until the crowd formed a mosh pit…and they obliged!! And if you’ve never seen a whole venue get down on their knees, you had to be at this show. This is the kind of front-woman you want in your band, someone who has the fans wrapped around her little finger!
With the show in full swing, the temperature in the venue was going up and up since the wall to wall crowd was jumping, dancing, and crowd surfing. Even with the air conditioning running, it was probably getting up around 120 degrees (that’s Fahrenheit, 49 Celsius for the Canadians out there). At least four fans had to seek medical attention with the on-site EMTs. With two songs left, Trifilio paused to thank everyone who worked on the tour with Beach Bunny. Then, of course, the venue turned it up another notch for “Cloud 9” and “Painkiller”.
This was definitely indie rock as it should be: music that makes you move, heartfelt lyrics that speak to issues other young people are dealing with, and a band that seemingly comes out of nowhere to become a success. I underestimated those kids sitting in the hallway when I first met them. Don’t you do the same.
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