The Appeal Of The Manly Beard

A few months ago I was asked to travel to the mountains for a Local Natives concert. I agreed to go without hesitation; I'm always down for a road-trip and a rock-show. For months, my friend was unable to control her fangirling; the anticipation was absolutely killing her. I'll be honest, in the time leading up to our trip, I never brought myself to listen to one of their songs. I couldn't tear myself away from my Bay Area Rap that I had recently rediscovered.

Despite being relatively young (24 and 23), we chose to avoid the mass of people camped in-front of the stage. Seeing as my friend had just finished her second round of cancer treatment and my pesky spinal fusion was acting up again, we decided to impersonate a couple of little old ladies and claimed a few comfy chairs for the night. It may have looked rather awkward, but it felt oh-so comfortable. Plus, you'd have to get me pretty DRUNK to rock out with a bunch of people that I don't know. Don't forget...I have the social capabilities of someone who'd been locked inside a tower their whole life.

From the minute that the concert began, I could see my friend (and pretty well everyone else) having a complete mental breakdown. There was too much excitement, their minds couldn't handle it! I watched the band with the thoughts, "Oh cool, I still have no idea who y'all are...or this song...or the next song". I did quickly learn that one of the band members was named Kelcey. Bro! We're meant to be friends, it's required of all individuals with this 1980's Valley name. Don't you know the rules?

WARNING: I am now going to explain Local Natives (as best as I can with my shit memory), and I feel that this requires less blogger and more Californian. 

Sorry in advance.

These guys are just so chill. Like...they're such mellow dudes. They don't go hard during their performances, they just move in a way that is reminiscent of the hippies of Woodstock; bobbing about the stage as though on shrooms or LSD. I loved it! And the most superficially FANTASTIC thing about Local Natives are their gnarly beards and staches. C'mon...so legit.

Ain't nothin' wrong with all that manly facial hair.
 

It may seem a tad strange, but I was drawn to their personalities more than anything else; I quite enjoyed them as people. They have this gentlemanly demeanor about them; soft spoken, extremely polite and genuinely excited to perform. I wanted to chill with them and be friends. Weird? Hopefully not.

Halfway through the show we ventured into the pit, mostly in an attempt to see one of the band members named Ryan. He is so adorable, I just want to, ughh, I have no words. As we began to get a little closer, the blinding lights were set to the eye-line of the audience. I was the only person to look away, the rest of the crowd stared straight into the little sun beams. I'm convinced that it was some form of hypnosis because it made the drunks go even harder. Perfectly okay with me, I love awkwardly dancing drunk people. I unfortunately never made eye contact with the little cutie Ryan, such a shame!

Local Natives are a band that you can't help but love; for their music and them as people.

My friend has already mentioned that they will be in London on October 17. 

So...all donations are now being accepted.

Twitter.com/LocalNatives