Mind’s Eye: a fascinating melting pot of genres

A cursory look at the downtown House of Blues’ calendar reveals that the venue has been booking nearly as many acts into their smaller events space (the Voodoo Room) as they have been onto their main stage. With its capacity of just 250, it is more like a nightclub than the larger concert hall, which holds 1000 patrons. The Voodoo Room also serves as an enticing stop for emerging touring acts, since it has all-ages gigs (children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult) and also features a small bar for 21-and-over patrons. As a result, lesser-known independent bands get the rare opportunity — rare in San Diego, anyway — to play a small room with kids who are too young to drink cheering alongside their of-age elders. It’s a win-win.

On this late-May evening, the first band on tap was Chicago’s Friko. Though officially a duo, on this night, vocalist/guitarist Niko Kapetan and drummer Bailey Minzenberger were augmented by a touring bassist. The band is known for its “heart on sleeve” brand of indie rock, which makes it a bit more likely to get compared to the 2000s crop of sensitive indie outfits — the sort that leaned toward Death Cab for Cutie — than irony-infused ‘90s acts such as Pavement. There’s an expansive, highly emotional, cinematic feel to many of the songs on their debut LP Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here, and they managed to replicate it quite well in the live environment. Very impressive for such a young trio. They had a fine outing at the Voodoo Room and likely made some new San Diego fans.

Friko replicated the cinematic feel of their recordings

While the members of Friko were quite subdued during breaks between their songs, Vince Lopez, the lead vocalist for headliners Mind’s Eye, was a churning, Category 5 hurricane of hysterical stage banter and crowd interaction for the entirety of the set. Right away, he asked, “Who the fuck cut off ‘Maria’ from West Side Story?” It seemed that someone in the venue had interrupted one of his beloved musical theater songs to play “beer music” during the break between bands. The theater influence was apparent in Mind’s Eye’s music, along with countless others. I found myself staring into a fascinating melting pot of genres. One second, they were channeling the likes of The Smiths or The Cure (Lopez was actually repping a T-shirt from the latter), and then boom, he had made his way down onto the floor to split the crowd in two and get a mosh pit going.

The most apparent influence on their recordings are the more danceable ‘80s darkwave bands, but the interesting trick they pulled in the live environment was to rev up the choruses to fuel the pits. The band went viral in the most modern way imaginable when their track “Wasted Affairs” took off on Tik-Tok a few years back. Suddenly, Lopez found his bedroom music project needed a full band to play the gigs he was being offered. So yes, the group had the feel of a collection of strangers thrown together to make music as an experiment. But it’s an experiment that totally succeeded.

The room itself was all about great sound in a cozy space. There were probably about 200 or so in attendance, so it felt filled but not crammed. The crowd was a mashup of goths and punks, with a smaller serving of squares (present company) for good measure. I was way on the older end of things, as seemingly 90 percent of those in attendance were under 30.

I find that some sort of switch seems to flip off inside most music fans in their 30s that makes them dismissive of new bands. Not me. I fully support the notion that more older folks should check out younger bands — if only because I don’t particularly enjoy feeling like the lone chaperone at a punk rock gig.

On the other hand, maybe shows like this have always centered on youthful energy, and shouldn’t have a sizable, creeping-on-AARP contingency destroying the coolness factor of the evening. This has been the case for decades, as the only acceptable senior at a Sonic Youth show in the ‘80s would have been William S. Burroughs. But look at how the youth are flocking to pickleball courts these days. They are following their grandparents’ lead. The seniors are the new influencers! Like and subscribe and welcome them with open arms to your indie rock gigs.