By Keith Walsh
LA’s Second Skin sounded like rock stars in their debut show at The Echo on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles last night. Frontman Brian DaMert is pure charisma, and Brian Tarney on keyboards and guitars, Vanessa Rae Robinson on synth and bass guitar, and AJ English on drums all perform exceedingly well.

With expert lighting and sound to support the band’s accomplished musicianship, it was easy to imagine this exact set pulling a crowd of 35,000 in a huge arena. As it was, the packed house of 200 or so at The Echo was clearly enthusiastic about this young band, to the point where it was challenging for photographers, myself included, to get close enough to the stage. The foot of the stage was crowded with admirers (mostly female) holding up their phones to get shots of their own.

When DaMert announced that it was their debut show, then launched into their debut single from earlier this year, “Colder,” I felt nostalgia for a sound from March 2021, a year marked by distortions in the experience of time, due to the pandemic. The band rocked their vintage Fender Squier Stratocasters, which they have told me are their axes of choice. Also in use was a vintage Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 played by Tarney, an early 80s Roland of some sort played by Robinson (who rocked some really sick bass keyboard work) and vintage Simmons drum modules to enhance English’ drum kit. As for this video, I apologize for the distortions in sound, as the club was too loud for the microphone on my camera.

This band has everything they need to break through commercially: expert musicianship, top notch songs, and rock star attitudes. Second Skin has also just released their video for “Far Away,” which I hope to comment on eventually. Also on the bill at The Echo were openers Lower Tar, with his improvisational set of electronica, and Gel Set, with their brand of hard electronic pop.  Stay tuned for more info about these two acts.

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