Photos courtesy of Vaguess.
Grimy, unkempt, do-it-yourself makeshift venues are typically places the garage-punk band Vaguess prefers to perform.
Sure, the year-old band has graced the stage at Alex’s Bar, but Vinny Earley said it doesn’t compare to crappy warehouses decked in art and inundated with music fans high on live music, booze and edibles.
Music fans shouldn’t expect anything inspirational or revolutionizing from Vaguess. The majority of Earley’s lyrics are inaudible in recordings and he mainly sings about partying or drugs, but in live performances—at least for Vaguess—lyrics aren’t nearly the most important thing to focus on.
Vaguess is the type of band that thrives on live performances. Each track differs in style, even though Earley admits to heavily borrow from Long Beach’s ’90s synth punk band Le Shok. He creates psychedelic surf tracks, quintessential 60-second punk ditties and also fuses in styles from whatever else he’s listening to at the time.
Earley ended up using the moniker coworkers gave him for his side-project. He writes lyrics; plays guitar, bass guitar and drums; and he uploads his songs onto Bandcamp or YouTube.
It didn’t become a serious project for him until a boy messaged him on Facebook asking if Vaguess could perform at a warehouse show in El Monte.
“I didn’t even know what El Monte was, but I said ‘yeah, we’ll be there,'” Earley said. “But I didn’t even have a band or anything. I just got my friend to play drums… and another friend to play bass. Since then anytime someone offers shows, I’ll take it and the lineup changes depending on whoever can do it.”
Even though Vaguess has become Earley’s full-time band, it isn’t something that he takes too seriously. And if he hadn’t already release three full-length albums and a few demos under the name, he’d change it.
“I spelled it weird because in the mid 2000s, there were indie bands that spelled their names vaguely and stupidly,” Earley said. “It was a total joke, but now I fucking hate it. People always ask me how to pronounce it and it was fun but then it turned into what I was making fun of.”
Despite the lack of satisfaction with the band’s name and a complete FML moment—the band even altered their Facebook page to read, “VaguessISdead”—Earley said he noticed his band has gained a moderate following of fans after performing throughout the Los Angeles and Orange County area.
“Eventually people, besides my friends [whom] I made listen to my stuff, started getting into it,” Earley said. “There’s, like, actual fans. There’s a bunch of little kids that come out to our LA shows who know all the words and sing along.”
Earley’s favorite performance was when he opened for Japanther at the Church of Fun. Not only did the DIY venue reek of pot and Granpappy’s medicine, more importantly, nobody cared if the place got trashed. Music fans instigated destruction and danced wildly in a mosh pit with jugs of cheap wine in hand.
“This was the first time we played a show where they didn’t know us and [the audience] still had a lot of energy,” Earley said. “Usually a lot of people are like, ‘Whatever,’ if they don’t know a band but it was just awesome—it was crazy during [our] set.”
Vaguess is set to perform this Tuesday at the Prospector for their first Long Beach show. Earley said rock ‘n’ roll fans shouldn’t be disappointed.
“I always try and have a lot energy—I go out into the crowd and rustle them up,” Earley said. “We’re not a technically challenging band, but if you want to dance and mosh or whatever, [it’ll be] have fun.”
Vaguess performs on Tuesday at 9 PM at the Prospector located at 2400 E 7th Street. The event is for those 21 and over. Tickets are $5 with an RSVP and $7 without. For further information about Vaguess, visit Facebook.
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