![Pleasure Pill, Nitefire, Intermission](https://i.ticketweb.com/i/00/12/28/91/74_Edp.jpg?v=12)
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Pleasure Pill
Pleasure Pill were raised in San Diego’s underground scene, spending their young adult years skating together, going to DIY punk gigs, and putting on shows in community centers. Lead singer and project founder Jonah Paz, along with his brother Ethan (rhythm guitar) and friends Luke Blake (lead guitar), Ivan Delgado (bass) and Dom Friedly (drums) learned self-sufficiency and dedication early on – ideas that drive the way they operate today. “The DIY ethos teaches you at a very young age that you have to do everything yourself because no one else is going to do it for you,” says Luke. “We’re not waiting on someone else to do stuff for us – we would just rather do it ourselves.” Pleasure Pill are a pop band with stadium-sized ambition; they want to make the best music possible, and be as big as their idols while doing it. But they’re not giving up their values.
Pleasure Pill have been playing music together since they were kids. The band were raised on the classics—Jonah is a Beatles devotee; 90s British bands are a key reference point—and you can hear devotion to melody and pop form throughout their music. Although the band started as Jonah’s solo project, inspired by punk records and bands like the Prodigy, when this iteration of Pleasure Pill started in earnest, in mid-2021, classicism became a guiding principle. “This is just a rock and roll kind of band,” says Jonah. “We don’t want to confuse people – we just want to be as straightforward with it as possible.”
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Nitefire
Fronted by Nico Geyer and Luke White, Nitefire took shape in the DIY scenes of both coasts – playing shows under various artist names, splitting their time between cities, sending demos back and forth. The lore of the band blossomed when they moved into Marilyn Manson’s infamous former house in the Hollywood Hills during the pandemic, honing their sound in the storied home’s strange atmosphere. The following year, the band relocated to a house next door to some friends, a move that would turn out to have great significance for the band’s trajectory – Why host a show at one house when you could use two?
In the oversaturated up-and-coming live scene, Nitefire strived to set themselves apart: “We thought – let’s give them something to be excited about,” Geyer explains. “It’s a lot easier to get people to go to a party.” Thus began a year of shows using the spaces and backyards of both houses, yet attendees still spilled out onto the street trying to get in. They shut it down after 800 people showed up to the last party, but they had their proof of concept. Soon came opening slots for Wallice, enumclaw, and milk., hitting iconic venues like The Troubadour and Bowery Ballroom. In addition to SXSW and Southside Spillover festival, the band rounded out 2023 with their own US headline tour.
At its core, Nitefire is the musical project of four friends from the LA suburbs who love playing music together. “We spent a lot of weekends in high school just jamming really loud in this small room at my house,” says Geyer. “One time at 4am we somehow orchestrated this perfect change together, and I just remember thinking I have to chase that feeling for the rest of my life.” Channeling turn-of-the-century indie rock and the brightness of britpop, the band brims with youthful energy, delivering poppy hooks over layers of sunny guitars.
Nitefire’s first release of 2024 arrives in early spring with their new single “LA’s Got Gorgeous,” produced by Aron Kobayashi Ritch (Momma, Been Stellar). The track evokes indie soundtracks of the early aughts, poking fun at LA’s artifice and nightlife with playful sardonicism. Following the success of their 2023 EP “The Great, Unwashed,” Nitefire’s debut LP release with Concord Records is set to follow later this year. -
Intermission