Collective crescendos

Plugged into the moment: Spoken-word artist Andru Defeye shared the story of an open-mic that eventually turned into an hourslong jam session. Eventually it dawned on him: Why even do the sign-up part? That was the thought behind his monthly Plugged event for musicians, emcees and DJs at Sol Collective.

He explains all this to the modest crowd of roughly 25 folks, after everyone had already gotten a glimpse of Plugged in action. What they saw was an evolving, constantly shaping work in progress that feeds off the energy of the performers and the crowd. With four mics, anyone can hop on stage whenever they feel it.

At the onset of the evening, with just two members in the audience, Defeye jammed out, triggering samples on his iPad along to drummer Nick David Setnik. The twosome had a hip-hop, jazzy thing going, then poet Dante Pelayo strolled up to one of the mics and sang along hypnotically. The house band’s two guitarists set up during this tripped-out jam.

Some transitions between performers were subtle. Other times, the entire energy would take a sharp left turn, like when comedian Edgar Granados waltzed on stage and did a short comedy set. Everyone—band included—was a little confused, but able to quickly adjust. By the end, he had them in stitches.

People continued to sing, rap and do spoken word over the band’s low-key, soulful jams. The most powerful moment came when a man said plainly: “My wife is no longer with me.” He sang a song that she used to sing, and then read and sang an intense poem he wrote about her.

It felt like for just that moment, he, with the help of the musicians and the tight-knit Sol Collective crowd, brought her spirit into the room. It was that powerful.

—Aaron Carnes

Records galore: Now, you can pick up your beach reads along with your summertime tunes. Dimple Records has taken over the former Avid Reader bookstore space at 1600 Broadway to sell new and used books and vinyl in its expanded Land Park location. It opened just before Phono Select Records, which debuted its space at 2475 Fruitridge Road on Saturday, May 20. With so many places to buy music, Sacramentans have even more creative ways to go broke.

Weekday dance-a-thon: It’s not a normal Tuesday night when a crowd of roughly 100 grown-ups bounces up and down for minutes on end, tosses and pops balloons and squats to the floor on command to earn a shower of confetti. But it’s expected at a Rubblebucket show.

On its national tour, the six-piece from Brooklyn took over Harlow’s Restaurant & Nightclub last week with its infectious art-pop tunes, along with openers Sego and Alexander F. The evening started out slow and broody but turned into a bouncy lovefest by the end.

From Los Angeles, Sego brought frenetic energy with distorted guitars that were reminiscent of Les Savy Fav. Two synth players added space-aged, trippy noises—one while enthusiastically thrusting the air, the other while looking through the curtain of her asymmetrical hair. Rhythmic bass inspired hyper dancing on the stage and in the crowd. At one point, the singer-guitarist used a strobe light as a slide guitar tool.

Rubblebucket built on the positivity with supremely danceable tunes off the band’s January EP release, If U C My Enemies. An adorable brass section made up of a trumpeter and a trombonist moved in coordination with the singer, doing little knee bends and shuffles. Their confident honking got a few audience members to full-on shimmy.

The singer Kalmia Traver sounded like a brass instrument herself as she crooned out syncopated melodies with unexpected twists. During breakdowns, she quacked on a baritone saxophone without any pretense but with tons of verve.

The audience responded in kind. By the end of the night, the crowd felt collectively euphoric, dewy with sweat that acted like glue for the bits of confetti that the band blasted every so often.

“You guys are amazing,” Trevor said between songs. “We came to the right California ‘S’ town.”

—Rebecca Huval

rebeccah@newsreview.com