Miner @ The Echo (1.16.13)

Miner @ The Echo (1.16.13)

It's rare, but every so often a genuine band from LA emerges completely organically.  Miner is a band that keeps it in the family.  Husband and wife front the band with siblings and cousins backing.  Their demo EP (of which I highly recommend picking up a copy) is actually independently funded.  Their next full release will likely happen when a label snatches them up.  There were a few guys in suits looking completely out of place there tonight so I am sure that will be happening soon.

While I know that musicians always cringe when compared in a description I would place this band somewhere in between the Lumineers, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and a band who's name eludes me.  Their set was only around 40 minutes, and still in that short amount of time they played a cover. Although it was a very good cover who's name I don't recall.  Seemingly they must still be in the process of writing and getting more material ready to perform.  That said, they did still prove tonight that they have songs beyond those released on YouTube.



The band was somewhat lower energy than you might expect given their songs.  On their last song Hey Love, they started to get into it a bit more.  You could see Justin Miner almost tripping over his instrument cable while excitedly dancing as if it was something new to him.  Tonight's show gave the feeling they are still figuring out the live thing together and that as they grow, they are only going to be even more fun to watch.

One thing that I think says a lot was that even though Miner was the opener, the crowd mostly dissipated in the front and surrounded the band after they played.  This left almost no one near the stage for the headliner.  I'd heard they were local, but it's nice to see an actual local scene around a band in a tough market like this. I think yet again this was a case of a show where the wrong band opened.  I've just never seen such a dramatic example of it.


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My only complaint? Their website is hard to find on search.  Try typing Miner into google (until recently nothing), Miner the band (only press), this is Miner (the only thing that finds them).  They may want to optimize their embedded tags on their website a bit more or expand the name to something like Miner Threat... oh wait...