By Maddy Yen

I followed my favorite band, Sun Room, down the West Coast, seeing them three times on their headline tour. A surf and garage rock band out of San Diego, Sun Room is now a three-piece ensemble with Luke Asgian (singer and rhythm guitar), Max Pinamonti (bass), and Ashton Minnich (guitar) — with Thomas Rhodes playing drums on this tour. Last year they played 115 shows in 24 countries having opened for Louis Tomlinson and Inhaler. After discovering them in early 2022, I have followed their journey since — seeing them all along the West Coast. Sun Room is wrapping up their final headline tour of the year where I saw them in Portland, Oregon, then San Francisco and Santa Cruz, California. During my 3 nights watching Sun Room, the atmosphere, crowd, and venues differed, so here is how every night went.

Portland, OR - November 15th

One of my favorite venues, The Wonder Ballroom, in northeast Portland, home of my favorite disco ball, was my first stop seeing Sun Room. We arrived an hour before the doors opened with 20+ people in line for their VIP package. The demographic at this show was definitely on the younger side, with most fans being around 18. The venue did not fill up in Portland like I usually see it do. Most people were unfamiliar with the opener, Surf Trash, a 4-piece band from Australia. However, the show was still lively. The people at the barricade had less energy than usual, but people loved singing along to their most popular songs like “Sol Del Sur,” “Sunset Garage,” and “Summer’s Here.” Towards the end of the show, the boys from Surf Trash started a mosh pit and opened the floor to bring up the energy. I saw Sun Room the previous year in Portland where they sold out the first venue they booked, so they had to upgrade the venue. However, this show was not nearly as packed as last year but I think if Sun Room played in Eugene with the higher magnitude of indie rock bands, they would have a much better crowd with the college kids.

San Francisco, CA - November 17th

Next up is Sun Room’s debut show in San Francisco at the August Hall, situated in Union Square. This venue was one of the prettiest ones I’ve been to, it had high ceilings with a massive standing balcony area that ran along the sides of the pit. The venue site was originally built in the 1890s as a Victorian Playhouse, then became a club, movie theater, and finally what it is today, a live music venue. Being one of the coolest venues I’ve been to to date, I was excited for this show. The demographic was a bit older than the Portland show, with more young men at this one than the last. There was significantly more dancing and Sun Room had more energy to feed off of. The boys’ outfits were a lot more city-esque than their show in Portland. They typically steer towards dress pants with the occasional tie, but their outfits vary by show. Asgian wore a red leather oversized jacket with a train conductor hat, and Pinamonti wore a white button-up tee with a tie. Surf Trash, yet again came into the pit to start a mosh pit and suddenly my friends and I got launched to the barricade after being seven rows back previously. The excitement was a lot more apparent at this show with more of the crowd knowing their songs — and being more keen to mosh and dance. 

Santa Cruz, CA - November 18th

For the third and final time, I saw Sun Room at the Catalyst Atrium in downtown Santa Cruz. I had high expectations for this show, and I was not disappointed. Located in a college town, this venue usually brings an influx of college kids ready to get rowdy. The Catalyst has two different rooms, one being the mini room, —which I saw Sun Room play in last March — and the main room. The main room is a giant space with a standing balcony along the sides with a huge stage that goes up to probably five feet. For this show, Surf Trash opened again along with the hometown opener, The Trestles. Often called the “hometown heroes,” they set the atmosphere for the rest of the night which would contain a whole lot of moshing and crowd surfing. During this whole show, I had never been in such a crazy crowd before. The mania was apparent with the majority of people being college kids and a few high schoolers. When Surf Trash went on, substantially more people knew their songs and did not break from moshing. After we got pushed to the front, yet again, Sun Room went on and the dynamic of the crowd and the band was so much more connected. Song after song people screamed, danced, crowd-surfed, and moshed; I had never seen anything to this degree. The lighting and sound at this venue were so much more profound than the previous ones, which fed into the crowd. I don’t think I had ever been more sweaty in my life, but after looking around, everyone was one of the same. This show was one of my favorite ones. The excitement was so high, and everyone matched each other's energy. Sun Room at the Catalyst In Santa Cruz has never disappointed me, and I don’t think it ever will.