The Bloodflowers

View from a Stool

I was all ready to hate on The Bloodflowers. After all, they have a member who also plays in Louis XIV and an awful name that makes me think of a Cure album that nobody bought. So, needless to say, I was not optimistic walking into their Friday-night show at hipster den U-31.

But here’s the thing—they were actually pretty damn good. Led by Rey Hoover on guitar and vocals, the trio plays a bombastic blast of hard rock in the vein of Eagles of Death Metal and AC/DC. While they may wear their influences on their sleeves, I found it hard to dismiss how excited they got the crowd. It’s rare that you see San Diego music fans uncrossing their arms, much less dancing along to a live band, but the U-31 masses seemed as debauched as the music’s subject matter. Maybe that had more to do with the crowd than the band, but there was no denying that this is a band hellbent on having fun. As one frenzied fan pointed out, “Fuck that art shit, man—that was bad ass!”

Whether or not the band takes the bravado and machismo of their music seriously could lose them some points in the local indie scene, but bespectacled music geeks need not apply. This is music for the single-scenester set desperately looking for that killer soundtrack to drunkenly make out to.
—Seth Combs - City Beat