http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/sweat-slick-memories/content?oid=10293552
Deena Drewis
It’s been two weeks since the first This Midtown event on June 8, and for those in attendance, it’s likely a sweat-slick memory revolving around Planet Booty frontman Dylan Germick’s sequined smoking jacket (sans undershirt, for the record).
The 110-degree heat may have deterred many from attending the first installment of the outdoor concert series held on 20th Street between J and K streets, but the brave witnessed what will surely become a don’t-miss event, despite the fact that through the sets of local band Contra, South of France (Los Angeles) and Deastro (Detroit), much of the crowd clustered in the air-conditioned confines of LowBrau.
Planet Booty took the stage last. Though the band claims as many as eight members, the Oakland natives arrived as three — Germick and Josh Cantero, who played keys and rapped, in a way, and Lady Emasita, a leotard-and-sunglasses-wearing hype girl who danced the way you might imagine a dancer to dance when she’s repping a band named Planet Booty. Think the Lonely Island, only slightly more serious—which is not to say that they are in any way serious.
The crowd could only play coy to Germick’s repeated forays into the audience for so long before they gave in, and uninhibited dance moves broke out like a heat rash. It was the sort of rollicking good time that takes you by surprise and by force.
There is a serious effort behind This Midtown to turn it into something rad—an effort to bring in a fresh rotation of bands—Yacht, Classixx, Sonny & the Sunsets, to name a few—and to involve the community with a street-fair aspect. The energy is palpable. The potential is exciting. Now we’ll just have to wait and see if it follows through with waterslides as promised on all the promo materials.