We Barbarians (@webarbarians) brought head bobbing, booty shaking jams to Mercury Lounge Wednesday night. For only a three piece band at a small venue, they had a huge sound. Frontman, David Quon, gave it his all the entire show without breaking a sweat. We Barbarians recently moved to Williamsburg from Long Beach, CA and released their new EP, Headspace, last week. After watching their show, it was obvious how excited they are about both.

Pepper Rabbit (@pepper_rabbit) from L.A. also recently released their new album, Red Velvet Snow Ball. I’ve been listening to it non-stop since it came out, so I was really excited to experience the live version. The album has a lot of unique sounds, and they surprisingly brought most of them to the performance. Lead singer, Xander Singh, had a slew of vocal effects, two keyboards, and a classical guitar. The bassist also had a keyboard, while the drummer triggered samples with an electric drum pad. Each one of them, especially the drummer, made very complex instrumentation look and sound simple. Pepper Rabbit is currently on tour so catch them when they’re in your town!

Photo credit: Sean Wehrli