Daytime Disco Fever: POOLSIDE Lights Up the Bay Area with 2 Tour Dates

Yost Media

Wintertime in the Bay Area is cold, wet, and flooded with rain, but the tail-end of January welcomed Los Angeles based outfit POOLSIDE with their warm and sunny Miami vibes for two nights of their signature brand of “Daytime Disco” infused neo-yacht rock.

Poolside performs in front of the audience — Yost Media

At the first gig, food trucks and bacon-wrapped hot dog carts lined Telegraph Avenue located in the West Oakland nightlife district. A certain kind of weekend night vibe was permeating the air as locals who had pulled up in their various trucks and sedans blasted E-40 and Travis Scott through their open car windows.

A scene within a scene of sorts had formed outside the various bars and nightclubs, which seemed to be every other building on the strip. The sidewalks were crowded with folks in their 20’s and 30’s hanging all together while smoking joints, vaping, answering phone calls, and sneaking shooters of Hennessy or Fireball whiskey before ducking back inside.

In the center of it all, the Fox Theatre stood out like a crown jewel on a boulevard otherwise left to its own devices. The vintage tiled threshold heralded an old fashioned wooden box office kiosk gently ensconced by the warm glow of sweeping round lightbulbs attached to a substantial marquee directly aloft, illuminating the band’s name in hefty black detachable letters.

Once inside, the grandiosity of the historic, Art Deco style theater is always one that momentarily takes me aback. The brass railings, terra cotta tiles, and dual massive golden Brahmin deities surround a mini amphitheater shaped performance space; one that’s known throughout the Bay Area as a pristinely preserved, cherished live music venue with near perfect acoustics. Boasting an aesthetic that’s been described anywhere from Moorish to Medieval, Baghdadian, or Indian, the Fox originally opened in 1928 as one of the first theaters to feature non-silent films with audibly speaking actors.

No fewer than half a dozen potted palm plants very subtly swayed onstage as the five piece band worked their way through a lengthy set list, and a few enthusiastically received encore tracks. The mood was upbeat yet mellow as the bulk of the audience danced their way through their wistful, lush set, heads nodding synchronously to the beat, hands swaying along in the air. A cleverly designed bioluminescent-colored light show upgraded the experience beneath the band’s brand new massive, pool-water-blue neon logo suspended triumphantly above the stage.

The last time I saw this band was on the main stage at Outside Lands festival in Golden Gate Park back in the summer of last year. While it’s needless to say that it’s always inspiring to catch a set within such a large and epic format, this band is much better in a more compact venue indoors in order to comprehend the full effect of their vibey influence.

close up of Poolside's bass player — Yost Media

As mentioned above, the Fox Theater’s near-perfect acoustic set up allowed for the rolling, funky bass lines and jangly, disco guitar chord inversions to almost completely envelope each concert attendee regardless of where they were standing. Almost everyone was dancing, carried away within their own dreamily built interior worlds that night.

Anecdotally, POOLSIDE has developed an almost cult like following over the years carried over from the massive fanbase that drummer Vito Roccaforte and previous member Mattie Safer formed in their popular mid-2000’s electro clash band The Rapture. Bandleader and the group’s singer and founder Jeffrey Paradise was a well known San Francisco DJ around that same time, with his parties Frisco Disco and Blow Up considered as the places to be in San Francisco after midnight.

close up shot of Jeffrey Paradise — Yost Media

Known for pushing the boundaries of what was considered “scene” kid music during an era when it was only cool to be into the most cutting edge and obscure bands, Paradise would infuse disco, pop, top 40, ’80s, new wave, and other “ironic” songs into his sets that quickly defined him as the proverbial king of the city’s night club scene, garnering him the title of DJ of the Year in 2006.

Flash forward approximately half a decade later after a successful run with his band The Paradise Boys, known for their wild and rowdy live shows and provocative lyrical content and stage presence, Paradise said “fuck it” and started to experiment with his own incarnation of yacht rock. A genre he always loved, he creatively infused the sound with chill wave, nu-disco, and electric music elements that summon the dreamy and lingering pan-cultural elements of the tropics, formulating the band’s signature “Daytime Disco” moniker as a result.

POOLSIDE is luxuriant, decadent music intelligently composed and intricately orchestrated with an insouciant, retro-nostalgic foundation. They have this sort of a nonbinary energy with a sound that’s difficult to articulate in words, the kind that any lover of The BeeGees or The Beach Boys would instantly tune into, and take hold of.

Backstage, I joked with fellow attendees that the band is perfect music for queer kids who grew up with Dead Head parents. That sentiment was immediately reflected back to me the next night in Sacramento, when they ironically and very casually slipped in a Grateful Dead cover of “Shakedown Street” mid set, a song selection that had a euphoric effect on the crowd. Immediately loosened up, the entire audience romped and partied their way through the set’s completion.

close up of the front row audience members leaning on the barricade — Yost Media

“I almost never, ever, get nervous before a show,” Paradise confided in me before they started up at the following night’s venue, Ace of Spades. “Usually it’s all the stuff I have to do to prepare that stresses me out or gives me anxiety, trying to run around and get everything together for tour, making sure everything is straight before we hit the road that by the time it comes to play, I’m just like, ready to go.”

He paused for a moment and looked contemplatively off into the distance. “But something about that Oakland show was different. I feel way more relaxed about tonight; it’s a Sunday night. There will probably only be, like, 100 people who show up.”

For a seasoned touring musician, Paradise ended up being off with that estimation; way off, in fact. By the time we had ended our interview and entered the building, it was three quarters occupied while the opening band was still playing. When it came time for him to take the stage, the floor was full to capacity.

“I can’t believe so many of you showed up for us on a Sunday night,” he said later in between songs. “This means so much to us.”

And for someone who goes to dozens of concerts and festivals every year, this was the sort of show that just hit differently. Notably, from what I could see, it seemed like at least a third of the crowd were queer and LGBTQ+. Additionally, it’s always fascinating to see such a wide variety of ages, demographics, and folks from all walks of life assembled at one gig. POOLSIDE has this sort of pan-appeal to them that lures in what seems like anyone and everyone, but the best of ways.

There were college kids, couples on dates, retirement-aged folks, individuals who had come solo, and parents with their grown children, including the those of POOLSIDE’s keyboard and background guitar player Alton Allen, beaming with noticeable pride and enthusiasm as they danced and cheered to every song like teenagers on the side stage.

I’ve also never seen a beach ball circumstantially circulate through the crowd from the moment the set started through completion of the show, bobbing suspended throughout the air like a game that each ticket holder played with each other as if some sort of pre-arranged side plot derivative of the concert experience.

The band sailed through hit singles like “Kiss You Forever,” “We Could Be Falling in Love,” “Harvest Moon,” “Ride With You,” “Back To Life,” among several others. It seemed like almost every song they played both nights was a hit single, which brings a sort of gravity of realization once personally witnessed.

Jeffrey Paradise waves to the crowd — Yost Media

It’s difficult to explain the casual persistence this band has, one that’s grown so rapidly over the years they’ve slipped under the radar of a lot of folks due to the rarity of other acts within a genre that they’ve almost singlehandedly carved out themselves.

This is music for lovers, dreamers, travelers, toned down percussive party jams with a vintage disposition, not withstanding the sort of modern electronic, synthy edge that’s doubly impacted by a transcendent lighting and stage show presentation, as they casually bop and groove their way through their set lists wearing retro-Floridian button down shirts paired with Vans and cowboy boots.

Despite being around for the past 12 years, POOLSIDE’s music is a genre bending, barrier breaking offering that completely redefines the way that modern music sees disco—from an antiquated sound that our parents used to listen to into optimistic, pop-tinged, tropical laced, highly refined electronic inspired dance music. All sewn together with clever modern production techniques and impeccable musicality.

After catching a couple of nights of this last run, something tells me that Paradise & Co.’s appeal will soon expand from the “Poolside” to worldwide, in the not too distant future.