Sunflower Bean Celebrate Album Release With Hometown Brooklyn Show

Mortal Primetime Album Release Show

Sunflower Bean released their fourth and most personal album Mortal Primetime back in April, the album is the full circle moment of Olive Faber, Julia Cumming and Nick Kivlen finding their true sound and musical identity. The album almost never came to fruition due to other projects and personal moments in the band members lives, the band used those challenges and created what I consider one of their best musical works to date.

The band did a super intimate release performance and signing at New York City’s Rough Trade in Midtown Manhattan on the April 25th release day but until now were yet to play a proper album release show or full NYC gig. On Thursday night (May 22nd) that changed, Sunflower Bean hit the stage at Warsaw in Brooklyn, not Poland to properly give the album the celebration both it and the band deserves.

Joined by their friends in Gift and Birthday Girl and a special surprise guest you’ll hear about later Mortal Primetime came to life live for the first time in NYC.

Birthday Girl kicked off the night with their colorful blend of glam and old school rock n roll flavor, the NYC newcomers are still breaking ground and making a name for themselves but in New York City they’ve gained a solid reputation and following.

Enough to pull people out nice and early for the show. The band’s sound will most certainly resonate with fans of Indigos, Birds Of Prrrey and of course Sunflower Bean themselves who are a self-admitted influence.

The band is tight in sound, fun, glamorous at moments and has a great amount of showmanship.

I can most definitely see them getting bigger and bigger amongst music lovers and think it will be a treat to watch their journey.

Next up were Gift, another New York band with a signature early 90’s/80/s style sound. Gift are pretty well seasoned and joining Sunflower Bean on the rest of the band’s tour dates. Their blend of neo-psychdelia, garage rock translates beautifully in a live setting.

The NYC crowd was most definitely familiar with them, as they drew a large crowd. If you’re a fan of King Gizzard you will love Gift!

Gift is out in support of their latest album Illuminator which was released in 2024.

The album has a heavy focus on shoegaze and 90’s inspired indie rock! Don’t skip seeing these guys live, I definitely will be watching this group!

The star of the show was of course Sunflower Bean the band took to the stage excited and feeling the crowd’s energy.

They kicked off their performance with the catchy first single from Mortal Primetime titled “Champagne Taste”, the set was all focused completely on new material though. The band made sure to throw in some popular fan favorites like “Lucky Number” and “Who Put You Up To This”.

The set was well balanced with more hard hitting tracks like “Shake” and “Sunshine” and leaving room for the more vibey and catchy my personal favorite new track “Nothing Romantic”.

Olive Faber slams her drums while guitarist Nick Kivlen shreds and sings harmoniously with bassist/vocalist Julia Cumming whose vocals are extremely impressive at times hauntingly beautiful and at other moments raw and soulful.

Towards the end of the show Sunflower Bean joined forces with Gift bring both bands together on stage for a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes”, another cool moment during the show is when they were joined on stage for what they described as “One Night Only” with cellist Jenna Pascale.

A major highlight of the night came prior to the bands sort of encore when they welcomed their special guest to the stage, none other than NYC mayoral candidate and current New York State Assembly member Zohran Kwame Mamdani which isn’t all that shocking considering Sunflower Beans past support of certain political figures but Zohran clearly had the NYC support in Warsaw and he gave an upbeat and inspiring speech regarding making NYC affordable again for the blue collar folks of the city.

The band returned to the stage to close out the night with the songs “Easier Said” and “Someone Call a Doctor”, it was a true treat getting to experience a full Sunflower Bean performance. The show is filled with raw talent, fun, and great vibes. Sunflower Bean is on tour now, see if they’re coming your way by checking the remaining tour dates HERE!

See the Full Gallery of the Night Here!

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