Costa Mesa: even though psych-blues means nothing to you doesn’t mean you have to let loose all the underage stripper pump advertisements and walking Famous Stars and Straps catalogs just because the Crystal Antlers are playing Detroit Bar. Long Beach’s local heroes played three shows in one day before getting two hours of sleep and driving from New York in 72 hours to play last night’s homecoming show ‘neath a full July “antler moon.” Fresh off an all-night drive from Austin (SXSW déjà vu), the Antlers found themselves as the show’s impromptu headliners, playing songs off their recently-released EP and baffling the shit out of OC’s hip elite. Boys with sagging waistlines plugged their ears and walked out shaking their heads while two drunk girls—and one of every possible type of douchebag available—started an awkward skank pit in the unfortunately empty bar. And, in addition to the guy with a jacket tied around his head like a Karate Kid bandanna double-checking with me that they “really are from Alabama” before Googling more information from his cell phone, I walked in on a couple of Laguna Beach-types having sex in the pool table room. After the show, locals made $2 grilled cheeses on a portable griddle in the smoking area and the misunderstood Crystal Antlers slept in their own beds for the first time in a month-and-a-half. Welcome home!

– Sarah Bennett