Formed in Los Angeles in 2017, Cheekface pairs talk-sung humor with brisk, guitar-led indie rock.
LA wit, dance-floor skip
Singer-guitarist Greg Katz and bassist Amanda Tannen, with drummer Mark Edwards, build songs that feel like group slogans set to a bounce.
Songs you might catch
With
Bodega opening, expect a night that tilts witty and rhythmic, where spoken lines cut through a tight backbeat.
Likely anchors include
Emotional Rent Control,
Dry Heat/Nice Town,
Listen to Your Heart., and
We Need a Bigger Dumpster.
The room usually mixes zine-makers, sharp office folks in band tees, and local DIY heads, and they sing the choruses like they own them.
Lesser-known: Katz runs New Professor Records, and the band writes many hooks to work as call-and-response so crowds become part of the arrangement.
Treat the set and production notes here as informed guesses, because this band pivots night to night.
Cheekface People and the In-Jokes You Will Hear
Slogans, claps, and side-eyes
The crowd feels like a book club that decided to dance, swapping nods when a line hits close to home.
You will see plain tees with odd slogans, thrifted button-downs, and tote bags with zines or notebooks peeking out.
Fans chant the short slogans, clap on the off-beats, and laugh when the band lands a dry aside, then jump back into the hook.
There is a habit of shouting the last word of a chorus together, which turns songs into little rallies without turning pushy.
Merch leans text-first, with simple fonts and in-joke phrases, plus a few bright caps and the occasional risograph poster.
Community over cool
Between sets, people trade favorite one-liners from past shows and compare how the band flipped an ending in their city.
It is casual and kind, more community-center energy than rock pageant, and that mood seems to make the lyrics hit harder.
How Cheekface Builds the Groove on Stage
Words first, groove second
Live,
Cheekface keeps the vocal front and dry, so the punch lines, asides, and call-and-response land clean.
Guitars stay mostly clean and clipped, with upstrokes and quick stabs that leave space for the bass to carry the hook.
The bass lines act like second melodies, often brighter in the mix than records, while the drums drive mid-tempo chug with sharp stops.
They tend to push tempos a notch faster on stage, trimming intros so songs start on the lyric and feel immediate.
A common switch-up is tagging the last chorus and letting Katz ad-lib fresh lines over a two-chord loop as the band vamps.
Small moves, big effect
When dynamics drop, Tannen's harmony and handclaps fill the edges, then the band snaps back in on a tight snare pickup.
Lighting is simple and warm, designed to keep faces visible and the jokes audible rather than chase big spectacle.
If You Like Cheekface, You Might Drift This Way
Nearby lanes on the map
Fans of
Parquet Courts will relate to the wiry riffs and talky delivery that still hits a dance pulse.
Dry Cleaning speaks-sings over glassy guitars too, but leans cooler and more minimal, which overlaps with
Cheekface's clipped wit.
If you like story-forward indie with bite,
Yard Act brings a similar chant-ready swing and crowd call-outs.
Courtney Barnett connects on conversational vocals and everyday detail, trading fuzz bursts for shrug-and-smile wisdom.
And yes,
Bodega sits in the same lane, with tight, percussive grooves and art-school smarts that spark the room.
These artists pull crowds who enjoy clever lines you can shout and grooves that keep feet moving without drowning the words.
