Local rock & roll troubadours The Vincenzos perform at the Cinema Bar on Sunday, so main man Vin Brue told the News about what they have in store for Culver City…
When did you start playing and performing?
I started teaching myself guitar and tinkering around with other instruments back in the year 2000 and pretty immediately started writing songs and forming bands, which I’ve been doing ever since–first with The South Jersey Seashore Lifeguard Convention Band, then Lifeguard Nights, then Vincent Brue & the Long Branch Davidians. The Vincenzos came about in late 2023 when my wife and I decided to come out to LA for 6 months to escape the dreary NJ winter (apologies to the Garden State), and as soon as I got here in late October my friend Scott Schoenberg from Hair By Leonard asked if I wanted to do a set with them at the Redwood Bar and Grill at the end of January 2024.
I figured that gave me about three months to put together a band, so I rounded up a couple of friends I’d met at the Cinema Bar Open Mic Revival in Culver City: David Gonzalez (bass) and Katie Nicholson (keys/vocals)–and then found our drummer Alejandra on Craigslist, who almost immediately booked us a gig (even though we had about a 12 minute set and had never all practiced in the same room together). At that first gig we didn’t have a band name yet and we were hanging out back before our set when the bartender opened the door and yelled “Hey Vincenzos, you’re up!” and The Vincenzos were born. We ended playing a bunch more wild gigs all over town over the next couple months, and I think the Redwood Bar gig ended up being like our sixth show instead of our first!
Describe your sound…
It’s all rock ‘n’ roll to me, but I have a lot of different influences and I tend to write based on whatever feeling it is that I’m feeling at the time, whether it be happy or sad or silly or horny or angry, so there’s a little bit of punk/country/folk/indie in there, even a hint of funk at times. Some of my biggest influences are Prince, Morphine, Tom Waits, David Berman, Talking Heads, Johnny Cash, Springsteen, Zappa. They’re all in there somewhere. There’s definitely a bit of dark humor with the lyrics and I try to incorporate a little bit of comedy/storytelling into our live shows as well to kinda add another layer to our act.
What are your career highlights so far?
The Vincenzos are still relatively young so most of our highlights so far are just playing fun shows and getting the crowd dancing, laughing, or touching their hearts! Recently a friend back in New Jersey texted me that he heard one of Vincent Brue & the Long Branch Davidians (my NJ band) songs on the radio out there which was pretty exciting. One of my old band Lifeguard Nights’ songs (“Amen”) was nominated for Song of the Year at the Asbury Park Music Awards a while back and that was cool. But going on tour with my bands will always be the highlight for me. I really love traveling and meeting new people and there’s really nothing better than being on the road with your friends and playing shows in new places every night. Hope to get to do that again soon!
What recorded music do you have available?
The Vincenzos are in the middle of recording our debut album at the moment, and you can hear snippets of both “The Strays Howl” and “Life is Pain” on the Vincenzos’ Instagram page. My other band Vincent Brue & the Long Branch Davidians released our debut full length album We Didn’t Start the Fire at the end of 2023 and just recorded a follow up a couple weeks ago while I was back East. I also have about seven or eight solo albums up on Spotify/Apple/Etc.
Have you performed at the Cinema Bar before? Any memories?
The Vincenzos have done a couple shows at Cinema Bar before but don’t have many memories thanks to that Jagermeister machine! Just kidding. Cinema Bar is probably like 90 percent of the reason my wife and I decided to move to L.A. It’s a really special place with free live music just about every night of the week, all the staff and regulars and incredible people. It’s just a really great community which I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of and I feel like everyone there feels the same. Places like that are harder and harder to find these days and I always look forward to playing there!
What can the audience expect from the set this time?
More of our patented Vincenzos rock and roll, with a handful of new songs we’ve been working on which we’re excited about, and probably with some new tales from the past six weeks I spent in NJ sprinkled in there as well. Good times, as always!
What else do you have coming up?
Well now that I’m back and settled in LA I’m going to focus on getting the debut Vincenzos recordings finished and will hopefully be releasing a few singles from the soon with some accompanying music videos, and I’m sure we’ll be doing a bunch of shows to celebrate those momentous occasions! Also going to be finishing up the Long Branch Davidians second album and possibly doing some shows with them out here as well. Just going to keep plugging away and having fun with it!
The Vincenzos perform at 6 p.m. on Sunday, July 14 at the Cinema Bar. Go to thecinemabar.com for more information about the show.
Elsewhere this week
The Culver Hotel will be hosting the likes of Sylvia & the Rhythm Boys, and Scotty Bramer. Go to culverhotel.com for more info.
The next show at Boulevard Music is Bernie Pearl, on Saturday, July 13. Go to boulevardmusic.com for more info.
