THE ELEPHANTE IN THE ROOM: “Call me on the phone,” sings Dante Elephante leader/romancer Ruben Zarate on the band’s newest single, “Call Me (On the Phone)” — so I did, to talk about the year ahead. In the song of funky vulnerability, Zarate sings, “It says, I have to be someone I’m not — so much stronger.”
This year, Dante Elephante is something new altogether. Boasting a fresh lineup flush with a horn section and some of the area’s best young musicians, the newly revived act plays at SOhO Restaurant & Music Club (1221 State St.) on Friday, March 2, at 8:30 p.m. It’s a star-studded night comprising some of the 805’s fellow great contemporary indie rockers: Clean Spill, Lvxe, and Made Up People. While many aspiring acts have come and gone through the aught-teen’s (or whatever you call the last decade), these polished acts have held out — and it’s our luck they’ve lasted.
This is set to be the biggest year yet for the S.B. band that has made a career of balancing clever rock hooks and Ronettes-level emotion, strength, and sensitivity. With its second (and strongest) album, Rare Attractions, poised for a 2018 release, an upcoming SXSW date in mid-March, and KjEE spins, things are shaping up for the band that formed at UCSB playing house parties.
