It’s February 14th. You know, that day that people celebrate their loved ones. For the past few years, I’ve taken the opportunity to instead profess my love for the trio of sisters from the Valley that have shaken up rock n roll. February 14th will forever be considered ValenHAIM’s Day in my mind.
I first saw HAIM at Life is Beautiful in Las Vegas in 2013 knowing nothing about them. They instantly blew me away – Danielle slaying on the guitar with Este’s signature bass face and little sister Alana celebrating the fact she was finally old enough to actually enjoy Sin City. Este even gave her phone number out over the microphone to the crowd and I managed to exchange texts with her for several months before undoubtedly that number got bombarded.
It’s been more than three years since their debut album Days Are Gone rocked our worlds. I always come back to the same description of their sound: it’s Fleetwood Mac meets Wilson Phillips, fusing the best of those two worlds together.
I’ve been lucky enough to see them 10 times total, and living in LA has allowed me to bump into them a couple of times out at shows. The three sisters were at this special event that BANKS and Alvvays played a few years back and at the time I was nursing a black eye. After talking with them for 15 or 20 minutes I asked Este for a photo, and she said under the condition she got to pretend like she gave me the black eye. Every time I’ve bumped into her since then she’s remembered that, which makes me feel pretty dope.
I saw them a bunch of times on the festival circuit last year in the front row (Hangout, Governors Ball, Bonnaroo) and at the Fonda last year, falling in love with the two new tunes they brought with them as well as their cover of Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U.” I’m ready for that new album to light our fucking hearts on fire. Singing along to HAIM in the rain at Governors Ball was one of my favorite festival moments of 2016.
With that diatribe, I leave you with some of my favorite HAIM-related clips floating around on the internet:
