Britt Witt on April 16th, 2014

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Fresh out of SXSW and looking forward to a month-long tour in Europe, the party bus that is Together Pangea made a stop at the Troubadour on Thursday night in celebration of their major label debut, “Badillac.” No time passed before the L.A. locals announced, gesturing with a finger, “We are a band from the Eastside,” respectfully accepting their Westside fanbase and nodding to “traveling” friends from Echo Park.

• Photos by Zane Roessell

With their token party posse in tow and smothering the stage, the quintet brought their sweat, beer splashes and songs, new and old, to the ballistic all-ages crowd.
While longtime fans may look at the new tracks as a tamer side of the trio’s mania, there was no shortage of raw howls, beefy riffs and face-melting solos. From old goodie “Love & Alcohol” which singer William Keegan introduced as a crowd bummer, to “Sick Sh*t,” “No Feelin’,” and even a track they don’t play live often, “Alive,” the set was a well-rounded beast.

While polite O.C.-based opener The Garden made a point to warn “stage diving will get you kicked out,” there was no controlling the crowd as soon as Together Pangea took the stage. Leave it to these garage rockers to break the rules and get away with it, stuffing their set with non-stop crowd surfing, onstage make out sessions, moshing and stage diving. While the under-agers got their fair share of sneaky dives, bassist Danny Bengston not only impressed his audience by simultaneously playing and crowd surfing, but getting dropped to the floor (I guess beer doesn’t give you muscles) and shredding without a hitch.

The trio said sayonara with a quick cover of “Zombie” by the Cranberries (thanks for getting that stuck in our heads).