Local music shop hosts Pride Month concert

Local members of the LGBTQ community were offered a chance to see themselves on stage on Saturday at Impulse Music’s Pride concert.

The concert, which was also a fundraiser for three local LGBTQ organizations, featured a lineup of bands from the community and an art gallery showing works from LGBTQ artists. The bands varied in genre, ranging from synth-pop and indie to surf-punk, rock, and pop. Local bands included Stiletto Fox and Picture Naomi, and bands from Los Angeles included D4U6HT3R and Cayley Spivey.

The audience seemed to dig this eclectic diversity of sights and sounds, but having people in the community see representation on the stage in their hometown was the main goal of the event, according to Quynn Lubs, event organizer for Impulse.

“It’s important for people who are a part of the LGBTQ community to know that there are spaces here who will accept you and support you, because I grew up here and it’s not a very supportive city for the LGBTQ community, from my point of view,” said Lubs. “So to be able to, like, have a space where we’re to have events like this can change history, is a way to support the community out here… so it’s just really great to be able to provide that for people.”

Lubs said it was great for the event to finally come to fruition, after having been delayed for a year due to the pandemic, and that partnering with local organizations was an important aspect of the event.

“It’s basically just to show [that] representation matters and that a music store is for everybody, not just for one specific group,” said Lubs.

Ritchie Hagen, vice president of QueerSCV, said it was important for people in the community to not just see representation in their area, but specifically artistic representation.

“There’s so much of the arts community is also queer,” said Hagen. “That includes music, of course, and I’m sure if it weren’t for this event, if it weren’t for this location as well, a lot of these queer bands and musicians might still be feeling isolated.”

Chris Torres/The Signal (Left) Members of the audience dance together while Giovanna Claro-Quinn, whose artist name is D4U6Ht3R, performs a song during the Impulse Shows at the Stage Door pride concert event for charity at Impulse Music Company in Canyon Country. (Right) Nick Perez, the lead singer of the band named Picture Naomi, plays the guitar while performing.

Chris Torres/The Signal Guitarist Joshua Aguilera, lead singer Nick Perez, and bass guitarist Alexander Benitez, of the band named Picture Naomi, perform.