Ginger Root: The Wheel Tour Review
Friday night, November 22, right before heading home for my Thanksgiving break, I caught the Ginger Root show at the Lodge Room in Highland Park, the last stop on their “The Wheel” tour and their third night that round in LA. The project of Huntington Beach native Cameron Lew, Ginger Root combines groovy, funky music (Lew calls it “aggressive elevator soul”) with an urban retro aesthetic that draws upon film, anime, and Japanese culture. This smaller, more focused tour took place a year after the band’s tour for their 2024 album SHINBANGUMI. For SHINBANGUMI, which means “new program”, Lew expanded upon the 80s Japanese alternative universe he has been building since his 2022 EP Nisemono by filming music videos for every song on the new album and combining them all into a short film.
The band played through the entire album as the short film was projected behind them on a screen. It created a full experience of Ginger Root’s art and talent–the music videos were not a gimmick to hold attention, but completed the concept. And the band’s musical skill was on full display, especially during groovy bass solos such as in “All Night.” It was obvious that Lew and his band are dedicated to their music and enjoy performing it. Indeed, the entire premise of the SHINBANGUMI short film is that Lew is being pressured by his label to recreate his prior success with his song “Loretta” for a cheap cash grab. The humorous, campy film then depicts Lew getting fired for staying true to his creative integrity and gathering together a scrappy band of talent to help him record his own new musical program.
The second half of the show brought out the eagerly anticipated Wheel. Before the tour, fans had voted on what songs they wanted to place on the wheel for a chance to be played live. Lew got the crowd chanting “Spin. The. Wheel!” and cheering on each song it landed on. Lew has been making music as Ginger Root since 2017 and thus has an extensive backlist of songs to choose from. I had hoped a lucky spin would land on his cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” but it was not to be. We did, however, get some old goodies, such as “Out of State,” “Weather,” and “Mahjong Room.” One of my favorites was “Juban District,” off his City Slicker EP, where he first experimented with creating a narrative soundtrack. The Wheel landing on “Loretta” provoked some groaning from Lew, as the popular song he gets tired of playing. To add some variety, he employed a secondary wheel for the song, which determined the version we got, with options such as “Loretta” in Japanese, the mysterious and unreleased “Loretta 2,” Lew not playing the song and instead playing whatever he wanted, and the one it landed on that show: “Loretta (Karaoke Version)” where the crowd got to sing the words instead.
One of the best things about going to shows in LA is that not only do I get to hear music from many artists I love, both popular and less widely-known, but the smaller shows often feel intimate and familial, because, many times, they are. Here was no exception. With Lew’s 30th birthday only a few days away, birthday hats were donned, a cake brought out, and “Happy Birthday” was sung. On my right was the sectioned-off guest section where several friends and family members of the band were sitting. Lew reminisced on the hundred or so previous shows he’d played around LA and Orange County, and shared his plans for the future, plans that meant this show would be his last in the states for a long while. As a newer fan of Ginger Root, I felt a little guilty when he jokingly accosted anyone who was at a show for the first time (the band has played this area more than anywhere else, what was my excuse?). But I’m glad I was able to experience their small but electrifying show before a long hiatus–at least for America. It sounds like Lew might be taking his funky fictional Japan to a very real one very shortly.
