Up on Intraffik with Diane Birch, New Fidelity and New Maximum Donkey

I am up with a "night in photos" from Spaceland and El Cid at intraffik.com. If you have the time, check it out. Of course, many of the photos are posted here along with some different ones.

Up first for the night was Diane Birch at Spaceland. The lead singer for The Parson Redheads did an acoustic set to open the night. Towards the end of his set he said, "Thanks four being so quiet. You're a really good audience. That wasn't a joke." Of course, I think he'd have appreciated some claps and cheers, which happened after his final song. I think he appreciated the fact that people were listening and not chatting throughout his set.

Then Diane Birch came on stage. There were probably around 125 people at the time of her set. A nice crowd for a non-Monday night at Spaceland. The crowd was a mix of Spaceland regulars and Diane Birch fans. Maybe it was my own perception, but it did seem that some people who walked inside the doors of Spaceland had to take a couple seconds to orient themselves to their surroundings. She started her set around 10:15 p.m. and played until a tad past 11 p.m. It didn't seem like a 45 minute set. Included in this was an encore song, which she jokingly called, "This unexpected song." Afterward she stuck around to sign CDs and take photos with various folks. I'd gotten a CD at Hotel Cafe so I didn't need another. As with Hotel Cafe, there was a nice line for her CD. As I was leaving, I over-heard a couple guys who were a bit too enamored by her say, "Maybe we can be her agent out here in Los Angeles." What do you expect, I live in Hollywood. Observation: there was a guy in his 50s, who during one Diane Birch song decided to kick back on the stage. That's something I don't see all that often around the Los Angeles music scene.












I then headed off to El Cid to catch The New Fidelity and New Maximum Donkey. This was also a fun time. For a handful of songs, New Fidelity has a couple brass guys come up and join in the fun. I guess they didn't practice together all that much, because one of the brass guys said, "Rehearsals are for professionals." They sounded great.






And to end the night at El Cid, I caught New Maximum Donkey. This is probably only the second time I've seen them. I had to take off before their set ended. They were still going strong at 1 a.m.