The Mulhollands, Some Hear Explosions and Stellar Corpses at The Viper Room

It was off to The Viper Room to catch Stellar Corpses, The Mulhollands and Some Hear Explosions.

Due to arrival time, I only caught four or five songs of Stellar Corpses.  Sometimes you just wish you'd arrived earlier so that you could have seen a full set.  Energy driven and they had the fans jumping.

The Mulhollands were up next. One thing I noticed was that towards the end of their set, whenever Sarah Jeanette got near her synth The Viper Room hit the fog machine. One time she tricked them out. She headed towards her synth, but pulled back and the fog didn't create the effect that they wanted.

Comment of the night: We have a blond girl next, it depends on what you prefer.

Moment of the night: Jodie from The Shakers joining briefly with Sarah Jeanette in a duo moment.

Next up was Some Hear Explosions.  A fellow blogger, Picksysticks, was there to catch their set.  Dance mania.  Being a photographer, I loved the lighting that The Viper Room had for The Mulhollands.  When Some Hear Explosions came on stage, I immediately noticed that the lighting on stage was dimmed down.  Shoot.  Then I started to notice these flashes of white light hitting the stage.  Hmm.  I looked down and noticed that Some Hear Explosions had a couple light machines set up.  Whenever one of them stepped on one of the machines, it would trigger a white light.  And so I captured the below photos, because of that. 

Noticed about the Viper Room:  A runway was set up.  Made for some nice interaction between the bands and the audience.

Stellar Corpses






The Mulhollands






Some Hear Explosions

The Pocket Circus @ The Blue Star

After catching Laura Vall, it was off to The Blue Star to support The Pocket Circus. I arrived rather late. As I was walking to the Blue Star, I could hear Pu$$y Cow closing out their set. I must have missed one great set, because there was paint and confetti all over the place.  I also only saw a brief part of a YoYo competition. Oh well. I did catch Scot Nery do his comedian/juggling act. Danny from Pu$$y Cow helped out in the act -- as can be seen by a below photo. Z/Schnee and the Bleeding Livers was up next.  A couple dancers helped out with the song "Argyle."  Oh well, a short night with The Pocket Circus, but still great fun hanging with friends.


Scot Nery



Z/Schnee and the Bleeding Livers

The Mots Nouveaux and Steve Carlson at Hotel Cafe

There will be more on this night at some point on Intraffik so I'm posting just photos for now of The Mots Nouveaux and Steve Carlson.

The Mots Nouveaux









Steve Carlson

The Child, Army Navy and Baron Von Luxxury at Three Clubs

Okay, after Pershing Square (previous post), I still hadn't gotten my fill of music. I headed off to Three Clubs to catch Baron Von Luxxury, The Child and Army Navy.

Baron Von Luxxury had his dad in the audience.  He gave us a flamboyant set.  Interesting note:  his new album was going to be titled Women of a Certain Age.  He was informed that this is a trademarked (corrected based on below comment) term.  Strange.  

The Child -- I am definitely falling in love with this band.  They have this cool vibe that surrounds them.  Lead singer Holly Marilyn was trying to get the audience to stand up and dance.  Her attempts didn't work.  Three Club has steps that surround the stage.  Most folks were sitting on those steps, listening to The Child like they were doing an acoustic set.  I'm sure they won't have that problem for long.

Comment:  You were a fun audience, maybe a little boring.  No you weren't.  Yes you were.  No you weren't.  Yes you were.

Army Navy closed out the night.  Not doing any research here, but I believe I last saw Army Navy way back at Silverlake Lounge when they were playing with Local Natives.  That's three plus years ago.  I've always wanted to catch one of their sets again.  They were off the LA circuit for awhile, but I started to notice that they've been playing around town recently.

Comment:  Note to self:  don't write the set list in the same color as the stage lights.

What I need to learn.  The bands were a bit behind the posted times.  Just minutes before The Child was to hit the stage, all their friends seemed to arrive.  How do they know when to show up?  Well, maybe they were just hanging out in the bar . . .

Baron Von Luxxury





The Child







Army Navy

Black Flamingo and Spirit Vine at Pershing Square

It was off to Pershing Square to catch Black Flamingo and Spirit Vine.

I first saw Black Flamingo at Silverlake Jubilee.  I was enchanted and so I, of course, wanted to catch them again.  Pershing Square provided the perfect opportunity -- a lovely summer evening in Los Angeles.  (Between Silverlake Jubilee and Pershing Square, I saw a partial set of theirs at The Satellite.)  I love the vocals.  

Comment:  If you're out there, say "Here."

The headlining band for the night was Spirit Vine.  I've heard of this band, but this was the first time I saw a full set of theirs (I believe this is true -- I might have caught a partial set in the past).  They had folks dancing in front of the stage.  

Noticed:  there were two homeless guys who came up and starting dancing to the music.  Security quickly rushed over and told them to leave.  The homeless guys left, but tried to approach once again.  Security rushed over and one even took out a baton.  The baton wasn't used on the homeless guys, but was pulled for an obvious reason -- to put a little fear into the two guys.  I admit I don't know the history between these two guys and Pershing Square.  Maybe there is a history there, but from my perspective, it seemed over the top.

Black Flamingo







Spirit Vine

The Ross Sea Party @ Silverlake Lounge

The Ross Sea Party. After checking out Lonely Wild at Bootleg, I took off to Silverlake Lounge to catch the residency band, The Ross Sea Party. My goal is to do a Monday Night Photo column for Intraffik.com. Some sneak peak of some photos . . .

Interesting note:  They had paintings lined up in front of the stage. 

Before they went on stage, I noticed a couple folks taking photos of the "Salvation" sign that is above the stage.  Newbies to Silverlake Lounge?

The Lonely Wild at The Bootleg

The Lonely Wild. I really love this band and am frustrated that I can't ever convince any of my friends to come and check them out. One of these days I'll be able to get someone to come along.

New for me, I believe:  Jessi Williams playing the bass.


Comment of the night: We have 8 to 10 minutes? Okay, quick meeting, we have two songs for you.

The Hex Dispensers and The Arrivals playing Razorcake's 10 yr anniversary

Before heading out to the American Legion Hall in Highland Park, I had dinner with some friends so I wasn't able to catch all for bands. I did arrive in time for The Hex Dispensers and The Arrivals.

The Hex Dispensers got folks to form a mosh pit.  The Arrivals got folks laughing about men breasts.  This is probably the largest crowd I've ever seen at the American Legion Hall -- not that I've been here for a lot of concerts.

The Hex Dispensers





The Arrivals

Stone Darling and Whispering Pines @ The Satellite

It was off to The Satellite to continue my normal Monday rotation to catch the various residency bands. Up first was Whispering Pines and then it was the residency band, Stone Darling.

Whispering Pines gave an inspiring set.  Someone from the audience yelled out, "Ten more songs."  A person from the band yelled out, "Ten more beers."  The response, "Ten more songs.  I can't drink ten more beers."  I wasn't sure what to expect from Stone Darling.  I had never seen them before and kept on wanting to call them Summer Darling.  I am happy I caught them and quickly "Liked" them on Facebook.  To end their set, Whispering Pines joined them on stage.

Comment:  Ben and Shaun, report to the stage.

Thought on Summer Darling:  I'm sure everyone has a role in a band.  I suspect the drummer is the no-nonsense type when it comes to practice or sets.  I overheard her saying, "Are we playing or what?"   If I had to make a bet on who makes sure things get accomplished, I'd place my bet on her.

Whispering Pines







Stone Darling

A Movie Review: Crazy Stupid Love

Crazy Stupid Love. A movie that focuses in on love and how crazy and stupid it can get sometimes. We have Cal (Steve Carell) who over dinner learns that his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), wants a divorce. At the same time, his young son, Robbie (Jonah Bobo), is expressing his love for the baby sister, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton). And we have Jacob (Ryan Gosling), picking up random women at the bar, but being rejected by one who might actually be his soul mate, Hannah (Emma Stone).

This is a multi-generational story of love and it works marvelously: puppy love to first committed relationship to perhaps the ending arc of a long-term relationship. It is a well acted out movie led by the driving forces of the movie, Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling. You also find yourself falling in love with Emma Stone and Julianne Moore.

A Movie Review: Cowboys and Aliens

Cowboys and Aliens. We have Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) in the desert, he has lost his memory. Horse riders come up, asking for directions. They see a strange devise attached to his arm and assume it is a sophisticated handcuff. They decide to take him in as they assume there might be an award. Bad mistake. Jake wonders into a town where he soon encounters a couple interesting folk: Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde) who has an interest in Jake and Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) who pretty much rules the town. We quickly learn there are issues between Colonel Dolarhyde and Jake Lonergan. Those are quickly put to the side when a common enemy comes around – aliens.

I know this movie isn’t winning over the critics and it is under-performing at the box office (I could see it still making $100m, but that is probably a far cry from what was hoped), but I enjoyed this cowboys and aliens genre mix. It was just fun watching cowboys dashing off after aliens who obviously had vastly superior technology.

The Maxies, Talky Tina and maybe (White Night The Regressions) at Blue Star

I was reading a book when a friend sent a text Saturday evening, asking if I wanted to head over to the Blue Star to catch some bands. Of course . . .

Now I have to admit that I'm not sure about the names of a couple of the bands. I do know that Talky Tina and The Maxies were the 2nd and 3rd bands I saw. As for the first and last bands I saw, maybe White Night and The Regressions.  Talky Tina was trying to figure out the names of the two bands that played before them, but no one in the audience seemed to know.  Oh well.  And the last band didn't introduce themselves -- or I missed it.  Bummer.  If anyone comes across this blog and knows the answer, please let me know.

Talky Tina gave us some love from San Jose.  They joked about the fact that they might have been the oldest band at Blue Star.  The Maxies put on a show with folks spraying silly string all over the stage.  You can see the aftermath below.  It got slippery on stage.  A friend jumped on stage towards the end and immediately slipped -- sheepish embarrassment.  As the next band was getting ready to go on stage, I over-heard someone say, "Good luck with all that."

A great last minute night of music.

White Night






Talky Tina





The Maxies









The Regressions