Summer Series:
The Favorites
Is there a better way to start off a summer music post than to mention one of your favorite local bands? Nope. It was off to On the Roxy to catch The Mulhollands. After finding my free parking spot (in past columns, I’ve provided locations for free parking, but it was suggested that for the Sunset Strip I should just keep my mouth shut), I walked up the stairs to On the Roxy and caught part of an acoustic set by Diana Gone Wrong’s lead singer. I hadn’t seen her band in almost two years, but I remembered exactly where I’d caught them: Skinny’s in North Hollywood. Sometimes my memory serves me well. Also there that night was Celeste from Underwater City People. She joined in on a song for the acoustic duo of Donato McDermott and Everett Connors. The crowd inside On the Roxy started to build up as the countdown to The Mulhollands set began. They didn’t disappoint as they gave us a fun set, which include singing atop the bar counter. Well, maybe I should take that “disappoint” word back. There was a demand for two more songs, but they just gave us one. The night was put on by Bohemian Basement. Bohemian Basement. On the Rox. Down. Up. Nevermind, my own word play.
Diana Gone Wrong
Everette Connors and Donato McDermott (w/ special guest from Celeste Kim)
The Mulhollands
A couple days later it was off to The Satellite to catch The Lonely Wild and Family of the Year. I’ve followed The Mulhollands for awhile, but it was just last year that I caught up with these two bands and their Americana inspiration. The one thing I’ve noticed about The Lonely Wild (or maybe it is just my imagination) is that their sets are either of two contrasting sounds: sometimes they let the melody linger and other times they’re just rocking out. On this night, they let the melody linger. Family of the Year closed out the night with a set that had the crowd cheering at the end.
The Lonely Wild
Family of the Year
It was off to Harvard and Stone to catch a band called The Child. The keyboardist is Lauren Rocket of Rocket fame. She was dressed in black versus her more colorful style as a Rocket. They gave us a quick six song set. A man standing next to me made sure I knew that it was Lauren Rocket that I was photographing. I learned that he is Brad Elterman, a photographer who photographed The Runaways, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson and many others. After The Child, I stuck around for Papercranes. It was their Tuesday night residency at Harvard and Stone. My how-things-can-happen-around-me-while-I’m-taking-photos story: The lead singer left the stage and maneuvered her way through the crowd. I felt it was a perfect time to catch some photos of the rest of the band. Before I knew it, out of the corner of my eye I noticed that she was above us, singing from a steel platform that hangs from the ceiling. I took a few more photos of the band and once again before I knew it she had slid down a pole and was back on the stage.
The Child
Papercranes
Four Straight Days
On a Saturday night it was off to see 10,000 Maniacs at Pershing Square. I think there was one person who thought the lead singer was Natalie Merchant or maybe he was just being a jerk and his yelling out, “Natalie Merchant”, was meant to imply that 10,000 Maniacs wasn’t the same without Merchant. I did not care that Merchant had long ago left the band as I still loved their set. As for the lead singer, “I’ve been with 10,000 Maniacs for awhile. In fact, I was a backup singer when Natalie Merchant was around. If you look at the cover of the MTV Unplugged CD, I’m the blurry girl in the background.” Sunday I hung out with some friends at Pasadena Levitt Pavilion where The Belle Brigade was holding court. First up was an unexpected addition to the night, Little Hurricane, a two piece band that gave us a rocking start to the night. As for Belle Brigade, this is probably a set they will want to forget or possibly laugh about later when time heals. They let everyone know immediately that they were down a guitarist. They had gone out to eat and afterwards their guitarist came down with a severe migraine. Then I began to notice that Barbara wasn’t as active as she normally is (from seeing them at Satellite). For their final song “Losers” I saw her run off stage in the middle of the song, leaving her brother to finish up. After the band left the stage, a demand was made for an encore. The MC went to get them, but then came back out to announce that unfortunately, Belle Brigade wouldn’t be able to continue due to Barbara coming down with food poisoning. Too much MSG was used by that restaurant, I say. Monday it was off to The Bootleg to catch Robert Francis. His sister used to be part of the Kiss or Kill Club scene (I was late to the Kiss or Kill scene, so this is based on outside input). It was actually an interesting combination of music genres that night. The night opened up with Taylor Locke, a singer songwriter. Up second was Boots Electric, a solid rock band with a lead singer who gives off the aura of presiding over an evil religious revival meeting. There was some discussion regarding the age of the lead singer’s girlfriend, bassist. My friend insisted that she heard she was only 15. I insisted that I heard they met when she was 15 in Mexico City. In the audience for Boots Electric, I saw Barb Wire Dolls who usually play the Sunset Strip. Robert Francis closed out the night, a singer-songwriter. This interesting switch of genres also resulted in a near complete change over in the audience in between the sets of Boots Electric and Raining Jane. He gave us an hour and 20 minute set and his sister joined for a handful of songs. To end the streak of four days, I hung out with our Intraffik editor at Hotel Café to catch Raining Jane. I came across this band due to my following of Lucy Schwartz. I soon learned that various members from this band play backup for Lucy Schwartz. I have to say that this band definitely isn’t just some backup band for Lucy Schwartz. They gave us a lovely set though perhaps with violent overtones, “Buy our record or I’ll hit you in the throat.”
And since I mentioned Lucy Schwartz so much in the above paragraph, I may as well note that I headed off to the Bronson Caves on September 11th to catch her with The Heartstrings (a string quartet named no doubt after a line in her song, ‘Take a Picture’). This was my first time ever at the Bronson Caves. I’ve hung out within yards of these caves and never even knew the caves were there. Along with perhaps 75 other individuals, I got to listen to a wonderful 45 minute set.
10,000 Maniacs
Little Hurricane
The Belle Brigade
Taylor Locke
Boots Electric
Robert Francis
Raining Jane
Lucy Schwartz
Summer Ends with Tradition and a New Addition
This is my third summer post. Each time I’ve mentioned Aaron Beaumont. Do you think I would do a third post and miss this tradition? Aaron Beaumont has now joined forces with Emma Fitzpatrick to form the band The Mots Nouveaux – yeah, admittedly a bit complicated to pronounce if you are clueless about the French language (count me as one of them). It was off to Hotel Café to catch their set. There is still the 1920s influence, but with Emma’s vocals there is an added element of reflective poetry.
Laura Vall ends this summer series. A friend handed me a flier about a CD release party for someone named Laura Vall. It was being held at a place called Revival, which is all the way out in Venice. Hmm . . . that’s far, was the first thought to come to mind. I decided to go, however. And since I am one of the few folks in Los Angeles without a smart phone, I actually got lost a couple times trying to find the place. I did make it with plenty of time to spare. What a beautiful set. As a gift for attending the release party, everyone received a CD. I’ve listened to that CD a number of times in the past couple weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment