IO Echo at the Troubadour

I last saw IO Echo in February at The Roxy. After over six months, it was definitely time to catch one of their sets again. I wasn't sure what to expect. I know their show at The Roxy was well attended, but it was also a promoted event by KROQ (if I recall correctly.) On the other hand, they recently opened up for Nine Inch Nails.

I arrived at the Troubadour at around 9:15 p.m. I got there just in time to catch Funeral Party. At the time, there were probably 50 people inside the Troubadour. I couldn't help but wonder if they were in for a disappointing attendance figure.



I had no need to worry about a disappointing attendance figure. As Funeral Party played their set, folks started to trickle through the door. By the time IO Echo got onto the stage, the Troubadour must have been close to a sold out status.

Troubadour isn't the biggest venue and IO Echo isn't the biggest band (yet), but it sure felt like a mini-big time band setting. As the stage was getting set up, someone came out and tossed out a handful of IO Echo t-shirts. The crowd went crazy for them. And then the lights went out and a cheer went up. They didn't come out on stage; however. An emcee came out to introduce them. Note: it is probably still too early to tell 9/11 jokes/comparisons. The emcee said something like, "If IO Echo was a storm, they'd be the 9/11 of storms." The crowd actually went quiet. Perhaps it was my imagination, but the crowd definitely seemed to just quiet down.

The error in comment was soon forgotten, because IO Echo came out on stage and the crowd went crazy. As you can see below, IO wore a white costume that billowed throughout the set.









The below photo shows the billowing of the dress. I said to myself that it billowed like a balloon. She said it looked like an angry marshmallow.

I love the below photo.



The below is a photo taken during my favorite song, "I'm on Fire."







The one thought about IO and her performance. She looked in command of the stage. She's always given a great performance so perhaps I should restate the above. During this set, she climbed up the lighting structure, which I've seen her do before so it isn't like she's ever been a performer to just stand around in one place; however, for some reason, I just felt there was a difference this time around versus previous shows. Trying to nail down something here: maybe my sense was that she was able to better relate to the audience. I'll stick to that.



Crowd. As mentioned, the Troubadour was packed. I was able to get myself into the second row. A young lady pushed herself in front of me, pushing me back a bit. She asked if it was cool. I said sure, but then a couple decided to join her, which pushed me even further back. Okay, not so cool. I wasn't that far back, but it hindered my ability to get additional photos -- not that I don't have plenty posted here.

IO Echo ended their set with "Doorway."

They were cheered for an encore and came back on stage with a cover song. She ended the set with an Asian-like bow to the audience.

My last serious thought of the night while watching their set, "She paces the stage like a caged tiger. Beautiful and yet dangerous."

And as in previous blogs on IO Echo, if you'd like to read a past column I wrote up on intraffik.com, please click on the link.

A Movie Review: The Hurt Locker

"The Hurt Locker". Interesting flick though I thought it went on a tad long. I talked briefly about this movie with a friend and he had a disagreement with me about one of my thoughts about the movie. My thought is as follows: I found it interesting how the movie portrayed the three main characters. One just loved being out there. Another just wanted to get through his tour of duty. The third was nearing a mental breakdown and felt sure he was going to die. I felt this highlighted how solders react to the mental stress.

One of the great moments in the movie is the sniper scene. It was just this intense scene filled with the stress of the moment. What was also intense was the confinement of urban warfare and never being sure who is a civilian and who is an enemy. The stress for me was over-whelming at times.

The Mulhollands and The New Hotness at Skinny's

I am on my Mulhollands kick and am enjoying it. Yes. Anyways I showed up at Skinny's for the second Monday in a row and ran into The New Hotness. I hadn't seen them in awhile. I've seen them individually around town, checking out bands that we both know but I've always missed them when they're actually playing a set. What do I love about The New Hotness. I love their riffs. They're long riffs that most local rock bands are unwilling to do.



I just love the below photo.



Then the The Mulhollands took the stage. There was a much larger audience this time around versus the previous Monday's set. That was awesome. A lot of people I didn't recognize.
















The one unfortunate thing about their set was that a guy showed up who dropped his pants during their last song. He also did the same thing at a Fox and Hounds show a couple months back. I personally think he's a big jerk for doing that. Maybe some find it amusing? I find it disgusting.

A movie review: District 9

"District 9". This is a movie that I enjoyed watching, but then out came a ton of questions – similar to my experience with Star Trek.

So here are my questions:

1. You obviously have an advance civilization that ends up stalling in your world. Now most of the aliens aren’t all that smart, admittedly, but there is still this massive spaceship above a major world city. The world decides to mistreat them and even experiment on them. Wouldn’t in the back of your mind you might think, “What if others come to rescue them and they see how we’ve treated them?" Would you really want an advance civilization seeing you torture their race?

2. At the end of the movie, the alien, Christopher Johnson, takes a spacecraft up to the spaceship. And the spaceship starts up. Now yes, the ships and weapons run off of bio-metrics or whatever, but wouldn’t you think that the world governments would have torn that ship apart over the course of 28 years?

3. And so there is video of the spacecraft falling to earth way back 28 years ago. Is it that easy to hide a spacecraft? Metal detectors perhaps?

A Movie Review: Julie and Julia

"Julie and Julia". So first off, I took a day off from work and decided to check out a movie. I decided to see "Julie and Julia". The theater was nearly sold out. Now admittedly it was in one of the small theaters, but for an 11:20 a.m showing, I was rather impressed that so many people were there. I have to say I enjoyed the movie. Meryl Streep was great. But I have to give it up for Amy Adams. I think she is the star of the movie even though screen time seems rather evenly split between Streep and Adams. This was a great movie to see after seeing so many popcorn summer movies.

A Movie Review: Bandslam

Bandslam.This movie almost makes it to greatness, but falls short. I saw this based on reading the Deadlinehollywood blog. I wouldn’t have given the movie a thought if it wasn’t for that blog. The first few minutes were just painful. I felt like I’d made a big mistake listening to the blog. There was a cafeteria scene at the beginning when Will first attends his new school in New Jersey. Everyone started going crazy for the upcoming Bandslam. Oh, such a painful scene. But afterwards it started to pick up. I left with a smile on my face. Now if someone wants to see a really cool under-appreciated high school movie, I’d suggest seeing “Brick” before “Bandslam,” but “Bandslam” isn’t an awful movie so it is worth a rental look though perhaps not a theater look.

The Mulhollands and Fat City Reprise @ Skinny's

Right after hanging out with friends at the LA County Fair, I quickly headed home to take a shower and then off I went to Skinny's to catch The Mulhollands. It was awhile since I last saw them play. For those interested, they're the residency band at Skinny's for the month of September.

Due to the shower I took before heading out, I only caught the last 20 seconds of The Shakers. Up next were The Mulhollands. I swear that from the first song I realized how much I missed them.

Here are the boys of the band all left alone, because . . .

Sarah Jeanette took a turn singing atop a lounge seat.

It was a lovely set.

Up next was Fat City Reprise. I was a bit tired from hanging out all day so I only stuck around for three songs before heading off home. I will say this much, they opened with an awesome song. This was the second time I caught one of their sets. The first time was way back in February-ish at The Roxy.

Pity Party and Happy Hollows @ Spaceland

I headed off to Spaceland to catch Pity Party and Happy Hollows. I'm fan of Pity Party though I have to admit I believe the last time I saw them was February 2008. As for Happy Hollows, this was my second time seeing them. I didn't even know that Pity Party was playing at Spaceland until a friend mentioned it to me while we were catching Local Natives. Well, I had to go hangout and catch them. As always, they rocked it. If you've never seen Pity Party, they're this awesome two piece band.

I love how they end their shows. She just lays her head on the keyboards and he just walks off the set.

Next up was Happy Hollows. Now I have to admit that the first time I saw them I didn't like them at all. So I came in this time with some skepticism, but walked away loving them. Perhaps the first time my expectations were so high based on what friends had said about them that I was due for some disappointment, but this time around I just couldn't help but love them. They had an awesome fan base with a young lady standing behind me going totally crazy dancing. And totally crazy in an awesome way.

I have to say I absolutely love this photo.

Some guest singers for a couple songs. Actually there were officially only three. The one most to the right of the photo jumped up on stage for the last song. She was obviously friends with the rest of them.

Happy Hollows did something that few bands do at Spaceland. They had an encore song. I tell you I take back my initial feelings towards this band. They're awesome.

Local Natives final show at Spaceland

Local Natives played their last residency night at Spaceland on August 31st so yes this is a bit of a dated post. I will do a brief write-up in intraffik.com on the night so this is going to be short and sweet. Now admittedly, I've already done a write-up on Local Natives for intraffik.com, but this upcoming intraffik.com article will be a bunch of quick hit sort of notes on various bands.





So I love the below photo even though it is slightly out of focus.

It wasn't as entertaining as I thought: Forest Lawn

Michael Jackson got buried at Forest Lawn on Thursday. Since I live near Forest Lawn, I decided to take a walk over to see what was going on. The main central point for the fans was at Los Feliz Rd. and Glendale Ave. The police yellow tape started at this intersection.

There were various reporters out and about. I don't recognize the below reporter at all.

The Glendale police were hanging around.

Here's someone holding up an Ebony magazine.

Someone put together a rather large banner.

I then decided to head off to other areas that connect to Forest Lawn. As I was walking to a new spot a woman came up to me and frantically asked, "Do you know if the Michael Jackson family has arrived yet via the Los Feliz/Glendale area?" I told her, "I don't really know."

The below photo is at the E. Cerritos/Brand intersection. There was less of a crowd here, but if someone wanted to see the entrance of Forest Lawn this was a much better area to see that. The reporter was trying to get the crowd there to sing a Michael Jackson song.

As you can see, from this location you could see directly into Forest Lawn.

The below photo is near the Glendale Ave/San Fernando Rd. There were a handful of folks hanging out on the south side of San Fernando Rd, but as mentioned most of the fans were parked out at Los Feliz and Glendale.

As I was walking around this area a guy at a bus stop asked me, "What's going on here?" I told him, "Michael Jackson is getting buried today." He responded, "Oh."

A shot from Cerritos as I was doing my U-turn walk. I believe this is around 7:30 p.m. I believe the family came by around 8 p.m. so if I'd stuck around a bit longer I might have gotten some photos of the caravan. Oh well. I overheard a lady saying that she'd been at this specific spot since 5:30 p.m.

Here's a guy at the Glendale/Los Feliz area doing some Michael Jackson moves. I'm not sure if the lady next to him is a reporter. She seemed rather unimpressed and amused during the guy's dance. There were also a couple other guys waiting in the wings, eager to get interviewed.

A Movie Review: Funny People

"Funny People." I was looking forward to this movie. From what I could tell, reviews were relatively positive though I did read complaints about the length of the movie and the use of Judd Apatow's wife. And before I actually saw the movie, I knew that it wasn't meant to deliver 140 minutes of humor.

I have to say I liked the movie though there are some weaknesses; therefore, I didn't love the movie. One weakness I'd say was the last 30-40 minutes where Judd Apatow's wife becomes more of a central character. I don't think the weakness is due to her acting. I think the weakness is due to the lack of character clarification. I could actually understand why George Simmons (Adam Sandler) would cheat on her. In the film, George explains that he cheated because he had too much temptation around him. I'd argue that it was because Laura (Leslie Mann) was too clingy and made rather impulsive decisions. She was a bit annoying. The other weakness is the Ira Wright (Seth Rogen) character. I think he was a bit conniving and I wish this was explored more in the sense that George learned that Ira shut out his friend Leo Koenig (Jonah Hill) from helping write jokes for George.

I honestly didn't see it as a downer movie. Obviously, for portions of the movie, you see George being extremely depressed but you also see moments of understated humor tied to those moments.

There is an element of drama to the movie. For example, you see George struggling and you almost expect him to fully breakdown, but he is able to hold it together.

You also see moments where the more veteran comedian provides these reflections and advice to the younger comedian, very mentor-ish moments.

Maxim Ludwig @ Hotel Cafe

This is a bit dated. I head off to Hotel Cafe to see Maxim Ludwig with a friend. It was a fun night. The first band up was Right the Stars. This is a band that could fit perfectly well at Spaceland.



The highlight was Maxim Ludwig. He had a Wednesday residency at Hotel Cafe.








To close out the night was The Belleville Outfit from Austin Texas.