concerts

Another awesome night in Los Angeles: After work on Friday, Tricia and I had dinner on the West side and then headed to the East side to catch a secret, surprise performance by James. The band played an excellent set to a sold-out crowd at Silver Lake’s über-chic Club Spaceland. The show lasted a little over an hour and a half and we got Laid at the end.

Tricia and I went to see The Cure on Sunday night at The Shrine. We had dinner at The Foundry on Melrose first and got to the show at nine, about an hour late but just in time to catch most of our favorite songs. Just Like Heaven was first, which was the song I played non-stop through most of high school and my absolute favorite Cure track, so that was awesome. I assume that the show started with mostly songs from the new album, because we got to hear almost all the classics. They played four two-song encores, including Tricia’s favorite song, the heartbreaker Plainsong, and the rocker Killing an Arab. I managed to get a few great photos, too.

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We are just another band trying to make enough money to fuel our private jet. Please help.

Got plans for January 24th? Of course you don’t. Now you do.
Mark it down. Von Cotton will be live at Molly Malone’s next Wednesday. These guys are excellent. You must be there. Come see them now before they sign a multi-record contract for millions of dollars. That way you’ll get to say, “I saw them before they signed a multi-record contract for millions of dollars.” Find me and I’ll buy you a beer.

Last night we went to dinner at Aroma in Silver Lake and then caught a new band — Castaneda (website, myspace) — at El Cid. My girlfriend works for a music management company, so we often find ourselves out seeing new music in LA.

Castaneda is a really polished act, and I was surprised to learn that last night was only their second ever live performance. They’re very, very good for a new band, with a sound sort of like The Killers meets U2. I am a fan of the five-piece band genre — lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboardist — and these guys were great. You can (and should!) listen to four of their songs on their myspace page. (The songs were recorded in their house!) “The Same” is the track I like best.

Another Thursday night, another becky show at the Roxy. This was — if I remember correctly — the tenth Thursday in a row (excluding St. Patrick’s) that I’ve been there. This time I experienced Los Angeles parking nirvana when I got there. Not only did I get a meter right across the street, but it was broken. (I’ve since been told that parking at a broken meter is against the law, but I didn’t know that last night and I didn’t get a ticket, so the parking gods were smiling on me.) Another dinner at Rainbow Room and then just a terrific performance next door; becky’s been really going over the top lately. They threw in a few brand new songs, including a cover of the Beatles‘ Rain. After the show it was back to the Rainbow Room for a few hours of pizza and Grolsch with the band.

My girlfriend, Rob, Rebecca and I went to see the Pixies at “the Greek“. It was a great concert; they played a ton of stuff that I love. It was totally cool to see them still rocking after all these years.

I’m also completely hooked on the new Green Day CD, which is a surprise because I really just didn’t like anything they’d done until this. American Idiot, though, is just incredible. I highly suggest you grab it.

I saw cage 9 and becky last night at the Viper Room on Sunset. Both of them were surprisingly good. Becky’s singer has a great voice, the lead guitarist mixed in some really decent riffs, and Mr. Reeves handled the bass much better than I had expected — no complaints at all, really. There wasn’t enough volume on vocals, so I couldn’t catch most of the lyrics, but what I did hear made me want to hear more.

My girlfriend and I went to The Troubadour last night to catch a guy named Marc Copely. He was opening for a group called Sense Field, and opening for him was a group called Crashcart. (Crashcart was actually pretty cool.)

The Troubadour’s been around since 1957; an excellent little club. I’m pretty sure The Doors played there at some point. It was a lot like The Covered Dish in Gainesville. Their web site is terrible, though, which is surprising since they’re pretty much a landmark in the live music world, y’know? I dropped the webmaster a line and asked if they’d like some help in a redesign, so we’ll see if I get a response.

I drove over the hill and down into West Hollywood yesterday for an interview. At some point during my trip I topped 10,000 miles on my truck. After the interview I met my girlfriend at the Olive Garden and then we booked to the Kodak Theater. Our friends, Michael and Deanna, got us tickets to the taping of Barry Manilow’s concert. (He’s on tour promoting his new CD and his most recent greatest hits CD.) I had a great time. I’d never seen Barry live so it was quite a treat. He played a bunch of classics and it was cool because, since they were taping it, he kept stopping between takes to tell stories about the songs and ad lib. Our ticketed seats were up in the mezzanine but there weren’t enough people on the floor so we got to be seat fillers closer to the stage.
I highly doubt we got on camera, but you can catch the show on CBS next month.

I am heartbroken to learn that I missed the rebroadcast of TNT’s Come Together: A Night For John Lennon’s Words & Music. I was out Tuesday night and forgot to tape it and last night I didn’t even know it was being shown. Now the details at TNT say that it won’t air again any time in the next three months. Crap! I really wanted to see it. My uncle said that Stone Temple Pilots did an awesome acoustic version of Revolution, and I read somewhere that Dave Matthews was perfect. I’m hoping they release a CD of the event. They’d be crazy to not, right? If anyone finds any mp3s from the show, please let me know.

Aside: The TNT site is the best of the major network sites I’ve seen. The little schedule window in the upper-right hand corner is perfect. Funny Farm will air at 5 am tomorrow!

It’s rare that getting back to the office on a Monday is a relief, but this was quite a weekend. Everything always seems to happen at once in my life. I shot my second movie this weekend - only an independent, but a great learning experience all the same - and then tonight I have an audition for a new show on NBC. It’s really cool because my manager has been sending me out on stuff for months and it’s only recently that I’ve actually been seeing some results …

The Madonna concert was incredible. The first time I saw her - when I was fifteen - my aunt had somehow gotten us tickets in the sixteenth row at Sullivan Stadium, the Foxboro, MA home of the Patriots. Last night my tickets were even better. (Evidence: Tom and Penelope (Cruise and Cruz) were about eight rows behind me.) Except for the Less Than Jake show in the Spring and my friend’s garage band in Venice a few weeks ago, it was the first time I’ve been to a rock concert in a year. For now I’m back at the office in my disguise as David Gagne, mild-mannered computer programmer.

The Area:One Festival is cruising through Los Angeles this weekend …