The Upfront. Yes, I’m playing off of (500) Days of Summer,but we here at TRAffIK really liked that movie.
What’s going on here. Now TRAffIK did technically kill off summer with the following blog, but hey, I had a nice summer and wish to do my own summer exit. This blog is going to take a trip from Highland Park to the Sunset Strip and various other locations between these two music spots.
Aaron Beaumont. So my (15) Days of Summer launched with seeing my friend playing at Life on Wilshire. There was a nice group of supporters there, many being mutual friends of ours. This was my first time at Life on Wilshire. Life on Wilshire has a nice set-up that for some reason reminded me of the set-up at Cinespace, but a bit classier. His set included various friends joining him on stage such as Shane Alexander. This was the kick-off for his tour, which ends Oct 8th at Hotel Café.
Great Northern. They played a free concert at Pershing Square. Here’s my story from the night that has nothing to do with Great Northern: I was waiting for the red line metro after the concert. While standing on the platform, I noticed this guy “flirting” with the women around him. The train arrived and we all boarded. I couldn’t help but notice that he was talking up these two women on the train. I started reading a book and all of a sudden a woman came and sat right next to me. The guy wasn’t “flirting” with her, but I guess she felt she was near enough to him. She had a seat all by herself, but she was apparently so disgusted by this guy that she came over to sit next to another total stranger guy.
Great Northern comment of the night: “We had an opening band, but we killed them. We’re going to eat them after the show.”
Honey Honey. Head fake at Pershing Square. I thought Honey Honey was playing at Pershing Square on a Thursday night. I was actually willing to head down there by myself to catch them, but then I started to get suspicious. I noticed that on the Honey Honey myspace page that they were scheduled to play at the Grove (at a Gap store) versus Pershing Square; however, the Pershing Square website indicated that they were playing there. I spent a little more time perusing the Internet and finally came to the conclusion that they were likely playing an acoustic set at the Gap. I figured I didn’t really want to see them playing at The Gap so I didn’t head out there to see them.
(UCP). Juanita’s is a local restaurant in Highland Park that hosts bands. It is located in the middle of a neighborhood. After leaving Juanita’s on various occasions, I’ve always noticed how loud the music sounds from the outside. On this specific night, someone in the neighborhood apparently had enough, because the police showed up towards the end of Underwater City People’s set. A guy who works at Juanita’s came over to UCP during their set and said something like, “You’ve got to lower the volume. I’m really sorry about this. This has never happened to us before.”
This was a fundraiser for UCP’s upcoming record release. There were some cool raffle prizes such as CDs, artwork, music lessons and jewelry. The other bands that played included The Shakers, Silver Needle, Pu$$y Cow and Clark 8.
Pu$$y Cow (lead singer Joe Dana) comments from the night. After sucking on his microphone, “Don’t lick the mic, it tastes horrible.” And after nearly tripping on a wire a couple times, “This is such a hazard.”
Shakers. I arrived at the Viper Room a bit later than I wanted. I was aiming for 10:00 p.m., but didn’t get there until around 10:30 p.m. Very unfortunate. I walked in and a band called Halos was playing their final two songs. They totally rocked it. Run Run Run was also amazing. The ground shook during their whole set. I was at the Viper Room to take some photos of The Shakers. The Viper Room has a strict camera policy so it is easy to determine who the other band photographers are. There were a couple ladies who had some real nice SLR cameras. I felt this look at one point from one of them, with the stare meaning, “So which band are you here to photograph. I’m here to photograph Run Run Run, who are you here to photograph?” Maybe that was just my imagination.
Note to self: Always remember that Sunday nights equal free parking. I almost ended up parking at the usual parking structure I use, but at the last moment I saw an open meter slot and decided to just park there. And then it suddenly hit me, wait a second, you don’t need to pay for street parking on Sundays. That night, I accidentally saved myself some money.
Maxim Ludwig. The night started off with my picking up a friend. We drove off to Hotel Café to see Maxim Ludwig, an individual we’ve tried to catch for the last few months. He had the Wednesday night residency for the month of August and so it made it convenient to catch him on a random Wednesday night. We arrived in time to catch most of Right the Stars’ set. As I was waiting for my Hotel Café fries (which are just awesome) another patron came up to me and asked, “So is it music all night long.” I told him yes. And then he mumbled, “This band [talking about Right the Stars] could fit in perfectly in Silverlake.” He is right. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point this band is playing at either Spaceland or Silverlake Lounge.
Note: At the entrance bar that night was a bartender named Heather. Not only is she beautiful, but she is also extremely nice. My friend made an instant connection with Heather. At one point, my friend took off to get a drink and didn’t return for some twenty minutes. I was left protecting two chairs (another friend was about to arrive) from the hoards wanting to sit down. If you’ve read my Diane Birch column, you know how uncomfortable I get protecting chairs/space for any period of time longer than 20 seconds. Anyways, make sure you say hi to Heather at Hotel Café.
Local Natives. I decided I had to catch the Local Natives last residency show at Spaceland. A friend of mine also decided he’d head out. I told him I’d show up at 10 p.m.-ish. I figured I’d just walk right into Spaceland. I was wrong. I got a text from my friend at around 9:45 p.m. saying that the line was looped around the corner and he wasn’t sure if he’d get into the venue. When I arrived a few minutes later, I saw the situation and so we both started to wonder if we’d get to see Local Natives. Well, we did manage to get in a little after 10:30-ish. And come around 10:45 p.m.-ish, the doors were shut and not very many folks were allowed in from that point on – at least this is how it seemed to me. I couldn’t help but think that this line starting obviously way before 9:45 p.m. was a bit unusual – even for an awesome band like Local Natives. I took a look on the Internet and saw that this was a KROQ sponsored Locals Only night and that actually it looks like KROQ is sponsoring Monday nights at Spaceland on an ongoing basis. This might be an indication that I need to start showing up at 9:30 p.m. from now on.
Now the one disappointing thing about the Local Natives residency (I went to 2 of the 5) was that the violinist, Amanda Violin, was not playing with them. Well, I saw her in the audience. She was rather popular with folks, but when people drifted away for a moment I seized my chance and went up to her, asking, “Aren’t you the violinist in Local Natives?” After we yelled back and forth over the noise for awhile, she replied, “Yes, I’m her, but I no longer play with them as they decided they no longer wanted a violinist.” Well, that stinks, doesn’t it? From what I could understand, she occasionally plays for the band Aushua that had the midnight slot at Spaceland (she wasn’t playing with them that night) and she’s in a side band that one of the band members from Local Natives plays in – I didn’t catch the name of that band. Anyways, she’s an awesome violinist and I personally think the Local Natives should have kept her on board.
And so the above is a sample of my nights out this past summer. Hope you enjoyed reading.
Great pics!