Local H, June 18 at the Brixton

Noa and I had such a good time at the Local H show on Wednesday that once we found out the band was playing in Redondo Beach (only about a half-hour away from where I was working) on Friday, we were down for that show too. And since they would (probably) be playing a different album, we'd have an (ideally) different show. This was probably considered the H's Orange County show, though there was probably a sizable part of the crowd that was from L.A. And since it wasn't L.A., the audience was more into it, though still a little prone to not getting too excited but that was probably because they were closer in age to 30 than to 20. There was also a lot more movement in the crowd, but I probably noticed more because we were closer to the stage (about three feet) and the refrigerator-sized guys in back of us were doing that woozy swaying thing that usually precedes a mosh-pit (until they got kicked out). I'd never been to the Brixton, where the concert was, in fact I'd never even heard of it. But it was right on the pier, next to the beach and a mall-like area that was nice. Fried seafood on paper plates, at least. The club itself is about half the size of the Troubadour, if that, and it wasn't even packed. It was in a basement but fairly shiny and looked new. Cheaper beer than in L.A., too. The show was, in a way, similar to Wednesday's show. Scott passed around the hat (the girl who picked wanted As Good As Dead) and they played Pack Up the Cats, which, as I don't have to tell you, is an awesome album. Comparing it to Wednesday's show, the members of the other band who backed him up weren't as present, though maybe the guitarist was there more and the singer, also from openers Left Brain Heart, told me later that his throat was messed up so that could have been it too. The songs in the rest of the set were roughly similar. The album I'd like to see them play is As Good As Dead, just to see what they would follow it up with since they pull so much of the post-album songs from that album. They did a cover of an Agent Orange song (“Since a lot of the members hang out here,” Scott said) and, in one of the coolest things I've ever seen at a concert, during “Bound for the Floor” Scott pulled on stage a guy who was wearing a Chicago T-shirt, with “25 or 6 to 4” on the back (home-made that day, the guy said), and Scott and Brian went in to a cover of that song so effortlessly you'd think they had planned all day for it, then back into “Bound for the Floor”. During the last song Scott walked into the crowd (easy, since there were steps leading down from the middle of the front of the stage) and I was so amazed that it wasn't until he went back on stage that I realized that he was playing right in front of me. Seriously, I could have punched him easier than I could have scratched my own nuts. Then they played that last riff of the song and Scott dropped his guitar and walked right through the audience, before anyone knew what was going on, and straight to the merch booth, which he manned himself. When Noa and I got to the front of the line I needed a question for Scott and asked him how many people were on tour with him and he said it was only him and Brian and the other band and I said that was crazy and he said "Not really".

Local H's set-list:
"All-Right (Oh, Yeah)"
"'Cha!' Said the Kitty"
"Lucky"
"Hit the Skids or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Rock"
"500,000 Scovilles"
"What Can I Tell You?"
"Fine and Good"
"Lead Pipe Cinch"
"Cool Magnet"
"She Hates My Job"
"Stoney"
"Laminate Man"
"All the Kids Are Right"
"Deep Cut"
"Lucky Time"
“24 Hour Breakup Session”
“Fritz's Corner”
“High-Fivin' Motherfucker”
“Bloodstains” (Agent Orange)
“Hands On The Bible”
“California Songs”
“Bound For The Floor”/”25 or 6 to 4” (Chicago)
“Manifest Density Pt. 2”