Stereophonics, October 10 at the Fonda

I admit I am a slave to the Stereophonics. It's based mostly off their earliest stuff, but I got in too late for them while they were maybe cool and now they're a dad-rock band at best in Europe and almost completely obscure in America. But as long as they're doing shows means I'll probably go and I'll still get albums even though it's been years since I've really connected to a new one. There's not much reason to see their shows now since they're going to play progressively less off my beloved You Gotta Go There To Come Back, if any at all, but I'm still a fan. At least they're consistent with their newer material barely registering a memorable single, much less to offer anything for anywhere but England, but they still keep trying to crack the U.S. Their shows here might be some kind of obligation but probably more hubris to think they maybe this time they'll really do it. Yet they keep playing smaller venues, bottoming out at the Fonda, which isn't a tiny place, but there must be some kind of contractual thing to play there and nowhere smaller, since they didn't even sell it out; they could sell out stadiums overseas. I can be thankful that they always play an L.A. date, for as much good as it does them, and I usually seem to go. This was the tour for Graffiti on the Train but it might as well have been for Keep Calm and Carry On (which they didn't tour the States for), as if a more popular title was needed, for as much as I remembered the new songs or even cared. I wanted to say that I was there for the early stuff but I've already heard most of that a few times already by now. I thought maybe the new stuff would register, and it did fine but nothing that stuck out anywhere near to the old material. But it was a good enough show. Carla got to see them, and that's probably enough for her for as long as I'm a fan. It's a shame that the Stereophonics will probably never play a bigger place in American than the Fonda since they're a good band when they want to be, better live than most of their recorded stuff, and Kelly is a capable and charming frontman, but it's just as well since they're just churning out new stuff to hang on, and they and their fans keep getting older. The English music scene can be fickle so maybe they could turn it around with a good single, like another "Dakota," and that could translate to some cache in America, but until then their cycle will probably keep grinding away like it has for the last few years. And I'll probably still go to their L.A. date. The Wind and The Wave opened this show but we missed them.