Local H, September 24 at the Troubadour

Local H may never again reach the heights that they got to for a fluke hit back in the mid-'90s -- that "copacetic" song (actually "Bound for the Floor" but no one ever seemed to get that).  Though they don't seem to mind -- part of their charm is that they're going to be pissy anyway.  The problem is that they actually keep making great albums and they keep putting on great live shows, and the fact that it's only two guys makes it all the more remarkable, but they don't draw a big crowd anymore.  One of those great albums is Hallelujah! I'm a Bum, one of my top albums for 2012, and what they were touring for for this show.  I can't tell if the pissiness is an act or not.  I might be pissed too if despite all my best efforts and even if I was making better work than I did at my commercial peak, 20 years later I couldn't get anything I did to grab much attention once the world had moved on from the rest of the genre I was stuck in, even if the rest of the stuff made by peers was dreck.  As great a venue as the Troubadour is, there's not much smaller, and Local H always seem to want to get out of L.A. faster than they'd have to bother with going to Spaceland for.  At least they can hang on to the Troubadour.  And that night they grabbed it and smashed it.  The show started off slow but only because it was new material that the crowd didn't know.  "Bound for the Floor" was early in the set, played out of obligation before they'd even really warmed up, but it also left the crowd scratching their heads as to what could come next.  It's the audience's own fault if they didn't give the new stuff a proper chance.  It might have even taken longer for them than it should have to finally smash into something the crowd recognized, the "all right, of yeahs" of "All Right, Oh Yeah" but once they had it, they really had it and the smashing began.  The tardy circle pit started and all the guys who threw the same elbows 20 years and 40 fewer pounds ago went nuts.  The whole place did.  After that it barely let up as Scott and Brian tore into one familiar anthem to anger after another (or what seemed familiar  at least).  It was a lot rougher crowd than I would have thought for a bunch of guys who got a babysitter on a weekday night.  I saw one guy in front of me get his head busted open.  If you want to judge a show by how rowdy it got, that was one of the best in a while.  Scott will probably keep plugging away at it, which will be welcome to a few, even if he can't connect it to any kind of massive success again.  And if it fuels his rage and that leads to more great albums, even when only a few aging fans are paying attention, at least he's still getting out there.  It was one of the kinds of rough shows that Carla used to go to before me so at least she was comfortable.  We also met up with Noa, who of course was in the middle of the pit just like she was the first time we saw Local H (at the same place), and Erica, who I hadn't seen in a while.

Scott apparently opened for himself but I don't know what he did, and the Ambassadors played before Local H but we didn't see them.

Local H's set-list:
"Waves / Cold Manor"
"Paddy Considine"
"Bound for the Floor"
"They Saved Reagan's Brain"
"Everyone Alive"
"Manipulator"
"Night Flight to Paris"
"Back in the Day"
"Say the Word"
"Feed a Fever"
"Another February"
"All-Right (Oh, Yeah)"
"All the Kids Are Right"
"Fritz's Corner"
"Hands on the Bible"
"Waves Again"

"2112" (Rush cover)
"California Songs"
"Look Who's W"