L7, October 28, 2022 at Regent

Josh had become my concert buddy, and it was good to have someone to drag me out of the house. WIth anyone, it could just be another night out, but with Josh it was another companion, for shows I might not have bothered with (even if I knew the group), and with someone who knew what he was talking about with music. He had mentioned the L7 shows earlier in the year when we were working together, and I had it on my calendar, then on the day of the show he had offered the ticket to someone else but they couldn’t go, so I was back in, though I could have been fine whether I had gone or not (as there would be other shows). Even though I had seen L7 twice already post-reunion, it was always good to see them and drink some beer (though only one for me). They might have crested their wave with Bricks Are Heavy, so that should have been the prize for seeing them on this tour when they played the whole thing, but that album didn’t get me so much besides for some angry riot chicks, and they were generally going to play “Shitlist” any night anyway. I was much bigger on The Beauty Process, when they finally went beyond pissy babes and into hard-charging forces of nature, and finally after seeing them as much as I had they got to it (even if the two weren’t my favorite tracks from the album). They sounded fine, going over riffs they had established long before they had to roll them out again after they got back together, plenty loud if that’s a matter beyond turning up amps, but making up for the same snarling from their (and our) youth, refining their sound if they had sacrificed as much in intensity. And those songs had aged well, barely fitting in the grunge scene for being the rare girls but standing out for it, and only using the mainstream as an oddity by slipping in for bigger crowds than they would have pulled at any other time (including now). They always stood on their own -- because they had to, if they were going to do it -- but they survived it all, enough to get back together, to throw it down yet again, no matter what their (or our) age.

L7’s set-list:
“Wargasm"
"Scrap"
"Pretend We're Dead"
"Diet Pill"
"Everglade"
"Slide"
"One More Thing"
"Mr. Integrity"
"Monster"
"Shitlist"
"This Ain’t Pleasure"
"Andres"
"Fuel My Fire"
"Shove"
"Stadium West"
"Non-Existent Patricia"
"Fighting the Crave"
"War With You"
"Drama"
"American Society" (Eddie and the Subtitles cover)
"Suffragette City" (David Bowie cover)

"Fast and Frightening"

Lissie, October 21, 2022 at Teragram Ballroom

We could have tested if we could get multiple tickets at a time from DoMoreLA, but however it was, when tickets for Lissie came up we grabbed them and we got them. That was a lot of shows for October (though we only went together to two, that’s more than we sometimes get out for the rest of the year). It was also a night we had Rae over, so that could have been tricky, but we just went on to a certain ticket website and got her a ticket (which, even if it wasn’t cheap, the total cost of the tickets would have been minimal). We’ve already seen Lissie a couple times, and she was even the only one we watched do a livestream concert during lock-down, and while I was probably good, Carla could see her any number of times. The Teragram is also an easy drive, even on a Friday night, and we could park across the street (for $20, but that’s better than driving around the block too much looking for a space). We got there with an hour to kill even before opener Trash Day (not Cat Clyde like an ad had said, though both of those could be wrong as easily as they could be right), so we had time to take in some of the DTLA nightlife and one of Rae’s early club shows. For that it wasn’t much to speak of, but it could be a low-stakes night out and an often-mellow folk-rock show. And Lissie is always talented and charming enough. If nothing else she has a good voice and some good songs. Though this show, while touring on Carving Canyons, was half-capacity, if that, so it was easy to get around and as close as we wanted to the stage, but it doesn’t give you much hope that this artist you like may be able to keep going for you. Everyone might have been there for “When I’m Alone,” which would be understandable, though that wasn’t enough of a hit to bring out people to a show they could leave early for. It also took me to this show to realize what a Fleetwood Mac vibe she has (as any flower-child who was familiar with the ‘70s would be; and if her sound didn’t sell it, she could have done it all with the boho dress that looked comfortable enough that you could wish to be that kind of rock star), maybe even without the guitarist riding some Buckingham riffs. FM were trending at the time anyway so it would have fit, but it’s a shame she couldn’t use that to hype herself more, and it became just an element for those already in the know. Even an enthusiastic cover could have taken her far, but she seemed to avoid those (except for “Pursuit Of Happiness” or what she played in her livestream). Rae might not have been moved enough to become a fan (she’d get obsessed with FM later but she generally stuck to them (and even when there are similarities, Lissie herself has less drama)), but she, and we, enjoyed being out, catching some mellow vibes at the small-venue California-rock show in California.

Lissie’s set-list:
"Unravel"
"Sleepwalking"
"Flowers"
"Best Days"
"Don't You Give Up on Me" (with snippet of “Running Up That Hill”)
"Oh Mississippi"
"Hero"
"Sad"
"Further Away (Romance Police)"
"Lonesome Wine"
"Chasing the Sun"
"In Sleep"
"Carving Canyons"
"When I'm Alone"
"Night Moves"
"Everywhere I Go"
"Little Lovin'"

The Afghan Whigs, October 12, 2022 at the Belasco

The Afghan Whigs got back together, which was always cause for celebration (and seeing them multiple nights), but especially after a few albums that marked some evolution, they were just another great band making their way, the benefit of being old guys getting to keep rocking out not being so significant, but good to know that they’re still a presence. Also enough said by now that they could have just as well have been Greg’s latter band The Twilight Singers, with, like, maybe one original 'Whigs member changed out, so could have just as well have been either band, except that they'd get more traction with the old name, but keep everything else the same. But now they’ve moved on, and kept moving, and they don’t even bother as much with the pre-reunion ‘Whigs stuff, as if that wasn’t what carried them to where they get to be now. They might even have the benefit of having fans that aren’t only there for the songs they know from half their lives ago, and they might be mature (not necessarily old, but probably) enough to want to hear what Greg and the band have come up with lately, as well as the post-reunion stuff they might have blinked on because of distractions by commitments in life they didn’t have back in the day. Which might as well have been us, who weren’t even planning on going to the show until I got the offer from DoMoreLA (which we’d tested with the Primavera fest so we knew it was legit, and though we couldn’t expect what were probably big-ticket prices for a festival, we could trust the regular shows if they came our way. In this case we had no reason to say no, for free tickets (or $5 a month for the service)). So that made it easy, and a weeknight out. It also finally gave us the opportunity to hit the Belasco, a venue that had been open for a while but we hadn't had much reason to go (because of, you know, paying for concert tickets). We wouldn’t venture into downtown L.A. for much other reason than a show (which would ideally be somewhere else, particularly Hollywood, but there are other parts of the city that need some attention), and it had been a while anyway (even before moving out of the county). Carla and I had never even been to a show at the Mayan together, and that was right next door, making for weird politics to have venues sharing a wall, and maybe there’s a story, and maybe it has to do with how it looks like the Mayan has been shuttered for a while (at least for concerts, so maybe they’re just keeping their businesses separate). So the Belasco is nice enough, if for being a copy of the Fonda inside, which might be a practical template but a functional one, and with enough room to get around but not so small that it’s uncomfortable or can’t accommodate the potential of bigger bands. About the right size for the Afghan Whigs, who have always hovered around Palace-sized venues, at least in L.A. (and maybe that being their limit anywhere for a standard show outside of a festival). They and we were comfortable enough. Of course they were doing stuff off the new one, How Do You Burn?, which rocked as well as it needed to, sitting well enough among the stuff that sounded newer, for being post-reunion and not the stuff that has cemented into our consciousness from decades ago, and it was all loud enough, if for Greg knowing his own limits and not going crazy (and plenty sober). There was a mini-set of a few Gentlemen tracks in the middle, to celebrate its awkward 29th anniversary, and a few 1969 tracks, which all felt like a concession to the old material before getting on with the new, and grinding it out, if just to distance themselves from such familiarity to it after all these years. We know they’ve been tour dogs then and now, but we can’t know how playing all those old tracks can wear on them after all this time, whether they want to complain subtly about it or not, but they just don’t play the early stuff with nearly the same vigor. Luckily the new stuff works fine, if not with the intensity that they were known for as part of the song. They were also playing the same set, scarcely any covers (and nothing spontaneous) with just the five guys on stage with no extras or guests, a deviation from the party they used to have on stage where the show could go in any direction (or they could sell it like it could, especially when they go to the level of being required to be responsible enough), so it seemed worn already, but still enough just to witness what they play in the new show. It was also the last night of the tour, so they were clearly done with it all and could use a break, even if we were fresh and ready to go for whatever they gave us, which, after all, was enough (especially if you liked them enough to not be there just for the songs you know from way back when). Greg is bearded and paunchy now, but so is the audience (myself, of course, included). Then we ran into Andrew & Mary at the end, and they had passes for a bunch of shows, this being one, that sounded like a pretty good idea if we were that close to DTLA (and better than DoMoreLA, which had dry spots in its offerings, but could came up with a few good ones).

The Afghan Whigs’ set-list:

"I'll Make You See God"

"Matamoros"

"Light as a Feather"

"Oriole"

"Toy Automatic"

"Gentlemen"

"What Jail Is Like"

"Who Do You Love?" (Bo Diddley cover)

"Fountain and Fairfax"

"Algiers"

"Catch a Colt"

"Teenage Wristband" (The Twilight Singers cover)

"Heaven on Their Minds" (Andrew Lloyd Webber cover)

"Somethin' Hot"

"Please, Baby, Please"

"It Kills"

"Demon in Profile"

"A Line of Shots"

"John the Baptist"

"Summer's Kiss"

"Into the Floor"

"There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" (The Smiths cover)