Luna, April 13, 2015 at the Echo

I became a Luna fan in the ‘90s, probably around Pup Tent, mostly because they were well-regarded in the indie-music mags I was obsessed with, rather than having heard them somewhere and going to them. I dutifully bought the albums but generally kept them on in the background, never getting to much out of them, or at least as much as I heard others did, though I got a greater appreciation for them overall when Bewitched really moved me.  Even with a minor interest in them, I had never seen them in concert, though from music that worked so well in the background, there wasn’t much promise that they could bring much in a live setting. They had even played early on at the Hollywood Knitting Factory, at which I had a very short internship at the time, and I still didn’t get out to them. Then they broke up but I didn’t follow them to their prodigious solo projects (even after finding out their bassist was the singing voice of Jem, from Jem & the Holograms). But when they got back together, I figured I could be in for a ticket, if I could get one, and if I couldn’t I probably wouldn’t bring myself to be upset about it. More than anything it was out of a sense of obligation, that if I had enough interest in them to have most of their stuff, that I should at least get out to see them, if it wasn’t a significant effort. By the time the tickets went on sale, they still had only the L.A. show and one in New York, and both in super-tiny places, even for them, so this was suddenly a hot ticket. I had probably greatly lucked into the pair but that was enough for me. This show, on a Monday night, was the first of three (then four) consecutive nights of shows, a coincidence they were happening all at once, but I won’t deny that it could have also been a challenge to myself to hit that many concerts, especially while doing full days at work on the Westside. Though the biggest obstacle for the week was Carla suddenly coming down ill, which meant I had to do something with my extra ticket(s). The biggest frustration with getting rid of this ticket was that while I was able to get face value (about $40) for it after getting there early and hanging out at the front, I probably could have gotten 10 times that if I had put it up in advance. (A guy I asked while going in said he’d paid a steep price for his ticket and had flown in from Chicago for the show.) I don’t know what the logistics are for a band playing such a tiny space -- whether it was because of their schedule (even with months in advance) or keeping modest expectations after being away for so long or rewarding the biggest fans who had waited for so long or just knowing their sound was better in a more intimate setting -- but it's rare that you get a show with a band of their (relative) stature so close-up. They ran a tight set, as if they had never broken up and this was just another show on just another tour, which held with it some detachment but also not too much preciousness that a spell of dreamy rock could be broken. If they had real hits they would have played them, so instead they went through what seemed to be the crowd favorites, such was the reaction from the fans that had waited so long or had to go through so much trouble (and probably money) to be there. I didn’t know what to expect, but I thought maybe they would run through a few obscure but familiar covers, at least one by Serge Gainsbourg, or change up some arrangements but they pretty much went through the songs like they’ve ever sounded, which could be frustrating since we’ve already heard them all that way, but it created a base, so that at least we’ve heard main versions before wishing for something off the track. As it was, that show and their reunion wasn't so much a seismic shift in indie-music culture, and maybe it was a cash-grab when every other ‘90s band were getting back together, but they had a good moment, in front of an appreciative group that kept interest alive enough that they would eventually reward by coming back. Alas, no "Mermaid Eyes," but the rest made up for it. They did another show later in the year at a bigger venue presumably as part of a full tour, but I can’t imagine being able to get more out their show than what they did that night in such a tiny space.

Luna's set-list:
"Slide"
"Chinatown"
"Sideshow by the Seashore"
"Malibu Love Nest"
"Going Home"
"Weird & Woozy"
"California (All the Way)"
"Friendly Advice"
"Lost in Space"
"Tracy I Love You"
"Pup Tent"
"Slash Your Tires"
"Bewitched"
"Moon Palace"
"23 Minutes in Brussels"
"Tiger Lily"

"Indian Summer" (Beat Happening cover)

The Evens, April 17 at the Vex

I didn't know Fugazi back in the day. But Carla did, and not only was she a fan but she was an avid one. When a group of us would play the game of trying to out-impress each other with concerts we've seen, Carla plays the Fugazi card and usually wins. Shortly after we met she got to working on me to get into them (including one New Year's car trip to San Diego when she put on an album or two and my mind was blown). Now I realize what a grave mistake it was to have overlooked them. I had heard their name but back in the '90s I was into the mainstream alternative scene (yes, that existed) and real punk rock was still fairly beyond me. But I corrected that mistake by gobbling as many of their albums as I could from Amoeba. Now they always appear on my concert festival wish-list, as much as Carla says they would never do that. So we only have the ghost of what is left of Fugazi, namely Ian McKaye's projects. The Evens were playing the Coachella '14 we didn't go to but they played a local show on the other side of L.A., in a non-conventional warehouse space that usually hosts art shows. It was a big, empty space, large enough to hold shows, and the sound was good, so it's a shame they don't do more there (or at least anything that we would get out to see). The Evens are just McKaye on guitar and his wife on drums, which was enough for a fine performance. I didn't know any of the songs but there was that formidable punk spirit, not raging and angry so much but rough and forward enough to dispel the notion of a quiet and complacent floor-gazing singer-songwriter you might expect from such a minimal set-up. Though it all only makes me want to seek out more Fugazi stuff. Then the kid in the back who kept heckling the band, who turned out to be their son. And it was a fairly special show, as apparently they don't tour much (there were less than a half-dozen shows they played before the end of the year). Also a great value, with tickets being $8, though I'm told that was a Fugazi thing too, to make their shows as accessible as possible. I've been to cheap shows before but I'd never been to one, and not too many for any price, that was done before 10, as that one was. We were back home in the time before we have dinner on some weeknights. Though it was welcome in our age and lifestyle of needing to be in so we could make it to work the next day, it was fairly un-rock n' roll. But Fugazi never followed rules anyway. So I'm learning.

How To Destroy Angels, April 10 at the Fox Theater

When the line-up for Coachella '13 was released we made the momentous decision to not go.  We had been on the fence about it anyway, maybe a little worn-out after doing the festival for so long (every single year up to that point in my case) and we were maybe looking for an excuse to skip one year and break our streak.  The line-up for that year was that excuse.  I actually didn't think it was a horrible line-up, and it probably would have been great out there, but even I'll admit that it wasn't nearly up to the standard of years before.  We probably could have made a go of it but we decided to sit it out.  Our usual crew might have been an easier sell, just to have the weekend out in the desert, but we decided to do another festival, which ended up being Outside Lands in August anyway.  In the years before, around the Coachella festival we had toyed with the idea of seeing the bands in the much smaller local shows they would often play, so we put that into effect.  That way we could get a more concentrated show, cheaper (overall), and usually a fuller set, even if it wasn't all in one place.  We did three shows and How to Destroy Angels was the first.  I hadn't planned to see them but Carla scored tickets the day of and we were off.  As much of a fan as I've been of Reznor and NIN all along, I was a little cold on HTDA.  I always loved NIN for the anger and the angst, which was perfect for me in college.  Without having to do it purposely, that rage cooled as I got older, and it probably did with Reznor as well.  HTDA is still moody but it's more atmospheric and like a sound-scape, which is what Reznor was trying to pull NIN toward but it didn't seem to take well (I never did bother with the Ghosts I-IV album(s)).  That there's a female singer didn't bother me.  I remember hearing years ago that Reznor had always wanted to put together a band with a female singer but clearly that couldn't happen until he met and married who is, presumably, who he had in mind. So it's a fulfillment of a project he had on a burner for a long time, and I wouldn't fault him for stretching out and pursuing other forms of art and music, but the new band just didn't stick much with me.  Reznor also put himself in the background of it as much as he could, but his wife didn't really step up to be the front of the band, probably knowing that she couldn't shake the fact that he was still back there.  It's a band that might have tried to exist without a front-person but it created a vacuum and everyone was looking for Reznor anyway.  Live, he came out a bit more but never to a NIN level.  Really, it was just a little thing.  Thinking it was going to be a copy of NIN, even one with a lady singer, is going about it the wrong way, and it's unfair.  But the music on its own, comparatively, was flat.  I was hoping for something else, something with some more angst and fuel behind it, not something that could be out-takes from a soundtrack with some words tacked on.  But the live performance, their first as a band, they did as much with as they could: a gloomy but electric, rather spectacular light-show with rich visuals behind them (Reznor can afford it) and music that could deeply envelope even a casual listener.  But they didn't move much and generally they were obscured by sheets or screens in front of them, which didn't reveal much of an individual identity for the performers or the band as a whole, though it might have helped.  I don't know if the other big NIN fans found a different thing in HTDA but they at least gave it a chance, as I did.  And if a person was into it, being a NIN fan or not (we'd be on to the next generation now anyway), then they probably found just what they wanted in the performance. It wasn't for lack of Reznor trying, even if it was harder to sell to anyone who already knew him.  I don't know how well the show stood up in the desert but there in that relatively intimate setting, it did well enough, for what it was, which wasn't NIN but at least it was Reznor (who went back out again as NIN just the following summer, though we ended up skipping it at Outside Lands).  DIIV opened but we missed him/them.

How To Destory Angels' set-list:
"The Wake-Up"
"Keep It Together"
"Parasite"
"And the Sky Began to Scream"
"Ice Age"
"The Believers"
"How Long?"
"Welcome Oblivion"
"BBB"
"The Space in Between"  ("Between the Spaces" rework by SONOIO)
"Fur-Lined"
"The Loop Closes"
"A Drowning"

"On the Wing"
"Strings and Attractors"
"We Fade Away"