The New Pornographers, July 20 at the Henry Fonda Theater

I've seen the New Pornographers before and they were always a good show but I always knew there was something missing. It was obvious that something was Neko Case, who also performed on the group's albums but hadn't toured with them for as long as I had been a fan (or ever). In that time she had also become probably a bigger name than the New Porns (the group probably wouldn't be able to play the Greek Theater but she did) and yet she still performed on the albums, never overwhelming the other considerable talent on them, though she could have easily, but being one more, solid element in a poppy mixture that always makes their albums a consistent thrill to listen to. Her own albums are great but they're different animals; where she might do an alt-country thing solo, she could do indie-pop with the New Porns and it was every bit as good. I don't know what stars aligned or what fell into place in the band's life, other than a new album (Together) coming out, but Neko decided to tour with them. The album is great, just like the rest of their stuff (except maybe Challengers), but it doesn't stand out remarkably and the tour could have been just another one that they've done. Not that I'm complaining. Neko always had a fine fill-in when they toured but they have a different kind of electricity with her on stage and just being part of the band. It's a wonder now how they ever performed something like "Letter from an Occupant" without her (or maybe they never did). The New Porns were never incomplete without her but once she was with them, just being another member of the band, they felt like they had in concert delivered upon what they'd promised on their albums. Also part of the band for this tour was Dan Bejar, a wild-haired dude who, I didn't realize, sang on a number of their more energetic (though weirder) song, like "Myriad Harbor", but his presence almost brought down the energy and warmth that Neko brought. For a few of the songs that he didn't sing on he played acoustic guitar, mostly with his back to the audience, and the rest of the time he was off-stage, enough so that he didn't appear when it was his turn to perform, to the point that A.C. Newman had the crowd chanting his name to get his attention, then stumbling on stage with a drink in hand to sing. I don't know if he's so amazingly talented that the band (if not the fans) just tolerate his diva behavior or if he's a different person when not performing, but his antics marred what might have been a perfect set. Still an amazing show, with awesome songs performed impeccably. Looking at it now, it will be difficult for the group to tour without Neko.

It was actually who got the tickets, since I might have skipped the show, knowing I would see them at Lollapalooza just a months later. But we had a good time, even if I wasn't drinking for some reason, probably because I had stuff to do the next day.

The New Pornographers' set-list:
“Sing Me Spanish Techno”
“Up In The Dark”
“Myriad Harbor”
“Use It”
“Crash Years”
“Jackie Dressed In Cobras”
“It's Only Divine Right”
“Challengers”
“Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk”
“Jackie”
“Go Places”
“Moves”
“Your Hands (Together)”
“Execution Day”
“My Rights Versus Yours”
“My Shepherd”
“The Laws Have Changed”
“Silver Jenny Dollar”
“The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism”
“The Bleeding Heart Show”

“Electric Version”
“Letter From An Occupant”
“Testament To Youth In Verse”

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”

Local H, June 16 at the Troubadour

Noa and I got there about an hour before Local H was supposed to go on, so we could get our tickets from will-call. I thought I saw Scott mulling about outside but he seemed like he was getting tickets and getting in line to go in, and he seemed to be with some chick, so maybe he was just getting tickets for her. I'm not sure if I would have said anything to him anyway, since we were hungry and headed down the street to get something to eat (though we ended up eating at the Troubadour anyway). Inside, before the show at the place, the floor filled up to just about full, but not packed. I don't even think the upstairs bar was open. Local H used to pull a lot more of a crowd, didn't they? Even though they had their big hit (such as it was) 15 years ago. Though the crowd was noticeably older but that was only because there were no teenagers in the crowd (it might have been a 21+ show). Also not a mosh pit until the very last song and even then it wasn't very rough. Maybe it was because of an older crowd, maybe because it was L.A. and people just weren't as interested or didn't want to not look cool. The whole picking-an-album-out-of-a-hat is a fun and inspired idea but it could have been a trick. Their second guitarist, from the opening band, was standing at the back, ready for the first track, before they even picked the album and he wouldn't have had to be there if they didn't know he had to be in on the first song. Though even if they had filled with the name of the one album they wanted to play, they still played a whole album and you probably couldn't go wrong with any of them. Scott offered the pick to some dudes in the front, but first he asked them what album they wanted and the first guy blurted “FUCK YEAH, MAN!” and the second was “This is my first show” and of course Scott could only shake his head. Finally the next guy said he wanted As Good As Dead but picked Here Comes the Zoo and that was A-okay with me. That was EXACTLY the album I wanted them to play and it was AWESOME. I wouldn't say it was note-perfect, since they multi-track a lot of instruments on any of their albums (since they can only do so much with two members in a band), but it was as ferocious as you hear it on CD. I hate to be yet another asshole who says the band will never be the same without Joe, but I've always said that Brian is still a good drummer, and it's fitting that he's great when he's playing an album that he originally played on and probably wrote the drum parts for; it might have been disappointing to see him try to keep up with Joe's original parts on any of the early albums. The opening band, Left Brain Heart, were pretty good, something pretty close to the H, meathead rock leaning toward the Ramones, but with a full four members, and younger (though anyone would be). They helped out Scott and Brian on their set, mostly singing back-up on some tracks; I've never minded Local H having a few extra people on stage when they play, just to make sure the sound is about right, especially for “Manifest Density”, which wouldn't sound right if it wasn't for an augmented band, and that song really needs to rock. After the full album, without taking a break, they did pretty much a greatest-hits set, and I'd say they probably hit every high-note the crowd could want. It may have been the first time in a long time, if ever, that I've heard them do “Bound for the Floor”. That segued into Talking Heads' “Psycho Killer” (which would have been a genius move if I hadn't recently seen the Gossip segue into the same song from one of their own). “High-Fivin' Motherfucker” (which everyone went nuts for (well, okay, maybe just me and Noa)) segued into a long guitar solo and Scott standing at the front of the stage, and I'd swear I heard the song before, maybe a cover of some '70s thing, then he went into another song and I didn't recognize it at first but it turned out to be PJ Harvey's “To Bring You My Love”, which just blew my mind, though he didn't do the whole thing. It was around that time that Scott took a guitar solo into the crowd, though the stage is only about three feet of the ground and the floor is about the size of your living room. And like that, they were done. I'm not sure what more they could have done, unless they were going to do B-sides and more covers (which their website explicitly said they weren't going to do. Despite some asshole in the crowd hollering for “President Forever” and “No [Fuckin'] Fun”, both from an EP. (Okay, that asshole was me. And I would have been just as satisfied if they played that EP for the show)). Though, interestingly, the music that the place played over the P.A. before the band went on included “Tame” and “I Just Wanna Have Something To Do”, which Local H have covered. In any case, one of the rare shows for me where the music and the fun and my drunkenness all met at the exact-same time. And Noa is an awesome concert-going companion.

Local H's set-list:
"Hands on the Bible"
"Half-Life"
"Son of "Cha!"
"5th Ave. Crazy"
"(Baby Wants To) Tame Me"
"Rock & Roll Professionals"
"Keep Your Girlfriend"
"Creature Comforted"
"Bryn-Mawr Stomp"
"What Would You Have Me Do?" (abbreviated)
“Eddie Veddar”
“California Songs”
“White Belt Boys”
“Bound for the Floor”/”Psycho Killer”
“Oh Yeah All Right”
“High-Fivin' Motherfucker”/extended solo/”To Bring You My Love”
“Manifest Density Pt. 2”

the Like, May 31 at the Echo

I'd had plenty of opportunity to see the Like (at Coachella, opening for Bloc Party, various shows in small places around town) but somehow I kept missing them, though I loved their first album (and I bought it at Amoeba at the same time one of the members of the band was there too, or so I was told). Then they played a month's free residency at the Echo, and we like the Echo, and if you're not going to see a band you like out of free times and you don't have to pay for it then you probably don't like them as much as you say. As it was, I saw the last night of the run, and on Memorial Day, no less. Vanessa met me there, with the guy she was dating at the time, and I don't think I even tried to keep up with them at drinking. The first band on was the Living Sickness and we agreed they were pretty good. No idea who they were or if they were local but they sounded good. The next band was the Young Veins and a lot of the people were there, almost filling the place, even though they weren't great. As I found out weeks later, that band is the two members of Panic! At The Disco who got fired. I wouldn't have liked them any more or less for having had that knowledge at the time but it was clear to see why I didn't like them, even if I didn't know why at the time. Vanessa and her guy took off so I was left with my beloved the Like, for the first time ever. About half the crowd had taken off, which confounded me since the headliners hadn't even gone on. But no matter. The Like went on and they were great. They had a new sound, very poppy, like a '60s girl-band, very unlike any of the stuff off their moody first album, which they didn't even bother to play, especially since any of the old stuff would have stuck out like the most obvious thing ever. I have no idea how they reconciled their old stuff with their new stuff in one of their full shows (as this one was just a short set, less than 10 songs, and songs that were short in the first place). Z. had a great guitar that had her letter all over it and a skirt that was so short, I've seen longer shirts. Needless to say she looked great, like a real rock star. After the show I just happened to gravitate toward Mikel from the Airborne Toxic Event, who happened to be there, and talked to him for a while but that really has nothing to do with the actual review of the Like's show (though you should realize the significance of my meeting him if you've read any of the rest of this blog). Though it made my night enough that Panic! At The Disco, with whatever members, could have played and it still would have been great.

Ben Folds, May 13 at the Fonda

I didn't know anything of Ben Folds except in the '90s avoiding "Brick" so I didn't get sick of it. But apparently he's still making music and touring and Noa knew enough about him to want to go to his show so she got us tickets and it was a night out. It was right after I found out I was having a problem with my blood pressure so it was a dry night, which sucked for Noa. We had dinner at Dillon's down the street and got to the show early enough to see the later part of opener Kate Miller-Heidke. She had been building a buzz around Coachella to this date but this was the last I'd hear of her. She was good enough to start the show but a bit weird, with some slightly irritating singing. I'm sure she would have been great if I wasn't coming on to her music fresh but she wasn't captivating enough to interest me the first time. She had a great novelty song about Facebook and as that was the only part I remember about it, that would be the high-point of her set. Folds played solo with a piano (aptly the tour was named “Ben Folds and a Piano”) and I'd imagine that a full band would only hinder him. Miller-Heidke came back to sing a song or two with him near the end of his set and I think he had some percussive accompaniment but I don't remember much beyond that. It didn't help that I knew not even one song he performed but it was a joyous performance and the fans were so into it, maybe old-school fans from the “Brick” days or people who like off-beat, piano-based pop music, that it was contagious and made for a fun show. Folds' high point was also a novelty song, “Bitch Went Nuts,” and he explained the story behind it, and how there were different origins to the two versions of the song, and even though it stood out just because it was so aggressively obnoxious and divergent from the rest of his stuff, he's a gifted songwriter and showman, and it made for an enjoyable night even without knowing much more than the first thing about the man or his music (beyond his name and a song from 15 years ago).

Pearl Jam, May 3 at Sprint Center

I've been a Pearl Jam fan since the beginning (well, since Ten anyway) but somehow I just never got around to seeing them. I know their concerts are amazing and they've certainly done enough touring (probably to make up for no new hit songs on the radio or videos or conventional promotion) but I just never got a ticket. I should have seen their legendary show in Indio in '93 (the show that made Goldenvoice realize they could put on a big concert festival in that same place and that became the Coachella festival) but I only heard about it. And I might not have even still have seen them, not having friends that were all that interested and myself not being excited enough to go alone, until Seth texted me a few months before the band were going to do a show in Kansas City and he asked if I wanted to go. I didn't care enough to see them down the street from me but I could go all the way to Kansas to see them. I could go there and be in the company of real fans, I could see a show outside of L.A. (which often leads to better results), and I could make a trip out of the whole thing, ideally after I got done with a spate of work. (And it could maybe start to make up for the dates they played here, one of which was just after the Thom Yorke show that Seth had come to California to see with me, and if we hadn't planned his trip so hastily I might have looked at my calendar to see that going to that Pearl Jam show could have been possible, and it might not even have been a big deal that we missed them but that night's show was the one when Chris Cornell showed up and there was a bit of a Soundgarden/Temple of the Dog reunion, which would have blown our minds... if we had been there. As it was we just had to swallow our anger that we missed it so narrowly and resign ourselves to the fact that it just wasn't meant to be, apparently.) So Seth got the tickets and I planned the trip and it all went into motion. I had been wrestling with what I thought was a cold that had come and gone more than once in the weeks before then, each time coming back a bit worse, but every time I thought it was gone and when I got on the plane on that Monday morning I felt fine. As it turned out I also didn't have work around then so it was just a few days to get away. I had planned to be in Kansas for a few days and Seth and his family would be away during the day so I could some writing done and we could party at night. Seth, his wife Adrianne, and the always-reliable Bart picked me up at the airport and shortly after that we were in Kansas City for the show. Yeah, flying in the day of the concert was cutting it a bit short but I couldn't make it for earlier than that. Downtown Kansas City is lovely. And the arena where the show was is part of an entertainment complex that had bars and restaurants and huge courtyards for people to hang out and drink and that's where we had our pre-concert beers, after the beers in the underground parking lot shortly after we got there. We met up with more people, making the total of our party about eight. This is most notable because it was amazing that Seth got tickets for that many people all together, and as close to the stage as it was: We were about halfway down to the stage, though on the furthest right, seeing the profile of the guys all night, but at least close enough to see them well, though we could have been anywhere and the sound would have been great and it still would have rocked. We got there early enough to see a lot of opener Band of Horses' set, and there wasn't much for me, but maybe if they had played Replacements covers like I'd heard they do I might have perked up a little. I went into so much detail about the surrounding events around the concert since I don't remember a lot of the concert itself. It wasn't that I was drinking so much, though that had a tiny bit to do with it, but also that cold came back, starting as just a little sore throat at the beginning of the show, then at the end of Pearl Jam's two-hour set was a full-blown fever, achiness, exhaustion, a little dizziness, and just generally feeling very crappy (but no headaches or upset stomach or I wouldn't have been able to last at all). Pearl Jam did what was probably their standard show: some new songs (that went quickly), some ballads to give everyone a rest, local celebrities (here including a war vet that Eddie had collaborated on a song with), an encore that was stretched-out stadium-rousing singalongs. They actually played a lot more of the popular stuff than I thought they would. I had thought they were sick of playing "Alive" by now. I actually thought they would switch up the set-list a lot more, after seeing what they'd played at other shows, knowing how much material they have to choose from, and knowing that they make it a habit to make it interesting, but this show seemed like it could be their proto-typical concert, which is perfectly fine, but there wasn't a sense that there were any surprises and, thus, nothing particularly special that you wouldn't get at another spot. I wasn't so surprised that they played so much old stuff, since by this point they've already gone beyond the resistance to play the hits in favor of pleasing the audience, but I'm surprised that they stuck to so much of the first two albums, to the exclusion of some mid-career stuff that would have rocked, even if it was forgotten by the general public that used to be such fans. And I still don't understand that appeal of “Yellow Ledbetter”, not to mention its being so well-liked that they would end the show with it. But this isn't a criticism at all, and they would have had me for the entire rest of the set just because they hit us hard with "Animal" as the second song (and when I was feeling well enough to enjoy it, no less). This concert was probably old hat to the band by now but they can still rock, which is also just standard motions for such concert vets by now but they sell it well. And it was a great time. A show with friends who are dedicated to the music is as good a show as you can get. And the rest of the time I was in Kansas I was knocked-out completely by that cold, which turned out to be strep-throat so I'm surprised I could do anything at all besides be sick at the time.

Pearl Jam's set-list:
"Of The Girl"
"Animal"
"World Wide Suicide"
"Got Some"
"Unthought Known"
"Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town"
"MFC"
"Johnny Guitar"
"Amongst The Waves"
"Even Flow"
"Gods' Dice"
"Present Tense"
"Daughter"
"Wishlist"
"Insignificance"
"Do The Evolution"

"Off He Goes"
"Just Breathe"
"Given To Fly"
"The Fixer"
"Life Wasted"
"Porch"

"No More"
"Black"
"Better Man"
"Alive"
"Rockin' in the Free World" (Neil Young cover)
"Yellow Ledbetter"

Coachella, April 16 to 18 in Indio

The 2010 Coachella festival for us was about as professional as you could get, with a small group of us -- Andrew, Vanessa, Noa, Jenn, Jonathon, Jenn's friend Rami -- all Coachella veterans, most going more than twice now. We had the usual plan -- get there on Thursday, Sizzler that night, the Royal Plaza Inn as our hotel, get there early Friday afternoon to pick up our passes, leave Monday morning to come back -- and it worked just fine. There wasn't much that was different for the festival for us than every other year, though the festival had some changes. One was an extra 15,000 people, going from 60,000 people to 75,000, and that never bothered me since I rarely notice the crowd, but there were some complaints about it, even from our own quarters. This also caused some problems on Friday afternoon when everyone was trying to get in, mostly likely L.A. people who had left work early to drive out to Indio, expecting to cruise in, instead encountering a bottleneck that took more than a few people three or more hours to get in (including our Noa and her friends, who were often doing their own thing but it was good to meet some new people and have our groups come together). Getting in was never a problem for us, since we wanted to see some of the early bands on Friday and, well, we've done this before. It's always nice to get to the festival early on Friday and get acquainted, get the lay of the land, get a look at things, see some of the things you might not be able to get to later in the weekend, not to mention seeing some of the bands in the worst slots that might be the next big thing in the coming years. It was great to be with such good friends, as it always is, but also folks who appreciate the experience, don't complain about the people and the heat (which wasn't a problem this year, being downright pleasant most of the entire time), chip in for groceries and drinks and gas, and just have a good time. I couldn't imagine a better group of people to spend that weekend with. Needless to say, from that point we made plans to do the same thing together the next year.

We got in early Friday to see Baroness, a suggestion from Andrew. Fairly heavy metal with a dash of roots rock and quite loud, loud enough to make you sorry for any band that had to play at the same time as them, even those on the bigger stages; we had been talking in our e-mail circle since the line-up was released about DJ Lance Rock and if he was, indeed, the same guy from Yo Gabba Gabba (a show my three-year old daughter enjoys). Certainly they couldn't have the guy from a kids' show doing a set in the DJ tent, right? Coachella isn't usually one for irony. So we had to check it out. Even that early in the day, being the second on stage, he had the tent packed. They handed out paper glasses like the plastic ones that he wears. And if he didn't end up putting on an amazing performance. It was all pre-recorded with a bunch of the musical performances from the show displayed on the giant screens and Lance Rock just jumping around the stage, but it was enough to get everyone dancing and jumping around, us included. I didn't think there would be any way they'd get the other guys from the show, in the gigantic, elaborate, boxy costumes, on stage, but finally they came out a few songs in and everyone went wild. The rest of the weekend there were numerous, random sightings of the characters in costume checking out other bands, most notable Plex watching Grizzly Bear, and this just made the weekend even more fun; saw a little bit of the Avett Brothers, and I've heard that they're great, but I didn't get enough of them for it to set in and spur comments. That happens a lot over the weekend; Andrew let me borrow a bunch of music before the weekend and I was able to hear a lot of stuff I didn't know about and most of it was really great. Yeasayer and Hockey were two of those bands, and I liked the albums of both but they were playing at the same time so I had to choose. I picked Yeasayer since that's what everyone else was going with but they seemed dull and I was tempted by the element I didn't know so I took off to see Hockey and I was well rewarded for my switch in loyalties. They had an energetic set, maybe the most of the entire day. I never would have taken them too seriously just based on their name but they were a lot of fun; Dillinger Escape Plan were so out-of-place among the line-up that I knew there had to be something special about them, being brought in among so many indie and alternative acts. There aren't a lot of acts at Coachella that could also play the Warped Tour. Coachella branches out to a lot of bands that would defy what they're usually known to be about, and that's exciting, and most of their odd-ball picks are notable. Andrew had talked about them for years and I had wanted to check them out for a long time but I knew I might not be able to handle, say, a club show with them (and their fans). They played the smallest tent, though not even the main stage could have contained their ferocity. A lot of bare-chested dudes and maybe some folks who didn't know this was going to be a rough crowd, certainly not as rough as the band usually gets, but rough for the desert crowd. The band couldn't have been louder or faster, a hurricane of chaos on stage, and exploding the short time they were given. I don't know how many new fans they turned there but the set was a jolt to a weekend that usually rocks but not like that; there weren't a whole lot of cops around so my restraining order didn't keep me from seeing Zooey Deschanel with She & Him. I like M. Ward and I like them on their albums but live all they could offer was sunshine and we already had plenty of that. Of course they're not meant to be a live band and a desert festival in front of a few thousand people who may or may not be fans (and may or may not be there only to see Ms. Deschenl) probably wasn't their best venue but they were a nice contrast to the rest of the bands. I didn't see too much before I went. I don't need to compete with anyone for Zooey's love; I had a conflict between Lucero and the Specials: Lucero I had one album from, out of almost a dozen apparently, before the show, and I liked it well enough, but they were domestic and would tour again, and the Specials appearing was a big deal and a once-in-a-very-long-while thing. I peaked in on Lucero and they had only about a dozen people watching them so I switched to the Specials, hoping to catch “Gangsters”, certainly their biggest song (and one that reminds me of a chick from years ago). I saw the second half of the set, and kept waiting for the song, but it just didn't come (since apparently, I find out months later, they bafflingly played it at the beginning of the set). I couldn't feel too cheated since it was still a good set, I'm just not usually down with ska, as old-school as it might be; I then caught the very last of Lucero and it was good enough but the crowd, what little there was, were barely into it so it was hard to get excited about; shortly after that it was dark and time for Them Crooked Vultures: Grohl, Homme, and Jones on stage together -- pretty impressive. Grohl behind the drums and Jones on bass (including what looked like a lap-guitar at the beginning) and that's pretty amazing but they serve only as the rhythm section, leaving Homme as the frontman, who is still an amazing talent, but his stuff in Queens since Oliveri left hasn't engaged me at all and this new group is along those same lines – it just sounds like a new version of Queens and that left me a little limp. But still a powerful set and crazy to see those titans of music working together; Echo & the Bunnymen was the only other full set I saw all day but they were also, on the biggest day of this year's festival, the band I most wanted to see. I was a late-comer to the band, coming well after their heyday (which was in the early '80s, well before my time of being aware of these things), but I'd like to say I've made up for lost time. I didn't get to see any of their full-album performances of Ocean Rain so I had to make do with this festival performance but, for what it was, it was enough. They stuck to the hits, and at least the stuff that weren't hits fit in so well that it didn't drag down the show. McCullough has always had a pretty big head about his band and its place in the music world (if not the rest of the world at large) but a lot of the time he's been right (though more right 20 years ago): “The Killing Moon” is the greatest song ever written, as he will also, and often, tell you. “The Cutter” is second, as he will also note. And even if that's not completely and utterly true on most days, at that moment, in the early, chilly (for the desert) evening, with floodlights raining on the crowd, it's wasn't completely just bragging (though it might be hard to totally trust a man wearing a raincoat in Indio); I wandered over to see LCD Soundsystem to fill in some time before the next thing (though I was pretty much do with the day after Echo). It took me a while to get into LCD, though every time I hear them I like them exponentially more than I did the time before, and I've seen them in concert before and they didn't set me on fire but I admit I should have been into them more. In any case, I caught about the middle part of their set and they deserved all the accolades they got in reviews for the show; the only reason I (or probably anyone) know about Public Image Ltd. is for Johnny Rotten/Lydon and even then I'm not a big enough Sex Pistols fan that I'll follow him around to anything. PIL at least hold their own and it's good to see Lydon making a bit of an effort, even with a project that isn't nearly as legendary; Andrew told me about Fever Ray, that it was extremely rare that they play shows, and I try to make it a point to get to the special performances at festivals, in case they really don't come around again and I missed a band I got into later and would have been able to see if I was just a little more adventurous. And there was definitely an element of adventure with Fever Ray. Especially since they didn't go on on time (I don't care how often you don't play live) and I was anticipating something great, after having to tolerate the tardiness. The music was certainly an acquired taste, which is most of the music I listen to, but I could sink into it, helped by the megawatt laser show and floodlights. I still didn't hang around for the whole thing but what I saw was an unique experience, though I'd probably only see them at a festival at this point; I always love the line-up for the festival and even some of the years where I think the line-up is just slightly weak (though better than just about any other American festival), including this one, I always know that they'll get some bands worth checking out, even if I don't know them before the show. This year I had more of a problem with the headliners. Not that I'll say they're bad acts and not that I'll say I don't understand why they got who they did, but it just wasn't the headliners that got me excited. Jay-Z I have nothing against, I'm just not familiar with his stuff. I know he's the best MC alive today and that the entire rest of the world knows his entire discography by heart, and apparently it's worth getting everything he's ever touched, but it just passed me by (save for the years living with Rick, who would play his stuff endlessly) but that was only a sampling and it was years ago, not enough for me to be familiar with any of the set I saw, which wasn't much, though it included the Beyonce appearance (not that I knew that was happening at the time or that I would even be able to see her from where I was standing, while I was waiting for everyone else). And I missed "99 Problems", the only song I would have recognized and been excited to hear. Judging simply from Jay-Z's popularity, he was a good choice of headliner, though a bit of a challenge considering the usual rock/indie/"alternative" mix that the festival usually boasts. But the festival world already got enough of the negative judgments when he headlined Glastonbury in '08 and he proved them all wrong then. From everything I heard, he proved himself again, even if he didn't need to; every day of the festival was great and there as a great line-up but we had picked Friday to be the best. If numerous conflicts with favorite bands playing was any sign of how good that day was, Friday was far and away the best.

Saturday was a bit of contention. When we saw the line-up it was pretty much universally agreed that Saturday was the weakest day. Which makes sense: they could shift the best bands onto Friday, since that would probably be the most sparsely-attended day, then have a less-powerful line-up Saturday, since the most people would be there on that day. Though they only sold three-day passes this year so you could assume that folks would be there for all three days but still. And that's not even to say that Saturday was bad, it still had more than enough great acts. And though there were fewer bands that I wanted to see, the ones that I wanted to see I really wanted to see. We wandered in lazily on Saturday and Vanessa wanted to see Shooter Jennings. Not only did he rock, which surprised me, but he rocked really hard. Vanessa wanted to see him again (with or without the music); Rick got me into Camera Obscura a few years before and I've come to love them. They're very twee, right along the lines of Belle & Sebastian but I'll give them the advantage since they have a female singer, who, in addition to being more pleasant and potentially more sexy, also seems more fitting for that type of music; I have in my notes that I saw Girls but I just don't remember. They were probably very messy; I couldn't figure out Tempter Trap but that's nothing against them, I just couldn't come into them cold; a band that named themselves Beach House played in the middle of the desert. They clearly never thought they would play Coachella. I think I watched them while I was eating; the Gossip were one of the bands I was really excited to see at the festival overall. I got into them late and I thought I'd really missed out, never seeing them at a club or, well, anywhere. And they didn't disappoint (though they came on later than they should have). Not only can Beth Ditto rock a house but she can rock an entire tent. So much energy, from the stage to the audience and back again, amplified with every beat and every shriek, just incredible. Exceeded my expectations, just blew me away. Even if they hadn't slowly morphed their biggest hit into “Psycho Killer” it would have been one of the all-time great Coachella performances. That more people didn't know about it is those people's problem. That they didn't put them on the main stage is our benefit, but they could have held it down; I didn't intend to see the entire XX set but I wandered by, just to see how they were. They're amazing on record but I knew they'd be out of place in the middle of the desert at the height of the day. Still, they drew the biggest crowd for the second stage that I've ever seen, extending to twice the capacity that I've ever witnessed, way back into the food stands and near the next stage. Just a strategic placement in time for their set and/or everyone is really into them, which is fine, but they couldn't have performed as well as they should have out there. Hopefully they didn't lose any fans because of it; around this time there was a plume of smoke coming from the main stage during Coheed & Cambria but no one panicked and I never checked to see if it was on purpose or not; I just never was able to get into the Dirty Projectors. I like art-rock as much as anyone, maybe more, but I don't know what those people are on about. It's just weird noise to me. I stopped by to see if I could be convinced otherwise – no – or to check if the female singers were hot enough to endure the music – maybe -- but I found something else to do anyway; the Icelandic volcano that had happened the day before grounded a number of planes out of England and a few bands had to cancel, and while we had to miss some acts, it actually helped us make some hard decisions about what bands we'd have to choose between. Most notably for me it was going to be Bad Lieutenant vs. Faith No More. Bad Lieutenant are, of course, the newly reconstituted New Order, and it's no secret that I'm a huge New Order fan, even after their disastrous performance at Coachella in '05. But the debut album is pretty good and I heard they still did New Order stuff, some of the better stuff, as well as some Joy Division cuts, which seemed more appropriate somehow, with them doing those rather than as New Order. I'm not nearly as big a Faith No More fan, really just being a best-of fan most days, but this was (at the time) one of the few U.S. dates they were doing and their only American festival appearance. And I'd never seen them in concert before and I knew they'd be great live. It was going to be a tough choice, one I knew I'd probably regret. But Bad Lieutenant didn't make it, canceling a second U.S. tour, so that avoided a lot of heartbreak for me. (Frightened Rabbit were also stranded from the festival.) FNM put on a predictably incendiary set, no disappointment there, and it was even a surprise how well they seemed to be getting along and how tight they were after so much time (and a noticeable addition of a lot of gray hairs and bald heads). They played most of the hits but they could only do so much in the hour they were given, and most bands are able to deal with this, but here FNM opened with a rendition of "Reunited", which went a lot longer than any tolerance for irony would give them, then a mid-set, momentum-killing rendering of "Ben", both of which might have been funny if they had had more time and weren't wasting it with pointless guffaws. They could have burned that place down if they had been more focused but instead we got a Faith No More that rocked but were almost overpowered by just trying to be weird; the headliners for that night were Muse. It's well-documented that I'm not a huge Muse fan. I've seen them a number of times, including previously at Coachella in '04 but they've never done much for me. Generally they're just too much Queen for me and I'm still perplexed by how a very British, early-Radiohead-knock-off band with a nasally singer with songs that are more epic-sounding than good-sounding have become such a big deal in the U.S., enough that they're headlining such a notable festival. But it's not a big deal to me, I don't have to love every band, even the headliners, and I can find other stuff to do. Vanessa was more or less in the same boat, and we both wanted to check them out enough to see what the show was like but we also wanted to drink so we decided to take it easy and watch them from the nearby beer garden. This was a pretty good plan, until we got to talking some locals who gave us some vodka so we weren't paying much attention, then we got more drunk than we did all weekend (or at least I did). Once the band were done (or as done as we wanted them to be) we started wandering around, first to check out the Dead Weather, which we'd already seen before, and who had amassed one of the biggest person-per-person crowds of the whole weekend, and we got bored and moved on. We wandered around, meeting people and just enjoying the feel of the whole festival (though not the ferris wheel since it was closed by the time we got to it) and eventually made it to the last act of the night; I love Devo but they've never been much of a live show when I've seen them. They rely on their name from the '80s but you have to respect that they're still making new music, even if no one is much interested in hearing much more than "Whip It" (which they usually play early in their set). But certainly more people than me love them enough to see them live and they still pull a crowd. We were mostly waiting for everyone to get together to leave but I was able to see them through "Girl U Want". I knew they wouldn't play "Gut Feeling" so it was okay to leave. And a fine way to end the day, getting out to beat the traffic and get ready for the even bigger next day.

Sunday we showed up ready to go full-blast. Though Noa and her part of the group hit it a little too hard too early in the day and I still don't know how they got through it. We started with King Khan & the Shrines, perhaps the most fun I've ever had at the festival, dancing uncontrollably, laughing with and at each other, jumping up and down, relishing the contagious joy, just having a good time. Other bands would stop playing if they saw those guys. Those guys – both the band and my crew – know how to party. Maybe started off too strong but it was worth it . If only there could be a band as fun as that every day at music festivals; Owen Pallet and Deerhunter kinda ran together to me. We were watching from the beer garden and had some food and I think I dozed off for a little bit; then it was over to Florence and the Machine, who (after going on late) nearly killed themselves to please a crowd that was about three times the capacity of the tent they were in. I really think this was a crucial moment on their trajectory to become a pretty big name, and they were up to the task of impressing everyone who squeezed in (even outside) to see them; Julian Casablancas (maybe) pulled a diva move and showed up late. Of course I’m a Strokes fan and I came to really like his solo album but I wasn’t expecting much from this performance. Turns out I should have had higher expectations because he would have met them. The band didn’t have the personality of the Strokes but they could hold their own. And I never would have expected a Strokes tunes, and I never could have wished for “Hard to Explain” but it came second and that was a highlight in a weekend of highlights. I nearly pooped my pants. The rest of the set held up the sam amount of energy, including a Christmas song in the middle of the high heat of the afternoon and it rocked harder than anything else in the set. Then he played the single about halfway through and half the crowd left but that was fine by me, I moved closer; I admit to having an interest in Charlotte Gainsbourg because of her father (though if she was in a movie it would be much more about that but it doesn’t translate to a concert festival) and that's got to be most of the rest of her fans (unless you're a really obsessed Air or Beck fan). There were a good number of people in the tent for her performance, but it wasn’t much of a surprise since it was one of the very few shows she did and there wasn’t much competition for the time-slot. As it was, I saw as much as I did from outside the tent, and not all of it but just a bit because it ran over past the time she was supposed to have. Not as sleepy as I thought it would be but close; everyone else went to see Miike Snow but what I heard was while I was eating and it wasn’t much different from when I saw them at Lollapalooza;
as much of a big deal it was supposed to be that Pavement were back together and playing, by that time maybe it wasn’t such a huge event. Phoenix easily eclipsed them on the second stage, enough to make you think that there must have been some mix-up in the program. But they still turned in a great, ebullient set, a lot more exciting than when they played the first Coachella festival (though they’re probably getting paid a lot more now). A lot of young people in the crowd (maybe not a lot camping out for Gorillaz since it was pretty simple to get close enough to the stage at that point), maybe showing their longevity (or at least younger music fans getting over there to see what all the talk of their being legends is about). Their set stuck to the most predictable stuff (even though they never really had any hits), though they closed appropriately with “Cut Your Hair”. They played “Stereo” and into “Shady Lane” so their set-list was fine with me (as I like the poppy Pavement). “Range Life” hasn’t aged well but it was a fun inclusion (maybe in spite of its irrelevance). They’d been away for ten years and maybe they should have more fans and interest as their legend has grown but they can still hold down a main stage (especially since there was no reason to see Phoenix anyway); I watched the Big Pink while I had a funnel cake (since I couldn’t find any ice cream). Their set was sparsely attended, at best, since there were two headliners on at the same time but that only means a lot of people missed out. Some heavy, sexy sounds and a lot of smoke. You couldn’t even say where they were from, maybe Europe, maybe space, but you’d be glad they were there. Then I was deaf. And that funnel cake almost killed me, as they so often do; if you heard the most ridiculous story about Sly Stone being (or not being) at Coachella then you heard the right story. I’m sure there were a lot of people who were roundly incredulous that he was even on the bill and people older than me probably knew how it was going to turn out (if at all). But I had hope. Maybe I shouldn’t have. It would be hard to believe what happened if you read it -- Yes, he was supposed to be on at 7 and wasn’t there (though his band was. He might not even have been in or anywhere near Indio at that time). Yes, they switched him with Little Boots (or so I was told, and while his being gone was accurate, the other act going on at a different time wasn’t and that screwed up Noa seeing her after I told her of the supposed time-change). Yes, they switched him to a different tent (though the necessity for this, and how anyone was supposed to know is beyond me). Yes, the band was ready to go... and still ready... and still ready. Yes, to everyone’s utter amazement (for the hundred people who showed), he appeared. Yes, he came on four hours late. Yes, he didn’t really start any songs. Yes, he scrapped what the band had rehearsed and he put on a CD of music he’d been working to play off a computer. Yes, the music was a mess. Yes, he was reading lyrics (for barely-formed songs) off a sheet of paper. Yes, he tried to explain why he was crazy. Yes, he kept stopping songs that the band started. Yes, they almost got through “Stand” (which I didn’t realize was his song). Yes, 11 band-members on stage, almost as many stage-hands, and none of them knew what was going on. Yes, he jumped every time a stage-hand came to help him. Yes, he ended asking a guy in the front of the crowd what other song he wanted. Yes, he asked how long he had to be on stage to get paid. Yes, he was clearly drugged out of his mind (though I don’t know how this is different from any other time in his life). Once they carried him off the stage I had to leave, though the band kept playing, instrumental versions, maybe just to have had something to do or justify their making it all the way out there and being ready to play -- it was all true. By far the worst set in Coachella history and also the most magnificent slow-motion train-wreck ever. Not a fitting end to a great weekend of music and good times, but maybe to show that you really can never know what's going to happen.

Bands I missed: Passion Pit (since I was just about done with them at the time); Grizzly Bear (who weren't of particular interest to me but I heard they were one of the best acts of the weekend); La Roux (who I didn't really get into until after the show); the Raveonettes (I wandered by but didn't stop to watch. I'm a big fan but I figured it would be the same show I've seen before. Vanessa saw them and said that the rest of their band couldn't get to the show and Sharon and Sune had to perform as a two-piece. That would have been a unique thing to see. And she said they were still great); Sia (since I had already seen part of a perfect performance by her at a previous Coachella and didn't know how it could be topped); Sunny Day Real Estate (up against Florence and the Machine -- yeah, tough call. I only hope I picked right); Matt & Kim (who I had seen before then, and considering how many festivals they play, I knew I'd see them again); Jonsi (I can't say I'm a gigantic Sigur Ros fan and I know he had a great album but I wasn't really pulled toward it); De La Soul (I know they had an impact on music but I only knew one song of theirs from back in the day so I didn't have the historical or cultural perspective on them so I didn't bother); Spoon (I didn't love their newest album and I figured I'd see them again before too long, so I spent the time wandering the grounds for a little while); Yo La Tengo (another band I knew of but didn't really know. I wasn't a big indie kid when these guys were big (relatively)); Thom Yorke (another weird scheduling miscalculation. Assume that as many people are there for Thom as they would be for Radiohead, and Radiohead could play to the biggest part of the crowd on the main stage, so it's perplexing that they'd put him on the smaller stage, which can still be massive but not enough to accommodate who shows up to see him, which was considerable. I knew I wouldn't get anywhere near to see even far away from the stage (as the smaller stage isn't set up as well as the main stage is to be enjoyed by a bigger crowd or to be seen from a greater distance). You could still hear it from a ways away and they actually scheduled him in a dead period of the evening but I knew it would be more trouble than it would be worth. Besides, I had already seen him in a theater and got a lot closer to the stage and had a better show than most of anybody else got in Indio. I heard that he played some Radiohead songs as part of his encore but I've heard those in concert too. Now, if he had used the opportunity to play “Killer Cars” I'd be cursing myself into eternity but that didn't happen so I was fine seeing the Big Pink instead); Gorillaz (I was really anticipating this performance since they didn’t seem like a headlining band but if they were going to do it they’d have to bring something really special. I always thought it was interesting that a cartoon band would try to tour but there could be something really creative to bring them to life. There was other stuff I figured I’d see instead but I wandered over to see this set and all it was was the band playing the music and some videos behind them on a screen along with some surprise guests, which did not include Snoop Dogg or Lou Reed, and were as predictable as they weren’t exciting. It’s good music but there wasn’t anything extraordinary about the performance. Though I heard it was still awesome so maybe I missed out but I was still good with what else I saw instead).

Jay-Z's set-list:
"Run This Town"
"Takeover"
"Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
"My Name is Hov"
"On to the Next One"
"DOA (Death of Auto-Tune)"
"99 Problems"
"Is That Yo Bitch?"
"Can I Get A…"
"Beware of the Boys"
"I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)"
"I Wanna Rock"
"Izzo (H.O.V.A)"/"Jigga What, Jigga Who"/"Jockin' Jay-z
"Wonderwall" (Oasis cover)
"A Dream"
"Empire State of Mind"
"Already Home"
"Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)"
"Dirt Off Your Shoulder"
"Hovi Baby"
"Show Me What You Got"
"Thank You"

"Fiesta"
"Money Ain't a Thing"
"Big Pimpin'"
"Hard Knock Life"
"Young Forever" (with Beyoncé)
"Encore"

Muse's set-list:
"Uprising"
"Supermassive Black Hole"
"New Born"
"Resistance"
"Hysteria"
"Nishe"
"United States Of Eurasia"
"Feeling Good" (Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley cover)
"Helsinki Jam"
"Undisclosed Desires"
"Starlight"
"Unnatural Selection"
"Time Is Running Out"
"Plug In Baby"
"Stockholm Syndrome"
"Knights of Cydonia"

Pavement's set-list:
"Frontwards"
"Father To A Sister of Thought"
"Two States"
"Shady Lane"
"Gold Soundz"
"Grounded"
"Perfume-V"
"Date With Ikea"
"Fight This Generation"
"Range Life"
"Trigger Cut"
"Starlings of the Slipstream"
"Summer Babe"
"Unfair"
"Cut Your Hair"

LCD Soundsystem's set-list:
"Us v Them"
"Drunk Girls"
"Losing My Edge"
"All My Friends"
"I Can Change"
"Pow Pow"
"Yeah"
"New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down"

Faith No More's set-list:
"Reunited" (Peaches & Herb cover)
"From Out of Nowhere"
"Caffeine"
"We Care a Lot"
"Last Cup of Sorrow"
"Ben" (Jackson 5 cover)
"Surprise! You're Dead!"
"The Gentle Art of Making Enemies"
"Midlife Crisis"
"Epic"
"Ashes to Ashes"
"Just a Man"

Them Crooked Vultures' set-list:
"No One Loves Me & Neither Do I"
"Dead End Friends"
"Scumbag Blues" (extended solo)
"Gunman"
"Caligulove"
"Spinning In Daffodils"
"Mind Eraser, No Chaser"
"New Fang"

Echo & the Bunnymen's set:
"Do It Clean"
"Rescue"
"Villiers Terrace"/"Roadhouse Blues" (The Doors cover)
"Bring On the Dancing Horses"
"Bedbugs & Ballyhoo"
"Nothing Lasts Forever"/"Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed cover)
"The Back of Love"
"Lips Like Sugar"
"The Killing Moon"
"The Cutter"

Deerhunter's set-list:
"Wash Off"
"Fountain Stairs" (Lockett Pundt on lead vocals)
"Never Stops"
"Revival"
"Hazel St."
"Nothing Ever Happened"
"Helicopter"
"Cover Me (Slowly)"
"Agoraphobia"
"Disappearing Ink" (with Rob Pope of Spoon on guitar)

Devo's set-list:
"Don't Shoot (I'm a Man)"
"Peek-a-Boo"
"What We Do"
"Going Under"
"Fresh"
"That's Good"
"Girl U Want"
"Whip It"
"Planet Earth"
"Satisfaction" (Rolling Stones cover)
"Secret Agent Man" (Johnny Rivers cover)
"Uncontrollable Urge"
"Mongoloid"
"Jocko Homo"
"Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA"
"Gates of Steel"

Florence and the Machine's set-list:
"Howl"
"Kiss With a Fist"
"Drumming Song"
"Cosmic Love"
"Dog Days Are Over"
"Hospital Beds" (Cold War Kids cover) (with Nathan Willett)
"You've Got the Love" (The Source cover)
"Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)"

Gossip's set-list:
"Dimestore Diamond"
"Pop Goes The World"
"Four Letter Word"
"Standing in the Way of Control"/"Psycho Killer" (Talking Heads cover)
"Listen Up!"
"8th Wonder"
"Love Long Distance"
"Heavy Cross"
"Pull Up to the Bumber" (Grace Jones cover) (with LCD Soundsystem)

Camera Obscura's set-list:
"My Maudlin Career"
"Swans"
"Teenager"
"French Navy"
"Let's Get Out Of This Country"
"Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken"
"If Looks Could Kill"
"Come Back Margaret"
"James"
"Razzle Dazzle Rose"

Julian Casablancas' set-list:
"River of Brakelights"
"Hard To Explain" (The Strokes cover)
"11th Dimension"
"Out of the Blue"
"I'll Try Anything Once" (The Strokes cover)
"I Wish It Was Christmas Today"
"Left & Right in the Dark"
"4 Chords of the Apocalypse"

Dillinger Escape Plan's set-list:
"Panasonic Youth"
"Fix Your Face"
"Milk Lizard"
"Room Full of Eyes"
"Chinese Whispers"
"Black Bubblegum"
"Sunshine the Werewolf"
"Good Neighbor"
"43% Burnt"
"Farewell, Mona Lisa"

Metric, March 26 at the Palladium

I had seen Metric the summer before and as far as I was concerned that was the definitive show for them for me (for the parts of it that I could remember), at least for that tour, but Ahmed was obsessed with them at the time and it was a night out so I went. Another great show from a great band but that shouldn't be a surprise. I thought it was impressive enough that they sold out the Wiltern but then they also played the Palladium, which holds a couple thousand people more. You'd think it was a hometown show, or at least that they are American. And I don't even know which song of theirs that KROQ was playing. But good to see that a good band is getting some love. And they even played "Combat Baby" this time, though a different version with just Emily and the guitarist (as if this crowd that just discovered them for this album would know their best song, which was about three albums ago and never got real air-play). Though hopefully their record label will let them stop touring soon because they're probably getting destroyed being out on the road so much. We missed openers Codeine Velvet Club and Nico Vega (rather purposely in the case of the latter) and instead had a sandwich from the Togo's across the street before going in to the show.

Metric's set-list:
“Twilight Galaxy”
”Satellite Mind”
”Front Row”
”Help I'm Alive”
”Empty”
”Collect Call”
”Gold Guns Girls”
”Gimme Sympathy”
”Sick Muse”
”Dead Disco”
”Stadium Love”

”Monster Hospital”
”Combat Baby” (acoustic)

Help Haiti benefit, February 4 at the Nokia Theater

Jen is a lady who at the time was a friend-of-a-friend but from the time we started talking she knew I was a Guns n' Roses (probably what started us talking in the first place) and she invited me through Facebook to this benefit show, called Help Haiti with George Lopez and Friends. I think she asked me the day of and I don't generally like doing anything that last-minute but I also didn't have anything else going on that night and I hate to stay home when I have an invitation to go out and do something. And I know what it's like to be stuck for a ticket and, hey, it might be fun anyway. I had seen the ads for the show in the Weekly and disregarded them, thinking nothing of going to a big celebrity song-n'-dance, beg-for-money show-off. But the ticket was already available and I had someone to go with (or I was someone else's to-go-with). She even drove. I had been to the Nokia Theater before and liked it but this was a different night and this was a different place. The crowd was predominantly Hispanic, which is perfectly fine, but, after so many rock shows for white people, it wasn't really the crowd I was familiar with, and neither was Jen (even though she's part Hispanic). Everyone got along and everyone was there for the same reason (except maybe for us) and it seemed like everyone was having a good time but they laughed at different jokes than we would have. It was like any other big benefit show: there are a few performers doing short sets and some celebrities come out and beg for money for the cause, in this case being a perfectly acceptable one (for earthquake victims in Haiti) but that kind of begging can be wearying (and it doesn't make me want to give more because I know they still won't shut up). Besides, we'd already paid for tickets and hopefully at least part of those proceeds went to the cause. There were some acts that neither Jen and I knew, including a rap act that had the audience chanting "brown power" and some personalities from the local rap radio station Power 106, which illustrated another reason why I don't listen to the radio. There were a lot of celebrities that were listed in the ad -- Ray Romano, Cedric the Entertainer, Larry David, Kobe Bryant, Peter Facinelli, Samuel L. Jackson, Amber Valetta, Don Cheadle, Jennie Garth, Vanessa Hudgens (I don't recognize half of those names) -- and I honestly don't remember the ones that were there or weren't there. Though I recall the Osbournes were nowhere to be seen. The plan was the same: between performers a big name would come out and hopefully surprise everyone in the audience that they were in the same room as them so much that everyone would want to donate money. But it's not like Sam Jackson came out and reenacted Jules from Pulp Fiction in the name of performance to get everyone to cough up some bucks (though I might have maybe given over if he had done that). They were basically just begging for money, and it probably wasn't their own personal charity in the first place, just a night to go to downtown L.A., shmooze, get wined and dined, and ease their conscience by using their star-power to get people to donate money. As for the performers, it was actually a pretty wide spectrum. I think I used to think Margaret Cho was funny but here she did a a set that was at once not all that funny and also what I wouldn't think would be appropriate for a crowd that could have been a lot of families. There was an Indian-Candian comedian that I didn't recognize but it was easy to see how he could go big in America because he's funny (if only his name was more memorable). I would never pick Cypress Hill for a show, benefit or otherwise, but the crowd was all about them. Note to Andy Garcia: You are an actor and you get paid and you do it pretty well. No matter how well you play the bongos, you are not a cool musician and you look like an asshole wearing sunglasses indoors. And that reminded me that Los Lobos were there. Looking at it now, there were a lot of unannounced guests that showed up; if that was my kind of show it would have been pretty amazing. But also a lot that I don't remember and I wasn't even drinking. George Lopez was the organizer and big name behind the event, and I assumed that he would be headline and do a special set, but by the time most everyone who had played that night reunited at the end and got back on stage for a sing-along, I knew he wasn't going to do any more, which was a shame since the 10 minutes he had at the beginning of the night to introduce everyone was pretty good. But really, we were there to see Slash. The man came out, without a word, letting his guitar say everything for him, and performed with Beth Hart, a great-looking local who performs around town a lot, and they went through an explosive "Whole Lotta Love" and a new song written for the show. Nothing spectacular besides seeing one of the greatest guitar players alive today come out on stage and work his magic (as unattached as he seemed, but that's part of his stage persona). It was a short set but it was worth the price of the ticket (to ease my conscience by doing the right thing and paying money). And qualified well enough to count as a concert, so as to be included on here?

the Airborne Toxic Event, January 27 at the Troubadour

Ending my string of my obsessively attending Airborne Toxic Event shows over 2009 (and into 2010), seeing them five times in less than nine months. I might even have skipped this show, especially since I didn't think they could top the show at Disney Hall, except that they were playing the Troubadour, which would be the smallest place I'd see them, as well as the fact that the Troubadour is a good, intimate venue. I got a ticket as soon as I heard about it and apparently it sold out shortly after that. It was part of a benefit for L.A.'s Friendly House, which obviously was not really my concern, but if the money I paid for the ticket could help someone out then I'm happy to do it. $60 was a bit much to pay for just one show in a small club but I knew my time with them on this tour might come to an end soon and I knew it would be a great venue to see them in. Aly also got a ticket. We got dinner at the Indian place a block away then settled into the back of the Troubadour, the closest we could get since the place was more packed than I'd ever seen it. The band started strong with most of their familiar songs, including "Girls in their Summer Clothes", playing them as flawlessly as they ever have, then took break to talk for a while (apparently Mikel told his brother, a recovering addict, that his band would do the show if his brother stayed sober for a year, and that happened, so they put together to the show to help the organization that helped his brother stay clean), then went into a bunch of new stuff, more than I've seen a band do in a long time, since music and performance nowadays can be so easily recorded and posted online, thereby making new material no longer as special as it was. But they didn't care about anyone hearing the new stuff through unscrupulous means, and they played like it. The music sounds familiar, which shouldn't be a surprise, and when it's released it will sound like the Airborne Toxic Event. One of the new tracks was called "Tokyo Radio" and it seemed like most of the new material was about being on tour in a band. The band also seemed a bit more revived than they've been for a while, maybe since they had been done with their tour for a while and over the holidays, and this was an extra, special show at the end of a very long cycle (not the only last one but I won't split hairs about it).