Warpaint, December 10 at the Troubadour

I had seen Warpaint just a few weeks before, opening for the XX, but I got obsessed with their album only after that and a smaller show seemed more appropriate anyway. The first show at the Troubadour sold out but they added another (on an even easier night) so Carla and I went. At the show before, they seemed so tight and professional, as they should be to make the best impression as an opener, but at the club show they were looser, more casual, and a little rougher, though their sound didn’t suffer a bit; more like a band that actually wasn’t expected to be the next big thing. Being in that enclosed space among a devoted, rapt audience (most of which were probably friends and family or have been following them around L.A. since the beginning), along with some beautiful and rich music, it was a hypnotic experience. Even if they didn’t explode in popularity right away, hopefully they’ll keep gigging until they make it big like they’re supposed to. It certainly doesn’t hurt to play every festival they got invited to (the ones for hip, good music, not always the alt-rock radio stations). Why don’t they team up with the Like and rock out with all the all-girl L.A. bands? (Also to make it easier to see these local bands that I inexplicably kept missing for years.)

Warpaint’s set-list:
"Bees"
"Stars"
"Warpaint"
"Composure"
"Undertow"
"Set Your Arms Down"
"Baby"
"Majesty"
"Burgundy"
"Elephants"

"Beetles"

Faith No More, November 30 at the Palladium

I’ve never been an enormous Faith No More fan but I wanted to see if they were capable of putting on more of a show than they did with all the novelties at Coachella. I thought for sure that they could rock out a lot more with their own show and didn’t have to rely on joke-covers. As it turns out, doing a longer show only meant more silliness. Not that they couldn’t rock out. When they got down to it they rocked harder than nearly any other act I've ever seen. They might be old guys now they have the experience and the songs to play hard, loud, and fast. Their first song of the night, the now-old joke of "Reunited" hung notes in the air that were supported only by the anticipation of what song they were going to tear into when they finally got the funny (to them, at least) out of the way. And when they finally got to it they exploded. When they were on, they were on fire and right on target; when they weren't it was just more novelty songs, which might have broken the consistency of the show but at the same time, maybe it paced them so they could get through the whole thing. It was definitely an old-school crowd but there's a lot that the younger set could learn from them -- namely, if you're going to joke around on stage, be ready to bring it after you're done with the punchline.I met up with Ahmed for the show but we couldn't find Andrew (though younger than me, a much bigger FNM fan).

I met up with Ahmed for the show but we couldn't find Andrew (though younger than me, a much bigger FNM fan).

Faith No More’s set-list:
"Reunited" (Peaches & Herb cover)
"From Out of Nowhere"
"Everything's Ruined"
"Caffeine"
"Evidence"
"Surprise! You're Dead!"
"Poker Face" (Lady Gaga cover) intro/"Chinese Arithmetic"
"Last Cup of Sorrow"
"Cuckoo for Caca"
"Easy" (The Commodores cover)
"Midlife Crisis"
"The Gentle Art of Making Enemies"
"I Started a Joke" (Bee Gees cover)
"Epic"
"Ashes to Ashes"
"Just a Man"
"Helpless"
"Chariots of Fire" (Vangelis cover)

Weezer/Best Coast, November 27 at the Gibson Amphitheater

Sometime in the late summer or early fall the tickets for the short Weezer tour went on sale. Of course Noa had to go. I would have skipped it, having had my fill of Weezer for a while, but they did the one thing that could get me to see their concert: They committed to playing all of Pinkerton. While I can’t say that I love Weezer anymore, I will have Pinkerton on my top 100 albums of all time for a long time. So I told her I was in and we planned to get together for it. (She also had tickets for the night before, when they were playing the Blue Album but that was way more than I needed.) As it turned out, Noa got sick and she had to give up her tickets (and she had to have been deathly ill for her to miss those shows). I don’t remember what she did with the first night’s tickets but since I was going to the second night I took the other ticket she had and, since she was with me, took Carla with me. Noa gets her tickets through e-mail nowadays and I didn’t think I’d have a problem printing out the tickets on my own but I had printer problems (yet again. That printer didn't last much longer after that) and I knew that I couldn’t take it to Kinko’s (since we had a problem with accessing the site there before). I had a bit of luck and was able to get the printer to work but it was nearly at the last minute and we rushed to Universal, getting there in the nick of time to see Best Coast, but only because we valet-parked (and that cost $25). Best Coast is another local band that I’ve missed until they got (relatively) big but that they were opening was another clincher in the deal for me to go to this show. Live, they were a little flat, only showing that their debut album owed much of its thrill to the production but it was still a good enough performance, especially considering they weren’t really built to play a place like the Gibson. Weezer went on, beginning not with Pinkerton but with a best-of set showcasing pretty much post-Pinkerton, an era when Rivers decided to go along with his fame and become a real, full-time musician, though it might also be argued that it was when he approached it as a job and lost the spark that made the band’s early stuff so loose and fun. It could also explain why they did this full-album cash-grab, since they could feel their relevancy slipping away as Rivers kept pooping out new music, perpetually with lessening returns, and felt that they could get the spotlight again, playing their most beloved albums, even if they hadn’t played more than a sparse spattering of Pinkerton since they originally toured (limply) for it and, as it's said, an album that Rivers would rather forget. Also goes to show why Rivers has let go of the control over the band that he held with an iron fist in the past: by letting the other guys write or sing some of the new material, he can care even less and the rest of the guys are happy, even if they suck. At least Rivers was smart enough to get an awesome drummer to replace Pat when he decided to play guitar, which also means that Rivers doesn't even have to play guitar anyone, though with Josh Freese on drums, it only shows how much a marginal drummer Pat is. There’s so little that Rivers does with the band anymore, it’s a surprise he even shows up for the shows. As for Pinkerton itself, the performance was mostly flat and joyless, which is mostly what it was on the album, on purpose, and while that was part of the album's charm, it doesn't work as well live, and so to say it was even more flat and joyless in concert is remarkable. It wasn’t bad (and credit for playing two B-sides, including "Suzanne," secretly one of their best songs), since the songs were still the same, but it was clear that they engaged a lot less with their own material than the audience did, which is sad since it's sad that Pinkerton was the start of the mass-market emo movement. The kids at that show grew up with and were built from that album so they probably didn’t notice or care that it was a lackluster performance. Even though I knew that it wasn’t going to be a great performance, I still had to go, to experience all of those songs performed live all at one time, especially since they'll probably never bother to do it again, if they even play any of those songs at one of their standard shows. It could be either good luck or bad luck that Weezer are still together so it’s fortunate to get to see their best songs performed, even if it's by the modern-day version of Cuomo and the band. It was probably the only way to make their newer music sound vibrant and exciting, to do a set of songs they were playing begrudgingly against a set of stuff they actually wanted to do. But really, if they played all of their stuff like the set they played before Pinkerton, they might be able to reach the heights they once (almost) had (as long as they keep away from the stuff from the accursed Red Album).

Weezer’s set-list:
"Memories"
"Pork and Beans"
"The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)"
"Perfect Situation" (with Jorge Garcia)
"Dope Nose" (Scott Shriner sang, Rivers played guitar)
"Island in the Sun" (with Bethany Cosentino from Best Coast)
"Hash Pipe"
"You Gave Your Love to Me Softly"
"Susanne"
"Only in Dreams"

Pinkerton

Greg Dulli, November 16 at the Troubadour

I’ve seen Greg Dulli before, back in the day with the Afghan Whigs then later with the Twilight Singers and the Gutter Twins, even a night co-billed with Mark Lanegan (though pretty much still the Gutter Twins), and it was always a great show, but in his later groups he's seemed like he was always holding something back. With the Whigs he was chatty and cantankerous (and probably also drunk and/or high); these days he's trying to be cool in front of Lanegan, say, or maybe just getting older and sober and letting his songs -- the good, new ones -- speak from themselves. As it was, this was billed as a show featuring not the band but the man himself so it could have gone anywhere, and that was the fun of it: was he going to show off the new stuff or would he reach deep into the catalog or could it be a bunch of covers (as he’s known to whip out spontaneously) or maybe be a little of all of that? Was he going to rock out or was he going to keep it cool and low? He certainly had a smorgasbord of material -- even just originals -- to choose from. Even with only two other band members -- and one of them being a violinist/cellist/upright bass player; no drummer -- he can still fill a room, with people and with sound. Even playing stripped-down, the band still rocked-out as much as if they were a full band (though the Troubadour's sound-system and the relatively small space could get some of the credit. It's never sounded better, though it helps that there was little distortion in the music and there wasn't a bunch of extra noise in it). He started out (only 20 minutes late) with what some might have considered an acoustic set then he brought out a very special guest -- the Whigs' bassist, John Curley -- and it suddenly became a very special, near-Afghan Whigs show, the closest we've gotten in more than 10 years. Curley fit in just fine with the band, playing mostly later Whigs numbers, but for the real fans that were there (and how many weren't long-time Whigs fans from way back when?), it was as close to rapturous as anything could get. Even for those few songs, it would have been more than enough, for the price of the ticket and for a satisfactory show by the current version of a rock star (in his own mind if not in fact). Of course Lanegan came out to guest for a song and Petra Haden also appeared, to play some of the new songs that she helped record. The rest of the show was, indeed, a mix of the stuff by rest of his groups, certainly his right to play, including stuff from the soon-to-be-released new Twilight Singers album, and it all sounded great. Though still the highpoint would be the Whigs stuff, the stuff that really rocked out, though “Teenage Wristband” never disappoints in that regard (but of course you knew I would have to say that). Carla and I went with Cid & John and we all waited around afterward for Dulli to come out to the merch table to sign stuff (something I likely wouldn't have done if I were there alone). Of course we were at the front of the line. I’ve met him before and I had nothing for him to sign this time but I still had to make an effort to engage him somehow, if only to have an etched memory of the event, so I said I was a fan and asked if there was any chance for the Whigs to get back together, maybe even to play Coachella. To the latter question he said, “It’s too hot,” then for the former, “Ain’t gonna happen, dude.” Though it makes me wonder: if he’s still cool with Curley, and they could get a new drummer (as the Whigs had a revolving cast in their day), and obviously Dulli doesn’t mind playing the old stuff (unless he was just doing it to include some Whigs stuff for his solo show since he knew the audience would expect it), and if it’s not legalities stopping them from getting back together (since those kinds of things can be worked around), and assuming it’s not McCollum holding them back (though I would guess that this is the main reason), then what’s the deal? Maybe we should have waited at the back of the line so I would have had time to get a more complete answer. Then again, the music always speaks for itself, the man’s new stuff is still good, and the old stuff was magic for back then and it's good now in its recorded form. That’s all we need. Though it’s nice when you get more than you were expecting.

Greg Dulli's set-list:
"St. Gregory"
"God's Children"
"Blackbird & The Fox"
"Bonnie Brae"
"A Love Supreme"/"Please Stay (Once You Go Away)"
"The Killer"
"Crazy"
"What Jail is Like"
"66"
"Let Me Lie To You"
"Forty Dollars"
"Step Into The Light"
"If I Were Going"
"Summer's Kiss"
"Follow You Down"
"The Stations"
"Never Seen No Devil"

"Candy Cane Crawl"
"Down the Line" (José González cover)
"Teenage Wristband"
"The Twilite Kid"

Ghostland Observatory, November 4 at Club Nokia

Rachel’s birthday happened to be the same day as the Ghostland Observatory show so it was decided that that was what we were going to do that night to celebrate, also a Thursday, often the best night to go out. There was a group of us, most of the drinking group at the time, and we had drinks and dinner at the adjacent Trader Vic’s beforehand, an added significance of the event being when Carla met a lot of my L.A. friends. This time Club Nokia wasn’t a bad place for the show, not being so packed that we couldn’t get around, dance if we wanted to, and not so exclusive that the only place we were allowed to stand was a three-foot square at the very back of the place. Jenn had been raving about Ghostland for years, and I missed them at Coachella and other fests I’ve been to, so I was glad to finally see them, though I was not versed at all in them. The laser-light show would have been enough even without the music. As it was, I don’t recall any of the music they played since I was busy dancing and being silly and then, during the encore, um, hanging out with Carla back by the bar.

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, October 30 at the El Rey

The Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan show I might have skipped, as much as I like Campbell on album and Lanegan on anything, but Carla was all in for it. She got us tickets, which were bafflingly not sold out, and it was a Friday, at the end of the day of celebrating Halloween at work. We were even able to make our way to within ten feet of the stage, though that show was more about the music than people on stage. To even further make that point, in standard stage lighting for a concert Campbell and the band were lit well but Lanegan was, more than likely, purposely outside of a spotlight. He wasn't harder to see so much as dimly lit to enhance his physical darkness and gloom, the contrast with Campbell's light and beauty being what makes their music so fascinating, listenable, and unique. Lanegan might have been adding some dark to the light but the brightness was also able to shine into his dimness. The music was its own slow, pretty thrill, an old-school country twang at parts, some bits from Campbell's cello that would have been suitable for slow-dancing (if anyone in L.A. ever did that in public). Opener Willie Mason (whose performance we missed) came on stage to reprise some of the parts he did on the most recent record, and Victoria Williams came by for a cameo, but none of the extra performers ever distracted from the two main stars, carefully balancing each other out between darkness and light. (I couldn’t find the set-list for the show that we were at but the songs and order seemed very similar for the other shows on that tour that I found.)

Electric Six, October 22 at the Key Club

One of the things that attracted me initially to Carla, when we were still talking online and before we had met in person, was that she know who the Electric Six were, much less was a fan, even more much less saw them at the Troubadour years ago, before I even knew about them. I had had a ticket from months before (even without a plan to go with someone) and I mentioned to Carla about going and she dug one up from a blogger she knew so we were set for another show together. We hit the sushi place across the street beforehand, a ritual shared with a number of concert-companions before a lot of shows (but a special dinner for us), and got in to the show just in time to get a drink and find somewhere to stand (in this case near the back of the place/near the entrance, but in a place as small as the Key Club, still a great line to see the stage). At this point the yearly Electric Six show is just a regular event and the set list changes only to accommodate a few new songs and Dick's jokes, which are different enough since last time to make you think that he probably uses the same cracks from show to show (as reported that he said the same things about his drummer being the glue of the band the night before in San Diego) but remembers the ones he used last time. But I have yet to be to an Electric Six show that was any less than thoroughly awesome (though if I had to count something off for this one I would say I was bummed by the exclusion of "Improper Dancing" and the extra song they wedge into it) and I might have to admit to being distracted but Carla was as into the show as I was and we rocked out (as we do). Then as soon as the show was over we were out.

The Electric Six’s set-list:
"After Hours"
"Be My Dark Angel"
"Gay Bar"
"Gay Bar Part 2"
"She's White"
"Body Shot"
"Jam It In the Hole"
"The Future is in the Future"
"Clusterfuck"
"Bite Me"
"Formula 409"
"American Cheese"
"Danger! High Voltage"
"I Buy the Drugs"
"Down At McDonnelzz"

"Rubberband Man"
"Dance Epidemic"
"Dance Pattern"
"Dance Commander"

Interpol, October 19 at the Fox Theater

Amazingly, I think I've only seen Interpol a few times, mostly at festivals. They were doing a show at the Greek, and Vanessa invited me to go, but it was on the same weekend of my nieces' birthday party so I couldn't do it. But they were doing a show at the Fox in Pomona and that would be easy enough for me to get to after work. I went online as soon as they went on sale to get one ticket, assuming no one would want to drive all the out there with me for the show, and I got a general admission balcony seat, though I don't remember if I had an option for a floor ticket or not; the balcony was more expensive and I might have thought I would prefer to sit, I don't recall. In the time between getting the ticket and the show I met Carla and I invited her to the show. For some reason it didn't even cross my mind that the show might be sold out. She worked her contacts to try to get a ticket but it didn't happen. She went on Craigslist and there were plenty of tickets for the floor but nothing for the balcony. There were a few options that we had, including showing up and trying to get a ticket from a scalper or someone whose guest stiffed them for the show, but instead she got a pair of floor tickets and I lined up someone to buy my ticket from me. Of course there were a few problems with that plan: the tickets she got, which she picked up less than two hours before the show, could be fake and the guy who wanted my ticket could stand me up. However, we had no reason to fear. Everything went off exactly how it was planned, even leaving us a good half an hour before the band went on to get a drink. I might have gone on about how nice the Fox Theater is and it's true every time. A bit of a pain that the restrooms are upstairs and across the way but it's a minor complaint compared to how great the place is, to say nothing of the free parking. We didn't bother with openers White Rabbits. We didn't get much closer than the second-to-back section but the only reason to get close to the stage is to see what the guys are wearing that night. I thought it was odd that they were going on so early, at 9:15, but they went on right on the dot and didn't stop playing until more than an hour and later, taking a quick break before the encore, then three more songs for a show that was close to two hours. That's the best value I've had for a show in a while. And it was a great show, as it always is with those guys, even if their newer material isn't quite as strong as the older stuff, and that they hardly played anything off the first album. But it was great. And I really don't have much else to say about it except that it was a great night with Carla.

Interpol's set-list:
"Success"
"Slow Hands"
"Narc"
"Take You On A Cruise"
"Barricade"
"C'mere"
"Rest My Chemistry"
"Summer Well"
"Memory Serves"
"Evil"
"Leif Erikson"
"Lights"
"Say Hello To The Angels"
"Try It On"
"Not Even Jail"

"Hands Away"
"NYC"
"PDA"

Mumford & Sons, October 18 at the Palladium

I have to admit I wasn't really into Mumford & Sons before the show. Vanessa suggested going and got the tickets and I went along, mostly just for a night out, but I got a copy of the album and it was pleasant but nothing that really got me going or that I wanted to listen to it repeatedly except for becoming familiar with the songs to get ready for the show. I wouldn't even have been able to imagine how they had gotten so big – selling out the Palladium, which is not a small place, and tickets going for at least $100 online. I probably wouldn't even have heard of those guys if it wasn't for Vanessa, though I noticed that they had played Lollapalooza, if that's remarkable. But I had a feeling that there was something in the music that sounded flatter on record than it does live. And indeed, I was right. There were a whole lot of people there, mostly in their 30s it seemed to me (I guess I could just relate to them physically), and they were really into it, more than I would have guessed. It was about four or five songs in that I realized that the band hadn't even yet used the drum kit that was set up behind them. This band, a group of Englishmen playing bluegrass, looking and sounding like Ozark hicks, were really getting a few thousand L.A. hipsters moving? It was a pretty amazing sight. Even more to the point, they played their last song completely without electricity, completely unplugged, not even with microphones, and it would have been hard to hear them across an empty room, much less among those few thousand people trying to be silent, but they did it. There were angry shushs and surely a few that thought this was just another show in L.A. that they could freely conduct a conversation through, but it was at a point where you could hear the air-conditioning above. If you would have told me that you could get that at a show in the city I wouldn't have believed you. It's a band that you have to see live to really get. I reckon I'll listen to the album differently now, though I'd rather see them in concert, to get the full effect.

Vanessa and I didn't get messy (or at least I didn't) but we did okay. And it was a rainy night. A shame that people from dreary England come to California and it has to be one of the few days of the year when it rains.

The National, October 16 at the Fox Theater

As is often the case when having a daughter that I spend time with on alternating weekends, I can't plan far in advance for the end of the week, sometimes not more than just a few weeks at a time, and while I usually have a schedule flexible enough that this isn't a problem for a lot of other plans, it can make getting tickets to shows difficult when they go on sale months ahead of happening. I had missed the National on their L.A. date, which was at the beginning of their tour, before the new album had come out, but they did a show in Pomona, just outside of L.A. (another great thing about being a concert fan in this city). When I found out a few weeks before that I had the weekend of that show open, I got a ticket. To be honest, I didn't rush since I just didn't love their newest album, High Violet, for which they were touring. After Boxer I got all the albums before that and I loved them all, though I knew they wouldn't play anything before Alligator in concert. They were getting a considerably higher profile for the newest stuff, which I only started warming up to right before the show, and they were playing bigger venues (hopefully the Greek the next time, as they would be more than perfect there), and it was good that they were getting the exposure they deserved, I just wish I myself could have been more engaged in the material. But I got two general admission balcony tickets anyway, one for Jaime, who I was going to shows with at the time. It was on a Saturday so I didn't have to rush out to Pomona, and we got there early enough to get an awful Mexican dinner beforehand, skipping opener Owen Pallett, who I had seen at Coachella anyway. We got in about 20 minutes before the band were slated to go on, and some of that was chewed up by the line for the restroom, and when I went to scout the balcony 10 minutes before the band went on there was barely a seat. I finally found two seats way over on the right side, near the top, and they were still great seats, as the venue is small enough that you can see the band clearly from anywhere up above, and while we were just lucky to have found seats together, I have to wonder what happens when there aren't enough seats to accommodate everyone at a sold-out show. Luckily we didn't have to test it. The show itself was filled with wonderful music but it was unextraordinary. It wasn't like the band was going to whip out surprise covers or special guests; they're only concerned with making great, tuneful, dark yet beautiful music. And my calling it unextraordinary actually isn't to be demeaning at all or say that there was anything at all in the world wrong with it, though I have to say that even live the newer stuff didn't set me on fire. But the stuff from Boxer and Alligator were barn-burners and it all did fit really well together. They ended with a track that they performed with a stage full of unplugged instruments, even singing without amplification, letting the audience fill the place with song for them. It was a quiet moment (out of necessity) but wonderful, pulling all the passionate fans into song with them, bringing everyone together for just a few moments in time. Jaime had a great time, and I turned her into a fan of the band, though we broke off our relationship a few days later. Hopefully the band doesn't split up now, at the current height of their success, since from here there's every reason to think they could go even higher. The Hollywood Bowl could be a good place for them too (and not just there opening for R.E.M.)

The National's set-list:
"Runaway"
"Anyone's Ghost"
"Mistaken For Strangers"
"Bloodbuzz Ohio"
"Slow Show"
"Squalor Victoria"
"Afraid Of Everyone"
"Available"
"Conversation 16"
"Apartment Story"
"Sorrow"
"Abel"
"Daughters Of The Soho Riots"
"England"
"Fake Empire"

"Mr. November"
"Terrible Love"
"About Today"
"Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks"