Upcoming Shows

I am anxious to get back to shows and this looks like a good week to do it.

There are good Monday night residencies this month with Origami Records hosting events at The Echo. This Monday was The Monolators, The Hectors, Writer and Summer Darling. Next Monday, March 9, 2009 is Two Guns, Summer Darling, Wait. Think. Fast. and Shiloe. Nico Stai headlines Mondays at Spaceland up the street.

Check One...Twosday (on March 4) has the techno wizardry of Fujiya and Miyagi and the wonderfully weird genre-bending indie pop of Pop Levi at The Echoplex. Also Les Blanks, Dirt Dress, Shirley Rolls and Hunting Accident are at the Silverlake Lounge.

It's on Wednesday night, March 5, 2009, that I will venture over to the 3 of Clubs in Hollywood to see Death to Anders and join up with photographer, Anita Marto, to get some shots to post with my write up of the show for Isgoodmusic. Finally, photos to accompany my reviews. Also appearing are Spider Problem and a Fresno band, recommended by Death to Anders, descriptively called Sleepover Disaster.

Thursday is another opportunity to go to the 3 of Clubs, which I consider to be just about the most comfortable club I've been to in L.A. Plenty of great places to sit, plenty of great places to stand and not a bad view of the stage from anywhere. That night it's the fast-rising phenomenon, Avi Buffalo at 9, followed by Fitz and the Tantrums and Here Here.

Friday night, March 6, 2009, is a show I really want to recommend.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
It's the second week of the Where Gallery show, "EXPOSURE", featuring the works of three wonderful Los Angeles photographers, Benjamin Hoste, Simon Cardoza and Jeff Koga. Each Friday they present live performances and this week's promise of acoustic sets by The Monolators, The Voyeurs and One Trick Pony is too good to pass up. I'll be writing about this show for both Feed Your Head and Isgoodmusic.

I'll be at that show in lieu of Jon Hirshfield's Isgoodmusic show at Mr. T's Bowl which features The Widows, Day of the Outlaw and Jason Heath and the Greedy Souls. All bands I want to see.

I also hear rumors of a Seasons show at The Scene, with Republic of Letter and The Happy Casualties on Saturday, March 7, which I'll be at if it happens.


Since wandering back into music three years ago, I've been tempted each year by Coachella and the chance to catch so many bands in one place. But each year the reports I read of the event portray an ordeal of heat , mud, personal discomfort and chaos, with intermittent moments of musical clarity that make it all worth it. Thus the quandary. Is it worth it? After all I was 18 when I went to Woodstock, so, now, 40 years later, I may never know. I'm amazed I'm still standing up.

Of course, in my world, the Friday (April 17) headliners would be Beirut, Leonard Cohen and Silversun Pickups. With The Airborne Toxic Event, We Are Scientists and M. Ward, and featuring Paul McCartney, Morrissey and Franz Ferdinand.

Saturday (April 18) would feature headliners Fleet Foxes, Amanda Palmer, Calexico and Blitzen Trapper. With TV on the Radio, Band of Horses, Henry Rollins and The Bob Mould Band. I don't think I could fit that day's headliners on the bill.

Sunday (April 19) should headline X (still a potent artistic power 30 years in), Okkervil River (am I ever anxious to see this band again!) and The Brian Jonestown Massacre with Jenny Lewis, Paul Weller and No Age. As far as the scheduled headliners, I'd love to see The Cure (at the beginning of their career). If I liked wall-of-noise rock, I'd love My Bloody Valentine, but now I think music that makes my pores bleed is too loud. I've seen a lot of live videos of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and, though I like some of Karen O's music, the live performances, too often, come off as a mess, with Karen barely even scraping the right notes. I'd pass.

I'm also sure that when I hear stories of some great adventures out there, I'll feel like I missed something.


The 2009 Sasquatch Festival on May 23 - 25 sounds even better to me, without all the celebrity headliners, making it seem like a more seriously musical event. Fleet Foxes, TV on the Radio, Silversun Pickups, M. Ward, Calexico, The Airborne Toxic Event and Blitzen Trapper are all playing Coachella, but when you add Ben Harper, The Decemberists, Animal Collective, Of Montreal, Explosions in the Sky, Devotchka, Gogol Bordello, Grizzly Bear, St. Vincent, The Submarines, Viva Voce and The Builders and The Butchers it becomes a giant collection of some of the most extraordinary bands in the world today. And the absence of all the aging celebrity head-turners would only make for a more serious minded and interested audience, I would think. I'd put my money of this event.


Don't miss Mouse's superb coverage (Classical Geek Theatre) from the road with The Henry Clay People and The Airborne Toxic Event. Reading his accounts, I always feel like I get to know the band a little better. Terrific writing, my friend.

whrabbit