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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Young The Giant at The Wiltern


Show: Young The Giant
Venue: The Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA
Date: 2/11/12
Show #7

I almost didn't make it to this show, on the count that I also went to The Fray this same night. I actually had this ticket first, but when The Fray added the Troubadour show, I knew that would have had to take priority over Young The Giant. However, instead of selling my ticket, I thought, hey, maybe I can make it to BOTH shows! People that I told this to thought I was crazy, and I'll admit I may have even agreed at one point but thought it was worth a shot. Long story short; as soon as The Fray finished, I sprinted out the door and hauled ass over to The Wiltern and made it for the last 45 minutes of the show! The guys scanning my ticket at the door gave me looks like "uhh do you know what time it is?".

Anyways, SO glad I got to see these guys! They sound amazing live. The lead singers voice is so unique, strong, and different, I was curious how it would stand up hearing him live and it was great! He has so much energy on stage, and I noticed that that from the moment I walked in, and even on a slower song because I could see the sweat dripping off of him from way in the back.

One of the best highlights were when Sexy Sax Man made an appearance! He did a little jig across the stage in the middle of a song, classic. Video below.


 The place just erupted when they did "My Body", myself included, so I apologize for the shaky video but I couldn't NOT move during that song! Video below.

Overall the show was a ton of fun (and I only saw 45 minutes!) and I highly recommend going to check them out if you get the chance.Sorry, no pictures due to getting there so late and being in the back, but I took a ton of videos!
Islands

Strings

Apartment

God Made Man

Sunday, February 12, 2012

The Fray at The Troubadour

Show: The Fray
Venue: Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA
Date: 2/11/12
Show #6

Last night, I was one of the lucky few who got to see The Fray live at the Troubadour. If you're not familiar with the Troubadour, it's an amazing small capacity venue in West Hollywood, CA. Tickets sold out instantly. To see a band as big as The Fray in such an intimate setting was one no one wanted to miss.

There was no opening act, just The Fray. They opened the set with one of my favorite songs "Turn Me On", off their new album "Scars and Stories" which came out on Tuesday.




















Some of the highlights of the night include:

1. "Never Say Never"/"Wannabe" mash up (Yes, as in The Spice Girls)


2. Isaac jumping off the stage to sing "Happiness" from the middle of the crowd (Video)

























3. Emmy Lou Harris coming out to perform "Boulder to Birmingham" (Video)






The show as a whole was amazing, and to top it all off, I got the set list!
























Videos I recorded last night:
"Turn Me On"
 
"The Wind"

"Rainy Zurich"
 

"Boulder to Birmingham"
 

"Run For Your Life"

"Happiness"

 More pictures






















MusicCares Person of The Year honoring Sir Paul McCartney

Show: MusicCares Person of The Year honoring Sir Paul McCartney
Venue: LA Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
Date: 2/10/12
Show #5

Grammy week here in LA means parties, parties and more parties. One of the largest however, is held every year on the Friday before the Grammys, and is actually for a really good cause.  The MusicCares Person of The Year event is an extravagant private affair which every year gathers some of the biggest names in music to honor that years honoree by covering their material along with a good hearted light roasting. The festivities helped raise an astonishing $6.5 million this year, a new record. The money goes to helping musicians in need. This years honoree was none other than Sir Paul McCartney.

For the 5th year in a row now, I have been lucky enough to get to help at the event as a Talent Escort. One of the huge perks of volunteering is getting to watch the show! While the 2,800 people in the room each paid a minimum of $1,500 each to attend, I got to watch it for free.

Performers included Katy Perry, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Alicia Keys, Neil Young, Diana Krall, James Taylor and many more, including Paul himself to end the show. Even the cast of of the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show "Love" from Las Vegas was there to open the show. Some of the memorable performances include Katy Perry doing an acoustic cover of "Hey Jude" and receiving a standing ovation, Neil Young bringing down the house with a cover of "I Saw Her Standing There", and Alicia Keys slaying "Blackbird".  

Unfortunately cameras were not allowed, so I don't have any media to post to this except a photo of my badge and a picture I snuck of Alicia Keys backstage.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Lady Danville at The Satellite

Show: Lady Danville
Venue: The Satellite, Los Angeles, CA
Date: 2/6/12
Show #4

 Last night I went over to The Satellite to check out Lady Danville. I first saw these guys open up for Jack's Mannequin in Pomona a few months ago, and instantly fell in love. Rarely does this ever happen, but after the show that night, I made a B line straight for the merch table and bought both of their EP's. I learned all the songs in freakish amount of time due to the fact I never took it out of my car.



Lady Danville is an indie pop band from LA consisting of 3 uberly talented guys. Their voices blend together effortlessly creating harmonies you wouldn't expect from 3 dudes playing instruments. Their songs are catchy, fun and will get stuck in your head for days at a time. I couldn't recommend them more highly. I really hope big things have yet to come for these guys.

Just yesterday, their song "Operating" was played on KROQ (congrats!). I recorded their performance of it last night:


This is the cover to their new EP, and fun fact for ya, the van on the cover was actually their van! They hit some black ice and flipped it in Canada while on tour with Jack's Mannequin. Scary! They actually wrote a song out of it, called "Cars".























They do an amazing rendition of MGMT's "Kids":
























One more video...This is one of my favorites, called "Spoon":

If you want to hear more by Lady Danville, check them out on Hypem (Click here)

More pictures!














Gotye on Jimmy Kimmel

Show: Gotye
Venue: The parking lot behind El Capitan Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
Date: 2/1/12
Show #3

Last week I went to see Gotye perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live for his U.S. television debut, on his outdoor stage in Hollywood. Tickets for his show at El Rey sold out before I could get one, so this was the next best thing.

 

He put on a great show, but afterwords, made me regret not trying harder to get tickets to his show at El Rey the following night. This kind of music isn't meant for a stage as big as this one. Don't get me wrong, he did great, but I think seeing him in a more intimate setting would have been even better. Being outside, some of the softer vocals (many even came down to a whisper), were lost and hard to hear. 

He performed 5 songs, which included: Eyes Wide Open, Your Heart's a Mess, Somebody That I Used to Know (feat. Kimbra) and one more that's escaping me right now. Camera's weren't allowed inside, but managed to get a few videos on my phone, including this awesome drum solo!

I'll be looking forward to seeing him again at Coachella.


Monday, February 6, 2012

Robert Schwartzman at The Satellite

Show: Robert Schwartzman (of Rooney) with The Sleeping Bags and Emily Greene
Venue: The Satellite (aka Spaceland), Los Angeles, CA
Date: 1/12/12
Show #2



In case you haven't heard, The Satellite (formerly called Spaceland) does a series of shows called Satellite Nights, which is code for FREE! Yes you read that right, free shows. I highly suggest checking out their calendar (click here), they have a lot of great shows coming up. And even if they're not free, they're usually under or around $10. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

I most recently saw Robert Schwartzman of Rooney play here. It was my first time to this venue so I wasn't sure what to expect. A few tips:

1. Pay for valet.
It's only $5, save yourself the trouble of getting a parking ticket, there's permit parking all around, so I wouldn't risk it. I read a lot of reviews on Yelp from people who got tickets because they didn't want to pay the $5, just do it.

2. Have a drink.
This place is more of a... bar that has live music, than a live music venue that has a bar, if that makes any sense. I got there on the early side and felt out of place to say the least because no one was lining up to save a good spot by the stage, they were all by the bar, socializing. So if you're going by yourself, I'd show up on the later side if you don't want to be the only one standing in front of the stage waiting for the show to start, drinkless.

3. Don't expect your pictures to turn out all that great.
I brought my Nikon with me to this show (they don't care about cameras here! Win!) and was so disappointed by the drab, boring, dark blue setting on the stage. No variation in lighting through all 3 acts. This made for some rather boring pictures. I'm hoping it was just this show and that's not how they all are. Made for the sets overall to be much less exciting as well.

Opening Acts:

Emily Greene-
Loved this girl! I took a video (here), but the sound is a little rough. I was experimenting recording video with my Nikon instead of my Lumix, and it didn't work out too well, but looks better than my Lumix would have done.



































The Sleeping Bags-
These guys were SO boring! They all looked like they had just crawled out of their own sleeping bags backstage. No energy. Have a cup of coffee (or 4) before getting on stage next time.


































Main act- Robert Schwartzman (of Rooney)
I saw Robert's first solo show a few months ago at the Troubadour, and you could tell it was his first show. The songs were a little rough around the edges, and he didn't look very comfortable up there. I'm happy to say that this time around he seemed much better. Much more comfortable up there, the band was on it, and he was having fun. The songs started growing on me more this time around as well. I just needed to see that energy I know he can posses on stage.

The treat of the night though was when he covered a Rooney song! It was a nice change of pace from his slower solo songs.

Here's my video of Robert performing "Second Chances"- Click here

And now for pictures!




 I give The Satellite the award for Most Original Hand Stamp. So awesome.