october has been a big month for me and my devendra banhart crush… my photos from his space 1520 show were in PRINT in the oct. 2009 issue of filter, and then i caught his cd release show at the historic madame wong’s in chinatown on thursday.
lucky me. lucky me. and i so know it. while i rarely feel star-stuck, there are a few exceptions, and devendra is one of ‘em.
i melted when he played “carmencita,” and “16th & valencia roxy music” off his new release is definitely in my top 10 for 2009.
now he’s off to europe for the rest of the year. big sigh.
photos and review over on buzzbands, and way too many pix on flickr.
i really didn’t feel like going out at all last night. especially to a late show. but i rallied and fortune shined upon me. caught denmark’s spleen united (photo above) and LA’s death kit at the bootleg theater. this is the second time that i’ve been to the bootleg, and between the cozy back deck and the surprisingly good bands on stage, it’s quickly becoming my favorite under the radar gem.
save for the sparsely lit stage. again, had to whip out the flash. what’s up with all the super dark shows this week???? (see harper simon post below.)
while i didn’t know much about either band upon going to the show, i left adoring them both. electro dance rock that makes you bounce. go play speen united’s “suburbia” right now on myspace. so good. and apparently death kit, a shiny new 3-piece, has only played out twice so far. wow. wow. wow.
damn good night.
more photos on flickr.
i rarely shoot flash, but damn was the echo dark for the harper simon cd release show on wednesday. i love the new album, really i do, but the live show surprisingly didn’t do much for me. (though i was a bit mesmerized by the horn section.) buzz bands talks more about the tentative performance, along with featuring a few of my photos.
and yes, harper simon is the son of musician extraordinaire paul simon, in case you were wondering.
more photos on flickr.
had a fun little pizza party/photo shoot with LA’s manhattan murder mystery at chuck e cheese last week. the photos were for a feature article over on radio free silver lake.
manhattan murder mystery plays a FREE friday residency at echo curio throughout the month of october. hoping to make it there this friday!
i admit, i’ve been a bit obsessed with jack penate (pictured above) for several months now. i’ve played his new cd INTO THE GROUND, as it has become the anthem of my summer in LA. maybe that’s why i was a little disappointed in his live show last night at echoplex. while he was soooo fun to watch live, he sounded quite different from the “recorded version” ingrained in my head. is it possible to know an album too well? maybe so.
then headliner miike snow took the stage and knocked out a dead-on rendition of their new album that was nothing short of pristine. hearing “silvia” live was beyond epic. (woke up with it still in my head this morning.) not so great stage chemistry though. and zero engagement with the audience.
odd seeing two bands like this play back-to-back. any way to marry miike snow’s precision with jack penate’s energy and stage charisma? or have i just dreamed up the perfect band?
a different take on the show exists over on buzz bands, along with my photos.
and more photos on flickr too.
quite the lineup on wednesday at the echo for the one-year anniversary of buzz bands…. samuel stewart, eastern conference champions, voxhaul broadcast and radio freq all played to a packed house. it was my first time seeing all four bands live. such a fun night, and a great anniversary party for a blog that is near and dear to my heart.
samuel stewart is in the photo above. could possibly be my new fav in LA?!
more photos over on flickr.
kevin bronson’s review over on buzz bands perfectly captures this night so well, i have no other words, so i direct you to his.
my photos are on there too, along with more on flickr.
if you have not seen edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros yet, you will.
it’s odd. i have seen sea wolf four times now, and i only got good photos once.
what gives?
best photo night: sea wolf touring with silversun pickups in denver. it was an epic night.
three times since, not so epic. and my photos keep sucking.
hmmmmmm.
brad over on radio free silver lake reviewed the show.
more photos on flickr.
ruby friedman + leslie and the badgers + correatown @ the echo – 9.14.09
free residencies in LA are like the best thing ever. the lineups are always rad, and the turnout is typically stellar. such was the case on monday night at the echo with a solid girl fronted band line-up on the bill. ruby friedman (pictured above) plus leslie and the badgers and correatown.
fun night, with more to come each monday in september with leslie and the badgers headlining. go see ‘em!
more photos on flickr.
while the sunset junction music festival was in late august, i’m just now getting around to posting images. maybe it’s because the whole weekend was bitter-sweet for me. bitter because i couldn’t get my FREE resident pass since i missed the pass pick-up date due to my trip to colorado. THEN i got the run-around trying to pick-up my media pass.
once the drama subsided, the festival itself turned out to be an adventure in heat endurance and fighting my way up to the stage to shoot photos. the main stage turned out to be the most fun, complete with the best bands and a photo pit. yay.
and, really, how can i complain when bands like conor oberst and the mytic valley band, local natives, nortec collective are playing less than a block away from my house?!
will the festival happen again next year? no idea. but at least i got to experience it once.
more photos on flickr.
