BONUS POST - live from the road in LA

Dude, so I mentioned before in an earlier post that I was gonna try to see Jon Brion play while I was out in LA for a week before the US Open. Well, I did just that last night, and it was really amazing. In general, I dont have the patience, attention span, or tolerance for drunk/high assholes to enjoy live performances. I really love music, but I have found it to be very disappointing live sometimes (this may be because of my general proclivity towards music that is heavily produced and hard to replicate live eg hip hop etc). But I had heard nothing but good things about the talents of Jon Brion, and I found ample evidence of this in the music of his that I have been able to get a hold of. So I planned on coming out here early, pretty much to try to see him at this club here called Largo. Well, I wasnt able to make a dinner reservation so I said, fuck it, I am just gonna go and stand around and see if they just let folks in. They do. There were a bunch of folks lined up without tickets like me and they eventually let us all in, and we just had to stand in the back, which was all good with me. It was fuckin great. It was a little weird just standing there by myself in the back with a bunch of folks who were not by themselves, but it was really nice as well. I just read my new book club book "In Cold Blood" (which is good so far p.s.) and kinda enjoyed not having to chatter it up with anyone. I find more and more that, when I stop scrambling to surround myself with people to entertain and be entertained by, I really enjoy myself. And this was no exception, because what I really wanted to was to see this artist up close, to see more of what he does and how he does it etc. And that was exactly what I got. It really was impressive. He so clearly has so much skill musically, it was awesome to watch. He plays a bunch of instruments, and it was just him, playing stuff, and entertaining the shit out of us with nothing but music from 10pm or so until 2am with one like 20 minute set break. It was great because he came out and just started playing, no warm up the crowd bullshit. He played a guitar song, then a piano song or two, and then he went to the drums. He did this a bunch of times and it was really cool. He would like lay down a drum track - I loved his drumming ps, mad fuckin rhythm - and then loop it, so then that is going then he moves to the bass, lays down a loop for that too, and I mean like a long ass loop, like the whole melody line of a song, then he goes to the guitar, or the piano, or some weird electronic shit, and eventually he plays one thing live and sings. It was impressive and fun to watch, and he really made some nice music out of it. He also took a bunch of requests. But not like Freebird and shit, like stuff that interested and challenged him to do something new, and that was fun to see. I liked how he did it too, he would just ask if anyone had any requests and then when people started yelling shit out, he would just sit there until he heard one that struck his fancy and then he would play it. It was cool to see him finding things that he enjoyed, not just delivering some shiny but soul-sucking dog and pony vegas show full of smarm and fake personality. My personal highlight though, was when he played "Strings That Tie to You" the very song of his that I chose to post on this here music blog. It felt like when you read a new book that you found all by yourself and it wasnt a "classic" or anything and then you find out they are gonna make a movie out of it. And what was double-cool was that I didnt spot it coming, because he played the scratchy higher melody first on this little tinkly keyboard, looped it, then distorted the shit out of it, there on stage, so that it began to sound familiar to me. And then, he started playing some piano and then I could hear the chord changes, and then he started singing. It was so cool how he stuck with the tempo he had set up initially, but still playing with his timing, sometimes playing a bit faster and then letting his voice lag and hang over a few words, letting the loop catch up, sometimes hangin back and blurting out a word. It was really beautiful. If you are in LA on a Friday night, you should definitely go check him out, it was awesome. You can get info at "www.largo-la.com". (that's him playing the piano on the website) Peetski out!