It’s been a while since I got to see Sleater-Kinney. I was fortunate enough to score some tickets to the acclaimed and mostly sold-out return tour of No New Cities To Love, and let me tell you that it was a hell of an experience to watch the band back in action as if they hadn’t disappeared for ten years following 2005s The Woods. So, with great pleasure, I threw my camera bag over my shoulder and made my way to Downtown LA, The Belasco Theater, my concert home away from home to watch one of the coolest bands ever.
Tag: Rock and Roll
Show Review: Mclusky, Suzie True, and Conan Neutron and the Secret Friends at The Echoplex, 03-04-2024
“This one’s for you Susan.”
It’s been a while since I’ve been to a show at the Echoplex. When I first moved to Los Angeles, it quickly became a favorite venue for a wide array of bands, and I covered a lot of fun gigs there. Somewhere along the line, I stopped making it to as many, and I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe I was just working too much, and I was too exhausted even to try, or maybe I just wasn’t seeing the bands that I wanted to see getting booked there. So what a hell of a time to go back to see one of my all-time favorites, Mclusky, tear the fucker apart!
Show Review: Otoboke Beaver w/Drinking Boys and Girls Choir and Auxilio at The Belasco 03-02-2024
“We Are The Champon!”
Rain in Los Angeles, for a supposed plethora of reasons, is like a mini apocalypse. Angelinos just can’t seem to handle it and, more often than not, will stay in during “weather events” instead of going to the movies or grabbing dinner somewhere. It’s just too much of a hassle to brave the weather because everyone on the road is a goddamn idiot. In the case of Otoboke Beaver’s Sold Out show at the Belasco, however, 1,500 people decided to say, “Fuck the rain.” I can’t blame them; I said the same thing. That said, the weather wasn’t particularly awful, in my opinion, as a NorCal-raised aging punk rock metalhead, and god dammit if we weren’t going to enjoy a night of femme-driven rock and roll from across the Pacific.
Show Review: IDLES, Surfbort at The Wiltern 2019/10/08
IDLES, the unstoppable force, returns!
I do not get out to enough concerts. I work in live theatre which means when I’m on a “show run” I’m locked in with only Monday nights off for the next two months of my life at a time, so I have to fit in whatever I can between plays. Therefore, it’s almost serendipitous that the first show I’ve been to since May happens to also be an IDLES show, this time at The Wiltern in Korea Town.
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Show Review: IDLES, Fontaines D.C. at The Fonda Theatre 2019/05/22
“If you don’t like cliches, fuck yourselves.”
As I get older, I have to admit that I really appreciate having a barricade to shoot photos from. I get that it’s not most audience member’s cup ‘o tea, but when you’re lugging around 5k worth of camera equipment it’s nice to not have to worry quite as much about being shoved around by rabid fans. This is one of the reasons why I tend to truly enjoy concerts at the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood. Continue reading “Show Review: IDLES, Fontaines D.C. at The Fonda Theatre 2019/05/22”
Show Review: The Faint, Choir Boy, CLOSENESS at The Roxy Theatre 05/08/19
“Like a cast shadow”
I don’t often make it down to the Sunset Strip in Rock and Roll West Hollywood. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that it’s expensive and the parking is absolutely terrible. However, I’ve a lot of fond memories of late night jaunts to The Rainbow Room for pizza, beers, and bitch sessions about freelance work with some close friends and it just so happens that the Roxy Theatre is right next door. So, of course I was going to make a trek out to street where rock and roll really cemented its place in popular culture to see The Faint and whoever is touring with them.
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Show Review: Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records, Ministry, Cold Cave at The Teragram Ballroom 04/22/2019
I have to confess, I was completely in the dark about Wax Trax! Records, which seems criminal to me now considering my music tastes. So, what better way to learn the whole story than a documentary screening followed by a concert?
Show Review: Melvins, Boris, We Are The Asteroid at Echoplex 08/16/2018
It’s gonna get loud…
It’s been a good bit of time since I’ve made it out to a show at one of my favorite venues in Los Angeles: Echoplex. While the lightning has never been the greatest for photography, the atmosphere and sound mixes have always made up for it and I’ve consistently had the most fun at pretty much every show I’ve seen behind their doors. Though, I’ll definitely admit that it’s sometimes hard to decipher their door times from show starting times and in this case I misread and ended up arriving FAR earlier than I ever have, but that’s just me griping. Even being in line about an hour and a half before opening couldn’t wreck my spirits. I was about to thrust myself into the noisiest room in Los Angeles. I was about to see Boris and the Melvins.
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Show Review: Peter Hook and the Light, El Ten Eleven at The Wiltern 5/18/18
Take The Shock Away!
It often feels like a number of artists these days are playing up the waves of nostalgia for their music. So many bands that have been laying dormant have been coming out of the woodwork with reunion tours, new albums, and renewed activity, enough so that my lovely editor had made mention in passing to me that most of the bands at festivals were made up of 50 year olds. Personally, I don’t really care. I like music, and if a band I like gets back together or does something new, I’m all for it. So when I first heard that Peter Hook had formed his own band in 2008 and started playing Joy Division songs I was pretty much all for it. I love Joy Division. I lamented that Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu’s live Joy Division cover shows were so far out of reach and further lamented missing out on Hook’s shows, but it’s looking like 2018 is just starting to turn into MY year for concerts! Continue reading “Show Review: Peter Hook and the Light, El Ten Eleven at The Wiltern 5/18/18”
Show Review: Steven Wilson at The Wiltern 05/12/18
This band plays it To The Bone
Steven Wilson is easily one of the most prolific recording artists of the last couple of decades. At the same time he was the main creative force behind Porcupine Tree, he also managed a number of side projects like Blackfield, No-Man, and Storm Corrosion, as well as remixing numerous classics by Yes, King Crimson, XTC, and others. After Porcupine Tree was put on an indefinite hiatus—there is still yet to be any official “end” of the band—Wilson’s solo career has flourished even further, defying genre expectations of the “progressive rock” scene in favor of creating honest artistic expression. His latest work, To The Bone, continues to push forward towards the art of “pop” even further than his last release, while still maintaining a melancholic edge that has been a theme of his work for quite some time. The North American leg of the To The Bone tour is coming to an end and I caught his Los Angeles performance at the historic Wiltern in Korea Town.
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