The movie Office Space is really funny but when you actually have those types of people working around you everyday, it tends to get old. I can’t stand listening to this guy talking anymore. He talks to everyone and tells them each the same story about himself, either about what he did the past weekend or just something about himself. I can tell that no one really cares to hear as much as he thinks they do. His favorite thing to say is “do you know what I mean”……. pretty much after every sentence. I feel like saying “ I don’t know what you mean nor do I give a rats ass that you went to see the Abba play with your mom! - gheez!!” There is another group of girls who sit near me, one of them just got this fish and has it at her desk. All the girls stand around talking to it everyday and they named it papa somethingorother... “talking to a fish” c’mon, what’s up with that? talking baby talk to a 7 year old cat is bad enough….. let alone a fish that is stuck in a bowl for the rest of its’ little life.
I saw on the news that there was a premier of “Lords of Dogtown” in Hollywood last night and I missed it. They showed Jay Adams!! (swoon) hee hee. So I guess he is out of jail. I wonder if he is living in LA now or just came down from Hawaii to be at the premier? I can’t wait to see this movie. The documentary was amazing!
On Sunday night, May, 22nd , I had this dream about a Gram Parsons reunion / he sang a new song called “whispering joe”… how and why I came up with that I don’t know. It was a dream!!
Last Friday night I went to see my favorite musician in the whole world… Mr. Jon Brion at the Largo. It was fookin’ amazing. and thanks to the only other largo regular there, I now have a set list for the entire show.
Here is the run down of the show.
-"magnolia" (piano, celeste), segue into
-"amateur" (piano)looping instruments here...
- "the girl i knew"/"habanera" (great fuzz tone
guitar solo)/switched to piano and celeste for
- "you won't see me", jumped back to electric guitar for
- "the girl i knew" again, referencing
- "and your bird can sing" on the solo. almost 20 minutes long.
- "explaining to do" (acoustic guitar)
- "knock yourself out", started on acoustic guitar and harmonica, but the guitar refused to stay tuned, so he hopped over to the piano to continue...then ran back to the drum kit for an inexplicable
- “drum solo” (he didn't loop it or anything), then back to piano and celeste to play a mournful solo version of
- "knock yourself out". THEN looped the piano, picked up the electric and finished the song with vocals, in a total beatles/hey jude vibe. great! again, close to 20 minutes of shenanigans.
- "strings that tie to you" (piano, celeste) ah, so lovely.
- "on a roll with you" started on piano and celeste, then scott *The Awesome Engineer* added some beats, and jon switched to funky keyboard bass, and sang
- "talking in your sleep", forcing the audience to sing along in three-part harmony.
- "happy with you" (acoustic guitar)
- "trouble" (electric guitar) again, lovely.
- "lock my heart and throw away the key" (electric guitar)
- "why do you do this to yourself" (electric guitar)
- "you made the girl" ummm, i think it was loop drums, bass and electric guitar. this song has a dirge-y tempo and i've heard people groan when they talk about it, but i really love this song. however, at the end, he joked about it as "morgue-like", so maybe he's heard the complaints! (this is my second favorite Jon Brion song ever!)
- "under the radar" (loop) definitely rocked on this one... (this is my favorite Jon Brion song ever!)
i think this is where the early set ended.
second set, i'm a little fuzzy on some details of the beginning. i know he played a classic song as a solo, then did
- "further along" and
- "we died", for sure...maybe one more. then he called up Benmont Tench (piano), Sean Watkins (acoustic guitar), Chris Thile (mandolin), Sara Watkins and Gabe Witcher (both on fiddle). Jon played electric guitar through the rest of the set.
while they were tuning, he told us a story about his guitar and the eccentric seattle guy that made it in the 60's. It's called a 'Thomas' for you instrument junkies...I'm not, so bear with me. Evidently he was so confident in the greatness of his product, and was so crushed when few seemed interested,that he took his unsold guitars outside and hung them in trees on his property. they twisted in the wind and got ruined by the seattle rains, and that's how he wanted it. jon did mention that the sonics used the guitars in the 60's, but that precious few survived.
-"didn't think it would turn out bad" looped instruments.
anyway, this absolutely rocked, and then jon just went kinda nuts, as in: - “uncontrollable urge/mongoloid/are we not men?”/LONG zeppelin segment...misty mountain hop/quickie stairway to heaven solo/livin' lovin' maid/black dog/good times, bad times/misty mountain hop again. and THAT is how the first set ended. AMAZING INDEED!!!
(all songs with full band)
- "the andy griffith theme" (instrumental; thank god, have you ever read the dopey words to this song?!) EVERYBODY took a solo.
- "tell it to me" an old-timey tune about the evils of cocaine. chris, lead vocal
- "everybody's tryin' to be my baby" jon, lead vocal
- "peter gunn theme"
- "she's got you" sara, (amazing!) lead vocal with nice harmonies by sean.
- "i'm looking through you" chris and jon, lead vocals
- "tennessee waltz" sara, lead vocal
exit onto fairfax after 2 a.m. with big grin on face...once again, the best ten bucks a person could possibly spend!
(thanks for posting the set list on embrionic, susan!)
If you break it down….. 10 bucks is a small price to pay to see such amazing talent. (shhhh! Don’t tell Flanny that, he may catch on and charge even more!)
Saturday night I went to see Sabrosa Purr and caught this amazing singer open for them called “Joennine Zapata”! I love being surprised like that. She is a hundred times better then Tori Amos though she didn’t play the piano. She sang and played a little drums. It was just her and the guitar player from Sabrosa Purr. She has this sexy way about her with a sultry tone in her voice, I can’t explain, but I can tell you it had feeling! You HAVE to see her!
Sabrosa Purr were great as usual. Gottla love the screaming and "Jesus & Marychain" guitar sound"!
Sunday night I went to see Sons and lovers and The Dirty Little Secrets also The last gang at zen sushi. DLS came on first, it wasn’t a good show for them but I blame it on Zen Sushi…… there must have been a black cloud over the place on Sunday night because every band that played there broke a string that night. DLS are a fun rock band that reminds me of those 80’s bands that I used to see playing on the sunset strip.
The Last gang reminded me of a more punk-rock Joan Jett. The singer had that whole cruella deville hair thing going on, which was kinda cool. She has a very stong voice and sang like Lemmy with the mic an inch taller so she had to sing upward, towards the mic. They are really good for what they do.
Sons and Lovers were the highlight of the evenin’, even though they to broke a string, they were quick and did a cool instrumental filler while we waited. This is one of my new favorite bands. They simply rock and they are tight. I enjoy they way they all get off stage and play in the audience (except the drummer, of course).
I’ve been listening to :
Joy Zipper
Sabrosa Purr
Marilyn Manson
For upcoming gigs….. check out the rock schedule over on the side.
The Vacation will be playing in Huntington Beach again on June 6th!
