Goodbye Fonda?!

Word passed heavy today about the fate of the Fonda MusicBox Theater, with rumor having it closing soon, if only temporarily. The picture became somewhat clearer, thanks to quick reportage from LA Weekly and the LA Times.

It took me years to deal with going all the way to LA for shows, (with day traffic a six hour round trip), but a crucial part of what turned the tide for me was the 1300 seat oasis on the corner of Hollywood and Gower.  Many a night I would hang out on the roof between sets, eyeballing the Capitol Records building, gazing up the street towards the Roosevelt. 

With proximity to Amoeba Records and Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles, it is/was the epicenter of my LA Bermuda Triangle, and will be very hard to replace.

Some favorite memories from the venue include: 

-the last LA show of Stereolab in 2008 

-a stunning Superchunk show done to a half filled house, not to mention a comet-like appearance from The Vaselines as openers

-a transcendent Beach House gig last February when the crowd became one, 

-the Gang of Four returning to LA for the first time in too many years

-an electric solo performance from the Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer, introduced by none other than Neil Gaiman. What little did we know that down the road they would be married!

Not to mention the ones that got away: 

-Nine Inch Nails did a spot as part of their 'Wave Goodbye' tour.  I never got close to getting tickets...

-Radiohead picked the Music Box to put on their relief benefit for Haiti.  I dropped out of the ticket bidding at $350, no harm done.  Still regret that! 

Got an email tonight from Goldenvoice, who are going ahead with putting tickets on sale for the Cults gig in March.  I'm sure they'll have a backup in place, but if anyone can help leverage out this mess, it would be GV, (who just celebrated their 30th anniversary).

One of the biggest unanswered questions will be the fate of the adjoining restaurant, The Blue Palms, which has managed to carve a fine little niche among craft beer lovers.

Hopefully new ownership will be kind in renovations and not destroy the loving recreations of Bosch's 'Garden Of Earthly Delights'.  It might be that that I miss the most...

Still Tilting Windmills: Gang of Four live

Gang Of Four Fonda Music Box 21 Feb 2011
Gang of Four put an exclamation point on their return to action with a fiery show at the Fonda Music Box. Augmented by a fresh rhythm section, they kept the flag flying, and gave plenty of space to their new LP, Content, dropping the new songs into a set that otherwise leaned on their first two albums heavily. The good news is that for the most part, the new songs held up to the old, which is no mean feat.




Original stalwarts Jon King and Andy Gill were in fine form throughout. King's spastic stage presence held the audience throughout, and Gill rose to the occasion. He contributed to the highlights of the evening with his patented guitar terrorism on 'Anthrax', and an emotional take on 'Paralysed', often overshadowed in their catalogue, but still relevant today.

'To Hell With Poverty' was an emotional highpoint of the set, and they finally said adieu to the sweat drenched masses, rocking 'Damaged Goods' on their second encore.



While not up to the emotional sledgehammer of their 2005 reunion show at Coachella, it was more forward focused, and more musically sound, with the core members continuing to give 110%.


















Setlist:
1) You'll Never Pay For The Farm 2) Not Great Men 3) Ether 4) I Parade Myself 5) Paralysed 6) A Fruitfly In The Beehive 7) Anthrax 8) It Was Never Gonna Turn Out Too Good 9) What We All Want 10) Why Theory? 11) We Live As We Dream Alone 12) To Hell With Poverty 13) Do As I Say
14) I Love A Man In Uniform 15) Return The Gift 16) He'd Send In The Army
17) I Party All The Time 18) Damaged Goods
(courtesy of setlist.fm)

Hollerado, by way of Montreal, won over a lot of hearts with their straight forward energetic set. Definitely a band worth investigating...

'Prisoners need not apply': Grinderman live

Ending a quick US jaunt in service of "Grinderman 2", Nick Cave brought Grinderman to LA. Essentially a scaled down Bad Seeds tuned quartet-style to the key of filthy rock'n'roll.

Grinderman is Cave, Warren Ellis on violin and guitar, and the rhythm section of Martin Casey & Jim Sclavunos.

The enigmatic Armen Ra opened the evening with his theremin, doing a proper job of setting an unsettling tone for the proceedings.





Warren Ellis in full flight...

Grinderman hit the stage promptly, and unleashed their trademark noise, quickly adjusting to the eccentricities of the house sound system, then pushing it to overload levels.

To watch these guys in any of their configurations is always a joy, and the stripped down setting worked perfectly in a smaller venue. It's interesting to note that a performer of Cave's caliber, that controls the room completely, is something of an endangered species these days...



The finest example of said control came towards the close of their set, during the frustration anthem 'No Pussy Blues', from their first album.

Cave leered through the verses, setting up the story of the man who would do anything for his dearest, but not in turn receive the one thing he was looking for...
As the band lurched into the bridge, he held up his hands and clapped out a simple beat, then repeated it. The crowd took it up, then Cave dropped out the band and the whole room echoed with only clapping...

The band blitzed into the chorus, and the house levitated...Such a simple trick proved so brutally effective, and a welcome antidote to eons of hapless singalongs...
A reminder, once again, that no matter the configuration, their are few bands working at this level...

Superchunk Day!

What started out as a simple show that tickets were purchased for months and months ago, steadily transformed into Superchunk Day! It began with a simple email from Merge Records announcing a fall tour. The onsale day came, tickets were purchased. Time passed and excitement grew when it was announced that Teenage Fanclub was opening their Northwest dates. Spirits fell when it turned out to be only those dates. Spirits rose again when the mighty Vaselines were announced as the LA openers, as well as northwest up & comers Telekinesis.

Then the whole Matador 21 party came together, and their inclusion there, (and subsequent top flight set), did nothing to dampen the ardor of the impending show. Back in California, come to find out that they've set up a string of instore appearances at indie record shops, including Origami Vinyl in Echo Park at noon, day of show. So now the whole thing has taken shape and morphed into 'Superchunk Day', originally planned as the last date of the 'Majesty Shredding' tour. Apparently, it's gone to plan and then some, as they've added another handful of dates throughout the country.

Origami: great footage of 'Everything At Once', courtesy of Prestoff2000 (YouTube)

Telekinesis belted out a set that was far more lively than their first LP would have you believe. They kept the melodies intact, but gave every song a nice loud buzz, and looked to be very happy at this particular opening gig.

Their newest EP, not coincidentally on Merge Records, was the heart of the set. I'm looking forward to their next step, as well as seeing a complete show on their own, if this is any indication...




It's been a fascinating ride for The Vaselines, who cut one album back in the '80's, broke up...found a cult following after it turned out Kurt Cobain was a huge fan, and Nirvana covered a few of their songs, which led to a reformation and a gig opening up a Nirvana UK tour.
The sparks were fanned once again when Sub Pop put out an anthology of their work, and they got it together once again for an appearance at the label's birthday party in Seattle a few years back.


Now, apparently, the time has come again...In September, a new LP, 'Sex With An X', appeared, followed by a jaunt across the states. Los Angeles was the fortuitous hookup with Superchunk, which brings us up to this evening. The set largely focused on the new record, leavened with tart doses of the back catalogue, and despite the venue only being 2/3 filled, they gave it their all.

Time has been a friend to them, and having sympathetic players with them made for the kind of show the band never got to enjoy in the past, having broken up before, in some sense, they really got going.

Superchunk celebrated their return to Los Angeles proper for the first time in many years, hitting the stage with 'Learned To Surf', (above), from this year's 'Majesty Shredding', and leaving no stone unturned, unleashing a show as full bodied and frenetic as their star turn at the Matador fest at the beginning of October.
The aforementioned 2/3 full house was still in effect for Superchunk, which seemed sad on the heels of this victory lap that saw them fully engaged and energized, and playing just as well as ever. Rarely have i seen the balcony of the Fonda closed, but it kept the crowd as tight and focused as the band, and was a testimony to a night of tough choices for the LA music fan, as Broken Social Scene was across town at the Wiltern Theater, and Scout Niblett was in town as well, along with a few other tasty choices.



Like their path thus far, Superchunk faced it with grace, and powered through a set that touched on all phases of their years, culminating with a Misfits cover that put their own distinctive stamp on the evening.

Predominate theme through the night seemed to be the staying power of the aging hipster audience that furiously pogoed away, and by the time the midnight hour passed, it became apparent that one would regret this, in the most glorious way, the next day.
































(Programming Notes: The good folks at Also Ran Blog have posted recordings of both the Superchunk instore at Origami and the Superchunk set at the Fonda)

Broken Social Scene live...

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE
Music Box at the Fonda Theater
03 May, 2010

Broken Social Scene hit the stage at precisely 10pm, Toronto's conquering heroes returning to the Music Box at the Fonda Theater.

They immediately tore into 'World Sick', and set the pace for the whole show, drawing heavily from their latest album, 'Forgiveness Rock Record' (out today on Arts & Crafts). As co-founder Kevin Drew noted, "That's why we're here..."

The gregarious Drew served as host for the night, explaining bassist Brendan Canning's pastier than normal complexion on a bout with the flu. Canning stuck with it, and thanked the crowd for breaking his fever.

Featuring a daunting front line of guitars, additional keyboards, and a recurring horn section, they filled the stage and ripped through 'Texico Bitches', (video below), brought up a fan from the audience to hang out during an impassioned 'Forced To Love', and woke the crowd up hard by sliding in "Cause=Time" from 'You Forgot It In People'. The band dialed back the crunch to feature Lisa Lobsinger on "All In All", then segued back to the high energy.

All told, a welcome return to action by the Canadian collective, and here's hoping that they continue their winning ways...