On Friday, October 2, I attended the latest monthly installment of the Watkins Family Hour at Largo at the Coronet. Special guest for the evening was Paul F. Tompkins, who has his own regular show at Largo titled “Spontaneation.” Sean and Sara Watkins were soon on stage and the three warmed up the crowd with a discussion of bug boxes, as Sara recalled a time she had a bug box when they played at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri when she was about 10 years old. This eventually morphed into the idea that the audience should identify the spirit
Category: Concert Journal
I Still Want a Little More
On Thursday, October 1, 2015 I had the joy of attending my first full concert by The Milk Carton Kids. I had previously seen them at an interview session and three song performance at The Grammy Museum in May upon the release of their album Monterey. There was a brief meet and greet afterward, where I was able to get my album signed by Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale and share my appreciation for their music with them. After that little teaser of a show, I was extremely excited for a full performance at The Theatre at Ace Hotel (formerly United Artists
Meaningless Before We’d Seen Them Together
Largo at the Coronet is my favorite venue in Los Angeles. It is just about the perfect sized theater and there is not a bad seat in the house for viewing or hearing a concert. This place has near perfect sound; I rarely find it too loud and all the instruments are well balanced. They also have a fantastic monthly line-up of musicians and popular comedians. Many of these people perform at Largo on a monthly basis. Friday night I was there to see the phenomenal multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion. The special guests for the night were Sean and Sara Watkins,
We’re Sharing this Night That’ll Soon Be a Blur
What a privilege to spend Friday, September 18 at the Troubadour seeing one of my favorite bands, Old 97’s, perform. They’ve been around for “20 good years of about 25” as Rhett sings in their song “Longer than You’ve Been Alive,” but I only jumped on the bandwagon almost exactly one year ago. (I also borrowed the title for this post from that song.) I’ve made up for lost time since then, buying all of their albums and nearly all of lead singer Rhett Miller’s solo albums. In the past several months, I’ve managed to see Rhett perform solo five
You Are Everything
There are some musicians whose work becomes a part of your life story. You latch onto their words to find the meaning in your life; they help you navigate the rough parts and celebrate the high points. I think everyone who likes music has a singer or a band that fills this role and for me that person is Glen Phillips. Glen is the lead singer of the band Toad the Wet Sprocket, whose hits in the 1990s included “Walk on the Ocean” and “All I Want” (I just heard the latter at my local grocery store on Thursday). Glen later