But How Lucky Am I?

I wasn’t supposed to be going anywhere on the night of Wednesday, November 2, 2016, but I found myself blessed with a spare ticket to go to The Echo to see to up-and-coming L.A.-based band Starcrawler and dynamic Long Island, New York  band The Lemon Twigs, play a sold out show. I only heard about both of these bands about a month before this concert. A friend saw The Lemon Twigs perform at Amoeba (check out four songs showcased in one video at the link) in October and after seeing some video clips, I decided I wanted to go to

Memories Always Start ‘Round Midnight

Jon Brion cooked up another show for us at Largo at the Coronet on Friday, October 28, 2016. A very special guest was promised and of course rumors abounded. Turned out to be actor and comedian Adam Sandler, who was on hand to try out a slew of new material. He read off many sheets of paper and had a keyboardist in tow to back him up on some of his comedic songs. Some stuff was hilarious and had me laughing hard, some stuff didn’t hit, some was just too much information and not to my taste. His set was like

Life is Change

On Sunday, October 9, 2016, I was back at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles to see the one and only Robyn Hitchcock, along with some special guest musicians. Opening the night was Robyn’s current partner in crime and lovely Australian import, Emma Swift. Emma’s set was short and she played a few of the songs she had done when she was at Largo in June (see previous post “There’s No Derailing Destiny“). Her first song was “Seasons.” When she finished she mentioned the presidential debate that we were all missing and stated, “I’m with you!” She pulled out

This Is Where I Belong

August 29, 2016 was Jon Brion‘s monthly show at Largo at the Coronet. I’m going to keep this write up pretty to the point, since Jon has already had another show since this one!  Also, it was one of the more mellow shows of Jon’s lately as he wasn’t feeling well.  Nick Kroll opened with a hit-and-miss stand-up routine, before Jon appeared on stage wearing the turquoise trousers and a pair of red polka dot socks (Jon always has some colorful, patterned socks on). He stumped me with a lot of the instrumental music he played that night. Here’s as

Beam of Light

Saturday, August 13, 2016 I was at the Troubadour to see Rhett Miller, lead singer of the band Old 97’s, perform a solo show.  Trapper Schoepp was handpicked by Rhett to open the show. Trapper, a self-acknowledged Rhett wannabee, noted half-jokingly, half in vexation at the start of his set that night, “I can’t do all the stage moves I stole from him!”  However, he had the talent to successfully assume the position of Rhett-lite, as well as demonstrate his own charm and talent for laying down some catchy, story songs and clever lyric phrases spun over straightforward chord changes.