Interview with 1090 Club

God, I hate Los Angeles. I hate being yelled at by crazy people, I hate driving for two hours, only to get ten miles
closer to my destination and I absolutely hate being in LA sober. I went down there with RacketMike to do an interview with a band from Montana, possibly the only band in Montana that doesn’t have a "compound" to keep out the non-believers. Well, as I said, I hated being sober, but as I hate drunk drivers even worse, I waited. Once …

Scanners at Squid Joe’s:  March 23, 2007

Any place named after a fish, and a slimy one with many arms and tentacles, and some dude with a generic name like Joe, should be an indication of the place and crowd.  Location is always key, and Carlsbad, other than being another North County sleepy beach town, is one full of Marines (aka Jarheads), bros in their SRH gear, and aging surfers.  Tonight was no exception.

Broken Social Scene
Los Angeles
November 7, 2005
Toronto born, Broken Social Scene treated Los Angeles to two sold out shows at the Henry Fonda Theater, the first being Monday November 7th. The supergroup usually ranges from five to seventeen members, so it was no surprise that there was a buzz among the crowd to see how many members really would be on stage. No disappointments on this night, there was counting and recounting, but as many as fifteen Broken Social Scene members were on stage at once.

Laugh Factory Presents: Dane Cook w/ Dov Davidoff and Jokoy
Saturday, March 19, 2005

There’s nothing quite like a good laugh to make a night seem so perfect. This is exactly why I decided to go to the Laugh Factory on a dismal Saturday night. Now some may think that sitting in the back of a 2002 Ford Mustang behind a 6’4″ guy, driving through sporadic rain storms, and having people not heed your directional wisdom, thus causing you to get lost as an ideal Saturday night, but they are greatly mistaken. …

Rachael Yamagata
La Zona Rosa
Austin, Texas
July 22, 2005
A virgin to the city of Austin, arguably one of the nation’s epicenters for live performance, I was excited to experience the new vibe of concert-going on my vacation to the Lone Star state. After a 7/11 Dr. Pepper slurpy, getting hit on by a crazy street jewelry vendor, reveling in all the “GO LANCE GO” signs, and a quick stop into the longhorn shop where the color of burnt sienna (University of Texas’s official team color) swallowed me upon entrance, my two buddies …

Planes Mistaken For Stars
Bear Vs. Shark
Bullet Train To Vegas
Navajo Code
Thursday June 16, 2005 @ The Glasshouse in Pomona, Ca
So I arrive at the Glasshouse to find no one in the vicinity of the venue. The bands were loading in, and they all had looks of disappointment on their faces. Nobody wants to play in front of the venue staff and the other bands, but that’s the life they chose. Time gets closer to the show, and four more people trickle in to catch the night’s festivities. With all the High …

Sierra Swan
Nightvision @ MOCA
6/10/06
Take the swaggering, feminine attitude of Fiona Apple and the redhead
good looks of Tori Amos; put them together and you get Sierra Swan.

Alkaline Trio/The Lawrence Arms/The Draft
Avalon Theatre Los Angeles, CA. June 3rd, 2006
Dear Mr. Skiba,
I recently attended your June 3rd, 2006 concert that included performances by the Draft and the Lawrence Arms. I had a couple complaints:

Psapp, Juana Molina, and Jose Gonzalez
The El Rey Theatre
June 16, 2006
Before I went to this show, I looked up all three of the bands on MySpace. It’s one of the top ten most common things to do on the Internet nowadays, right alongside Googling your boss or changing your relationship status to “Single” when you’re mad at your boyfriend. Everybody does it. Now imagine my surprise when I visited www.myspace.com/psapp and saw that the band’s Top 8 was filled with pictures of…cats? And under the “About Us” section it read, …

Hot Chip
The Troubadour
Los Angeles, CA
8/2/06
I’ve been to the Troubadour many times since I was old enough to even care about going to shows, and normally the clientele is your usual post-college hipsters who smell like beer and make out with their girlfriends by the back wall in between sets.  But I never thought …

 
Bravery/Radio 4 Concert Review
Venue: The Roxy (Atlanta, GA)
Date: 12/05/06
Opening Band: Radio 4
Music: 6.25/10
Showmanship: 7.75/10
Light Show/Theatrics: 5.75/10
Intangibles: 4/10
Overall: 5.25/10

Manic
The Echo
Los Angeles, CA
December 15, 2006
How do you describe passion?  There are no adjectives, no words, no actions.  It’s something felt.  Something penetrated deeper than the surface.  Something between the lines, in the grey areas, and in the subtext.  And, Manic’s music encapsulates that unexplainable feeling.

She Wants Revenge
House of Blues
Las Vegas, NV
November 26, 2006
Vegas is amazing.  Driving to Vegas from LA on Thanksgiving weekend is not.  Was the show worth it?  Not really.  I’m a huge fan of She Wants Revenge and have been there since their humble EP beginnings.  Even …

Monsters Are Waiting
Safari Sam’s
Los Angeles, CA
December 6, 2006
Nothing better than seeing a great band play in front of tiki-mask stage lighting and after getting 99 Cent Store parking for free in Hollywood!  Safari Sam’s is one spot in LA that tends to be easily accessible and not too crowded.

John Vanderslice . Noise Pop 2007 . San Francisco
February 28, 2007
I am a pretty big fan of John Vanderslice’s recorded work.  I also saw him live a year ago at the beginning of his Pixel Revolt tour and enjoyed that show.  Thus, I was looking forward to his Noise Pop appearance last Wednesday night.  I was certain the home town crowd would be out in full effect, and Noise Pop always seems to have a few interesting surprises. 

The War Tapes
Safari Sam’s
Los Angeles, CA
December 18, 2006
Tonight’s show was a smorgasbord of bands playing for a good cause.  The $10 admission to the show at Safari Sam’s was supporting the Fireman’s Relief fund, though no one in the venue, except one of the DJs, knew that.  We were all there for the music and the giving holiday spirit, of course.