"This world is full of love, we still have hope. " - Zero 7 featuring Mozez, This World (Simple Things)
The plan for today was to have Dim Sum with the cool cats, visit my folks, steam clean the carpets, launder some clothes, buy some groceries, watch a little Sopranos and then a little girl talk over yogurt with The Actress. Dim Sum yes, Sopranos and girl talk probably but everything else? Yeah, no. I'm sitting here a little high on Midol (what? No shame in my game. Drugs courtesy of The Trues), filling up a hot water bottle so that I can attach it to my back and attempt to make my muscles all better. Used to be a time when I could dance for hours on end with only my feet the worse for wear. No longer. I'm sucking wind a lot sooner and my body doesn't respond kindly.
But I don't care.
Ummm, Shadow. He rocked it for an hour at the after party and I rocked right along with him. From the dancehall to the hip hop to the classics to the trance remixes. It was pretty much over from the moment he dropped in Eric B. and Rakim's Juice (Know the Ledge). At that point, I had to bring the hot sauce. I was already rocking some high class b-boy gear and my new frankenstein boots so I had to bring it to them. The circle grew, I heard the whispers, I knocked my glasses off, I got the thumbs up from the cute ladies and nods from the dudes too scared to wreck shit and it was on and on and on. By the time he was closing with The Roots Break You Off (which is mad hot in a club setting) and a cut off Common's upcoming album it was 2:30 A.M, I had done bad business to my body but I was the happiest man alive.
But let's begin at the beginning.
The Lovely Miss Anna Baby and I rolled into Universal a little after 6 to meet up with Pen and Brigitte for dinner before the show. A little Cafe Tu Tu Tango to get our minds and stomachs right. We putzed around the collectibles store while waiting for the table and saw a couple really awesome things that may very well end up as holiday presents including these and these. Dinner was excellent with good conversation and a very happy waiter named Talon who filled our table with Sunshine and Flowers. Or something. Mostly we just clowned him when he wasn't looking but it's okay. We love you, Talon.
We strolled into the Amphitheatre and waved goodbye to P&B so that we could get down to the orchestra section. We sat center and sat down just as Blackalicious was finishing their first song. Gift of Gab is ridiculous and you don't really appreciate him until you've seen him do A-G and Alphabet Aerobics live. They were a great choice to open the show. I think they surprised the eclectic but mostly white audience. Blackalicious is heard mostly on Chocolate City and Metropolis and not on the more popular Sounds Eclectic music shows. At least not nearly as much. But they rock rocked it and by the end of their set had our very reserved section of the amphitheatre with their hands in the air and nodding their heads to this.
Kinky. Okay. Kinky just blew me away. I had only heard pieces of a couple of their songs before the show. Think of them as a kind of Mexican Rage Against the Machine or a funkier, harder rocking Los Lobos. Amazing, high energy stuff. They blew through 6 or so songs and I was tired at the end of their time. The Bass Guitarist was on point and brought out the fashion accessory of the night, the dark cowboy hat. It seemed to be important that every Bass Guitarist wear one.
Aimee Mann was up next and gave us the time to calm down and reflect on the night we were having. She was incredibly gracious, thanking the audience after every song and reminding us that most of the bands featured on this show rarely played to such big crowds in such great venues. She was as overwhelmed as we were. It was a vibe that permeated the night. We were all there together, fans, artists, and friends and we were just kind of chilling and jamming. For all the amazing music taking place on that stage, it wasn't a flashy, high gloss, "hey look at us" performance. It was musicians and their instruments on a white back drop playing to people who respect their craft and the radio station, one of the only radio stations in the nation, willing to play them. It felt like the best house party you could ever be at. Ms. Mann wore tennis shoes with her full classic cowboy suit complete with tie and vest. She rules.
Pete Yorn was the first surprise guest. He played 3 songs, two from his upcoming album, which is coming out later than has been rumored. I missed 2 of his songs while I was getting water and running into Script Doctor D. I'm a little sad about that. It's been well over a year since I've seen a Pete Yorn show and would've liked to see a little more of his new stuff.
Next up was Beth Orton. She is the cutest thing and I think that maybe I will move to London to be her friend and confidante. You don't believe me? Well, she bumped into us later on the dance floor while Shadow spinned so she knows what's up. She wants to be my friend as much as I want to be hers. Pleasebelieveit. Anyway. She was the first blowaway voice of the night. Daybreaker is a great album that has me regularly feeling emotions but live? Why was I about to shed some tears even as I admired her white suit and red striped shirt? She was comfortable and funny and charming in between singing these melancholy songs togetdrunkandreminisceaboutpastloves to. I'm checking flights right now.
Hmmm...let's follow up Beth Orton with surprise guest #2. Hi Beck! Yes. Beck and just a guitar. Doing duets with Wayne from The Flaming Lips, Beth Orton, Norah Jones and Sia from Zero 7. You're just going to have to get over it because every time Beth Orton appears I'm going to say she's cute. She and Beck sang a track from his new album (I think as I don't have it yet) and were just the cutest things together. After finding the right key, He and Norah Jones blew away another track from his album and sounded beautiful together. And then Sia walked on stage. I wasn't ready for Sia. Her voice makes me want to cut out my ear drums. Once you've heard it there is nothing left for you to hear. Just give up listening to things because you now know what the most beautiful sound in the world is. She and Beck sang You're the One That I Want from Grease. Ummm, yeah. Right now I want to marry a pink lady and find a leather jacket. You better shape up. Electrifying. Oh. My. God.
I'm pretty sure that that was the point that The Lovely Miss Anna Baby and I lost our minds. It was about 11:15, we'd seen 3 hours of amazing music and Norah Jones and Zero 7 hadn't played yet. We saw Beck. Okay. Anna had just been trying to convince folks to come see the Beck show in SD in the middle of the week and now she had just seen him do an acoustic duets set with a bunch of people he'd never played with before doing songs they had never heard or performed before. Norah, Beth, and Sia. Shut Up.
Miss Jones hit the stage next. I do need to note that I have taken on my dad's prejudices a bit and I'm a little wary of a jazz band with no black musicians. I was a little unnerved to see no color up there trying to bring me the soul rhythms but they showed and proved even if Andrew Levy does look like Oak's (the BMP kids know who I'm talking about) slightly less crazy younger brother. Again, she sounds absolutely wonderful live. Her voice is just, heh, I'm a writer and I don't have the words. I could be like "The Enemy" in Almost Famous and say "incendiary" but I might want to save that one for later in this piece. I don't know. She just touches a place in me that's deep. She played a lot of stuff that will probably be on her upcoming album and most of it was on the fender rhodes. I love the fender rhodes. Have I mentioned that I want to learn to play that and the bass guitar? Yeah, pretty much. Or at least date somebody that knows how to play so I can just be obnoxiously in love with her all the time. Baby, play the fender rhodes again. Hit me off with a little somethin' somethin'. We don't need to make sweet love, just sweet music. That's where our passion lies. Fo'rilla.
See, I told you I'd lost it.
I should let Anna tell it at this point because I'm probably not going to make much sense. Zero 7 closed the show. Sigh. 2 keyboardists, 1 programmer, a bass guitarist, an electric guitarist and a drummer. Mozez. Sophie Baker. And Sia. Sia. Sia. Sia. Sia might be all that matters as she did Distractions alone and then did Destiny with Sophie and just stole my heart and my mind. She has them in her pocketbook and is running away as we speak. But there was so much more. One keyboardist was the Mad Hatter and nearly blew up the stage when he knocked out his amp plug and caused speakers to go haywire. Mozez killed us with This World to close the set and the concert. I couldn't stop smiling. It was 12:15. A 4 hour concert. Everything I could've possibly hoped for and more and the night wasn't over.
We made our way to the after-party and Thievery Corporation was spinning a lot of dancehall while folks walked around trying to get drinks. This night, these moments, are exactly why I live in LA. The cats from Zero 7, the DJs from KCRW, and 400 people staying out after a long concert to party and dance to some of the finest DJs on the planet, looking wonderful and happy and living, loving life. And I'm dancing my ass off. And Beth Orton bumped into us. And I'm sharing it with maybe the one person I know that can truly appreciate what is going down. And yeah.
Perhaps the finest night of my life.
GAME NOTES:
To the people sitting next to us - you have 4 knees between you, why are you only tapping one and not responding to the music? And then you're going to say "great show" to me afterwards? Get the fuck outta dodge, you didn't care...To the ladies who tried to get my attention on the dance floor - don't try to do the "almost bump into me" thing and hope I notice. I noticed but that's weak sauce. Ask me if I'd like to dance, Ma. We're big kids now. You were cute, too, but you brought the weak sauce...To Beth Orton - Call Me.
update: I've done some editing. I was a little too excited when I first wrote this and had some major grammatical and spelling and word choice issues. It's not fit for publication, now, but it works a little better for me. So there.