Henry Clay People and The Rosewood Thieves @ Little Radio December 15, 2007

I seem to be cursed when it comes to seeing shows at Little Radio. Or rather, when I want to see a show there, something happens to prevent me from doing so. It almost did this night, but in the end, I ended up just being to tired to finish the night past one and stay to see Dead Meadow.

The funny thing about the LR space is that it's not quite a venue yet. So, things like time do not matter, which is nice cause you can be lazy and take a nap after dinner, and even though start time says 9:30 on your invite, chances are nothing will begin till almost 11. Such was the case tonight, although I can't quite recall what the actual start time was, but I do know it was not 9:30.

The first band up was The Rosewood Thieves from New York. When they started playing they were not in my line of sight, so I thought a DJ was playing the Stones, a song I had not heard before, but the Stones nonetheless. However, when I turned the corner I was surprised to see a live band playing. They fluctuated between that folksy rock and some freak-folk styling that I still don't know what my opinion is of it. It turns out they're more well known than I thought, accumulating much in the way of good press. Their playing was on point the whole time they were up on the giant snowflake covered stage, making me feel that there kudos were very much earned.

Second up, and the last band I caught tonight, was the Henry Clay People, dressed as the Santa Claus People (or just the Santa people, I forget now...). I've praised this band before, however tonight they're playing was completely different. Maybe it was the Holiday season, maybe it was the Santa Claus costumes, maybe it was too much Dewars, but lead singer Joey Siara kept scaring me as he swayed and leapt all over the stage. In fact, Christopher felt the need to stay close to the stage in case he fell off. (For some photographic examples, click here for a slideshow at LA Weekly) However, the playing and sound were great. They played a bunch off their album, and some other stuff I didn't recognize- like usual.

Anyways, if you get the opportunity to go to a show at Little Radio, you should. They like to decorate, and know how to throw a party.

Coming soon: my review of live shows in 2007, cause I like lists.

SUMMER CAMP! with the Raveonettes and the Little Ones @ Little Radio June 10, 2007

Going to see bands perform in the daytime is always a sorta surreal experience. Especially when the last band has played and you walk out the door, and suddenly your eyes are being blinded from intense sunlight, even though it's now 6:30 in the evening. Ouch.

Today was the second installment of this summer's Summer Camp, organized by Little Radio. Boasting a water slide, free food and drinks, and FREE MUSIC, you can't go wrong with this much entertainment. Today was especially important to be there because I missed the Raveonettes Friday night. This seemed to be a recurring curse that was finally lifted as of today. Over the last two or so years, every time they came to play out here in LA I missed them for some reason. Plans would be made, money in hand, and then SOMETHING had to go wrong. Not this day, finally.

We really didn't have so much time to hang out there so we didn't pack bathing suits for the pool. Really, they had a pool there too. So standing outside drinking Dewars even under the tarp canopy in jeans was proving to be too hot for us. Inside was somewhat cooler, and we had wandered inside to catch the Little Ones (having missed the opening band Brothers & Sisters).

I couldn't for the life of me remember if I'd seen the Little Ones before. I recognized the name, and they sounded familiar, but.... Anyways, the best word I can think of to describe them was HAPPY. They were all smilies and whooping and yelling and they even had what looked like choreographed drumming and keyboard playing. That's always pretty neat. They also liked to play musical instruments(like musical chairs.. get it?), which for whatever reason is always entertaining to me. Like going to see Bedroom Walls where you never seem to know which one of them will be on what instrument. The Little Ones make me think I'm listening to a British band; there's something in the lead singer's voice and maybe the sunny poppy tunes that seem lined with slight sad notes. But they're not, they're from here.

I'm not sure if everyone knows that the Raveonettes acquired their name from the Buddy Holly song "Rave On"-they did by the way if you didn't know that. So, it was fun to hear them start up their set with "Everyday", one of my favorite Buddy Holly songs (one of which I also wanted to do a cover of, but dammit, theirs was pretty great). Today's show had them performing as just a duo; in fact, I believe their tour was called the Electric Duo tour. At least it was until the newer songs, then they had help on drums by Sandra Vu (from Midnight Movies- so pissed I missed them Friday) for the rest of the set. After "Chain Gang of Love", their second song into the set, something technical went wrong with an amp or along the lines of that nature and they had to fiddle with stuff for a bit. After a few they were back up and played "Love in a Trashcan". For just the two of them (at least for the first half) they sounded amazing to me and still kept their signature sound regardless of having only two instruments playing at a time. When the both of them sing, it's very hypnotic to me and also odd that I know there are two people singing, and yet it's hard to pull out the separate voices.

In another odd turn of events, I actually kept track of most of the songs they played, which included: Attack of the Ghost Riders, the Candy Song, My Tornado, Dead Sound and some new ones including (I believe) Lust and closing with Aly Walk With Me. One thing I must try and do when writing these things down is write legibly. Then I can be a bit more accurate with these things, sorry guys.