Author: Kristen

Kristen’s LA Concert Calendar: 2/7-2/13

Posted on by Kristen

I should be in San Diego where The Silent Comedy is rockin’ the cowboy hats off of Ryan Bingham fans at The House of Blues.  But I’m being responsible tonight seeing that I have a presentation to give tomorrow morning. Also, I did see TSC Friday in Ventura and Saturday at The El Rey…and hey, they’re coming back to LA tomorrow (Monday) to play The Satellite and I wouldn’t miss that for the world (or any number of secret shows that may or may not be in the LA area).

If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing The Silent Comedy, please make your way to Silverlake tomorrow night. It’s a good line-up all ‘round and it’s FREE. Get there early!

Monday: The Silent Comedy, Rocco DeLuca, Red Cortez FREE at The Satellite (8pm)
ALSO: Everest at Bootleg (9pm)
ALSO: Terra Naomi and Jenny Owen Young at The Hotel Cafe (8,10)
ALSO: Soraia at The Viper Room (8:30)
ALSO: Songwriters in the Round at Room 5 (9pm)
ALSO: It’s a School Night at Bardot featuring Hanni, El Khatib, and Hot as Sun (10pm)
ALSO: secret Foo Fighters show at ?? (??)…good luck with this one

Tuesday: Jonathan Clark and Satellite at Molly Malone’s (8,9)
ALSO: Infantree at The Echo (8:30)
ALSO: Joseph Arthur at Bootleg (9:45)

Weds: Tina Dico at The Troubadour (10pm)
ALSO: Anna Nalick and Nina Storey at The Hotel Cafe (9,10)
ALSO: Satellite at Club Central (8pm)
ALSO: Shawn Hlookoff and Jenni Alpert at Genghis Cohen (9pm)
ALSO: Butterfly Boucher and Sarah McLaughlan at Nokia Theater (8pm)

Thursday: Maniac at The Bootleg (10pm)
ALSO: Lelia Broussard and The Canyons at The Hotel Cafe (9,11)
ALSO: Chasing Kings at The Satellite (midnight)

Friday: The Howls at The Mountain Bar (?)
ALSO: Bryan Greenberg and Lindsey Ray at The Hotel Cafe (9:30, 10:30)
ALSO: Jake Newton and Matt Sucich at Room 5 (10pm)
ALSO: The Pretty Reckless at The El Rey (10pm)
ALSO: Dead Country at The Roxy (10pm)

Saturday: Saint Motel’s Zombie Prom at the Palm Court Ballroom of the Alexandria Hotel (8pm)
ALSO: Maxim Ludwig and the Santa Fe Seven and Andy Clockwise at The Hotel Cafe (10, 12)
ALSO: Will Hoge at The Troubadour (8pm)

Sunday: The Elizabeth Kill at The Mint (8pm)
ALSO: Val Emmich at The Hotel Cafe (8pm)

To Keep in Mind:
Feb. 15th: Mother Mother at The Satellite
Feb 16th: Nicole Atkins at The Troubadour
Feb. 16th: Scars on 45 at The Hotel Cafe
Feb. 20th: Beth Hart at The Echoplex
Feb. 21st: Joe Firstman at The Hotel Cafe
Feb. 22nd: Sick of Sarah at The Roxy
Feb 26th: Josh Ritter and Scott Hutchinson (Frightened Rabbit) at The Music Box
Feb 26th: Young the Giant at The Roxy
March 1st: Biffy Clyro at The Troubadour
March 1st: Queen Caveat and The Silent Comedy at Saint Rocke
March 3rd: Civil Twilight at The Troubadour
March 4th: After Midnight Project at The Roxy
March 8th: Vertical Horizon at The Roxy
March 9th: Jay Nash at Saint Rocke
March 17th: Alkaline Trio and Dead Country at The Mayan
March 21st: Joe Firstman at The Hotel Cafe
March 22nd: War on Drugs at The Troubadour
March 26th: Lady Danville at The Troubadour
May 27th: The Script at Club Nokia
September 22-24: Hotel Carolina

~ Kristen

Queen Caveat Rages at The Viper

Posted on by Kristen

You all know I am completely in love with this band. I’ve seen Queen Caveat twice in the last two weeks and I’m already ready to have another go. Tuesday night at The Viper Room, the place just about exploded when they did this cover of Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing in the Name”. Someone caught it on video. Thought I’d share…

Mark your calendars for March 1st when they team up with SD fave’s The Silent Comedy to destroy the stage at Saint Rocke!

~ Kristen

Watch This! “Never Quite the Disappearing Act”

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Alright, Junior has released a new music video!! I’ve been looking forward to this one for weeks. Check out the video for one of my fave tunes (made my best of ’09 mix), “Never Quite the Disappearing Act”.

For more on Alright, Junior go to their website. And keep checking back here because LMN was in Philadelphia for the band’s last show at Northstar Bar. We’ve got some great pictures and video coming your way!

~ Kristen

Kristen’s LA Concert Calendar: 1/31-2/6

Posted on by Kristen

It’s been quite the week for music! Sorry I’ve been so quiet, but I’ve been busy enjoying great shows every night and I haven’t had the time to write. Some of the highlights from last week include seeing one of my fave songwriters and storytellers, Anna Nalick, watching Keaton Simons blow the roof off of The Roxy with his amazing new tunes, hanging with friends and falling in love with new bands like Armada at The Mint, getting what I hope continues to be my weekly fix of new band love Queen Caveat, and, of course, being reminded of why Nico Vega is one of the greatest bands I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching perform.

Also, this week I had the extreme pleasure of talking with one of the most exciting new bands coming out of the Philadelphia music scene, SINAI. More on my interview with them PLUS footage from the last weekend’s Philly adventure still to come…

In the meantime, amazing live musical opportunities continue to present themselves here in Los Angeles…here’s what’s on my “not to be missed” list for this week:

Monday: Songwriters in the Round at Room 5 (9pm)
ALSO: It’s a school night at Bardot featuring Tristen, Alex Luke,  and  Peter, Bjorn, and John (9pm)

Tuesday: Queen Caveat at The Viper Room (10pm)
ALSO: Patrick Park at The Hotel Cafe (10pm)
ALSO: Oh Land at The Troubadour (8pm)
ALSO: Satellite at The Roxy (8pm)
ALSO: Maniac at Crazy Girls (11:15)
ALSO: Jonathan Clark at Molly Malone’s (8pm)

Weds: Anna Nalick at The Hotel Cafe (9pm)
ALSO: Jake Newton and Satellite at Club Central in Santa Monica (9,10)
ALSO: Shawn Hlookoff and Jenni Alpert at Genghis Cohen (9pm)

Thursday: Garrison Starr, Lelia Broussard, Curtis Peoples, and The Canyons at The Hotel Cafe (8,9,10,11)
ALSO: Great Northern at The Satellite (10pm)
ALSO: War Tapes at Silverlake Lounge (10pm)
ALSO: Soraria at The Whiskey (10pm)
ALSO: We Barbarians at The Echo (10pm)
ALSO: Abbot Kinney at Molly Malone’s (10pm)

Friday: The Wood Brothers with Carsie Blanton at The Hotel Cafe (7pm)
ALSO: Oh Land at The Echo (7:30)
ALSO: Tennis at The Echo (10pm)
ALSO: First Friday at The Natural History Museum featuring Wild Nothing and Abe Vigoda (8pm)

Saturday: The Silent Comedy at The El Rey (8pm)
ALSO: Tony Lucca at The Hotel Cafe (10pm)
ALSO: Forgetters at The Echo (8pm)

Sunday: Jordan Cook and Dead Sara at The Viper Room (10,11)

To Keep in Mind:
Feb 9th: Sarah McLaughlin at Nokia Live
Feb 9th: Tina Dico at The Troubadour
Feb. 12th: Saint Motel’s Zombie Prom
Feb. 15th: Mother Mother at The Satellite
Feb 16th: Nicole Atkins at The Troubadour
Feb. 16th: Scars on 45 at The Hotel Cafe
Feb. 20th: Beth Hart at The Echoplex
Feb 26th: Josh Ritter and Scott Hutchinson (Frightened Rabbit) at The Music Box
Feb 26th: Young the Giant at The Roxy
March 1st: Biffy Clyro at The Troubadour
March 3rd: Civil Twilight at The Troubadour
March 4th: After Midnight Project at The Roxy
March 22nd: War on Drugs at The Troubadour
May: The Script at Club Nokia
September 22-24: Hotel Carolina

~ Kristen
https://twitter.com/_localmusicnat

Entering Anna’s World: Anna Nalick at The Hotel Cafe/Saint Rocke

Posted on by Kristen

Despite the fact that it meant I’d be awake for 24+ hours in a row, I still ventured to Saint Rocke last night to see the amazing Anna Nalick. I’d always been a fan of Ms. Nalick…since Wreck of the Day, an album that I believe to be pure brilliance. Everyone knows her for her hit song “Breathe (2am)”, but that tune is barely in my top five from that album. She has been playing residencies at The Hotel Cafe more recently and I finally got out to one of her sets a couple of weeks ago. Let’s just say, the performance was not what I expected…it was more than some musicians up on stage playing some songs, it was a show!

Anna has her stage set up around a plush chair that bears slight resemblance to a throne. Next to the chair is a stand holding a fancy book and a table…with a flower. She takes the stage, a tiny figure, unassuming save for the wide eyes and fiery red hair. She’ll play a song showcasing her sweet yet powerful vocals, emoting through to her fingertips. After the song, she’ll make the announcement that she isn’t very good with on stage banter so instead, in between songs, she’ll read some poetry she wrote just for the occasion.

Her poems, as well as her engaging banter (she lied when she said it was no good), quickly bring you into her world more so than I think I’ve seen with any other musician on stage. Not only is the forth wall smashed to smithereens, but the audience is transported not just onto the stage but into the mind of Anna Nalick. She complains about every crack in her voice (even redoing bits of songs to prove that she can do it), freely informs you that she suffers from depression, may have multiple voices in her head, and is unashamed to announce that her songs are brilliant.

For last night’s performance at Saint Rocke, she wrote one long poem that she broke up into smaller segments. She claimed it was the answer to the questions she always gets about where she’s been since her smash hit was released. It was a story of kings and castles, of a brave knight and a little girl who wrote songs…a thinly veiled tale of how a record label can mess with an artist, but definitely the most entertaining way I’ve ever heard the storytold!

I suppose the bottom line, and most exciting part, of last night’s tale was that the little girl is still writing brilliant songs. And those songs are soon to be released!!

One of my favorites of the new tunes:

In the meantime, I know that I will try to catch as many Anna Nalick performances as I can. Each one is a unique experience, guaranteed to enrapture and entertain, giving you insight into the mind of an artist who is fast becoming one of my favorite lyricists as well as performers.

Anna Nalick’s final two Hotel Cafe Residency dates are Feb. 2nd and Feb. 9th. Don’t miss it!

Dido Nominated for Academy Award!

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How am I just finding this out?!? Granted the nominations for the Academy Awards were just announced yesterday, but I just can’t believe that Dido finally released new material and I didn’t know about it! I guess that is what I get from spending all my money on concerts and not having any left over to go to the movies…

To understand my astonishment with myself, you must know that Dido was my favorite artist for quite a number of years. A byproduct of my obsession with the TV show, Roswell, Dido’s first CD, No Angel, was one of my most spun CDs in high school. I listened to that CD so much that the password for my phone’s answering machine is the track numbers in order of my favorite songs from the album. Dido was also the first big “pop” concert I ever attended.

Anyway, I was thrilled to see Dido’s name on the list of Academy Award nominees. She co-wrote a song with Rollo and A.R. Rahman (previous Oscar winner for his work on Slumdog Millionaire). The song is called “If I Rise” and is featured in the movie 127 Hours.

It’s so lovely to hear Dido’s voice again! And it pairs well with A.R. Rahman. Here’s the song:

One of my fave Dido tunes (I love the bridge):

~Kristen