Andrew McMahon at The Viper Room

Show: Andrew McMahon

Venue: The Viper Room- Los Angeles, CA

Date: 1/9/13

Show #2

Last night I saw Andrew McMahon at The Viper Room in his first solo show post Jack's Mannequin. I was surprised to even hear about a show from him so soon after the Jack's Mannequin farewell show at the El Rey just this past November, but mostly just excited to see him again. He explained that his friends from Fun asked him to join their upcoming tour and he needed to get a band together much quicker than anticipated. Prior to this show, he said they had only rehearsed 7 or 8 times. So props to the band for getting everything together so quickly! They nailed it.

I'll briefly touch on his opening act since I plan on doing a full write up on them when I see them at Hotel Cafe this month, but I feel the need to mention them now I was so impressed with them. Their name is Pebaluna and they're an indie, acoustic duo (although they're usually a full band with 4 members, last night there were only 2) from Long Beach. The woman's voice was to die for, and when you put both of their voices together, it was something else. I recorded 2 songs, but I suggest you go get their album or check them out at their residency every Friday this month at Hotel Cafe here in LA.

Going into the show I had expected to hear an hour and 15 minutes of Andrew trying out new material he had been working on, throwing in 1 or 2 Jack's songs to keep the crowd happy, however that was not the case. He ended up doing only 1 new song, and the rest of the evening was filled with a mix of Jack's Mannequin and Something Corporate songs, although I'm not complaining! He did quite a few Something Corporate songs actually. Most notably "Konstantine", "Punk Rock Princess", "The Astronaut" and "21 and Invincible" (which he prefaced by saying he's too old to be singing anymore). I also couldn't help but laugh when the curtains opened up and I saw Jack's bassist Mikey up there with Andrew. No matter how much he says Jack's Mannequin is over, Jack's will always come alive every time he's on stage.

The new song he did was called "Learn to Dance". He let the crowd how nervous he was to try out the new song in front of an audience for the first time, but everyone loved it, including myself. I recorded the whole thing (below) so you can judge for yourself:

All in all, he was incredible as always. He said to keep an eye out for tour dates in the Spring time, so if he's not coming near you on this tour, there's still hope!

Hanson Music Video Shoot

L-R: Zac, Director Adam Neustadter?, Alex Beh, Nikki Reed, Drew Seeley, Amy Paffrath who faints in video, Taylor, Kat Dennings, Paul McDonald, Isaac

Today was so amazing, I don't even know where to begin!

Short version: Hanson put out a casting call for Los Angeles area fans to be in their new music video, I submitted, didn't get picked, but my friend did, so I knew when and where to show up, which I did, and ended up getting in anyway! The song is great (Sounds like it could be on Shout It Out), and Taylor told me that it should be released in "Uhhh...A couple months".

Long version:

On Friday, Hanson posted on Facebook that they were looking for fans in the LA area to be in their new music video, which was scheduled to shoot on Sunday. Thankfully a friend pointed it out to me and we both immediately applied, as it was a casted event. Saturday night rolled around and still no confirmation email saying I got picked. I was so anxious waiting for that email that I sat in front of my computer refreshing my inbox every few minutes. It made me feel better though that no one else on Facebook or Twitter was saying they received anything, so there was still hope.

I ended up falling asleep, but woke up that morning to a text from my friend saying she was selected. Yet, still nothing in my inbox. I couldn't bear the thought knowing Hanson was filming 10 minutes from me and not being there, so I decided to go and try my luck, hoping to get in due to no shows. And that's exactly what happened! There were only about 5 or 6 girls who showed up not having been invited, and we all got in!

Me getting my number assigned and picture taken

The shoot was at The Satellite, a small music venue in Silverlake. Call time was 11am, but my group ended up not going inside until around 2:45. There was a small group of people who were asked to get there at 8am for other shots. Then the 11am group got split up into 6 groups. I was in group 5. Once we got inside, the guys were already on the stage, messing around on their various instruments. They were all in black and white suits, and just looked amazing. I mean, I've never seen them look anything but amazing, but they looked exceptional today.

Credit: @stacepowe

The next 3 and a half hours was basically just getting filmed enjoying watching the guys, so you know, a hard days work. I was so excited to see Kat Dennings when I got inside, then found out she was in the video. Also in the video was Nikki Reed, Drew Seeley and Drake Bell. Also there, although not in the video (at least I didn't see her filmed at all), Meiko! If you saw them on their last tour, she opened for them. I became a big fan of hers after that and have seen her a few times since then. I ran into her outside and told her I was a big fan, which she seemed to enjoy, and thanked me.

Nikki played a bartender, who ends up leaving with Drew at the end of the night. Kat was with an unknown actor (former boyfriend of Jennifer Love Hewitt) named  Alex Beh. I unfortunately didn't see Drake, I believe he left before I got inside, so i'm not sure what his part in all of it was.

In between one of the takes, I was standing next to Nikki and a fan asked how she got involved with the shoot. She explained that a few years ago, the guys found out she was a fan (from a blog post of hers), and invited her out to a show. They had been friends ever since, and later found out that her very good friend Kat Dennings was also friends with the guys. The guys proceeded to ask both girls to be in the video, and both being huge Hanson fans, they were instantly on board. Just watching her talk about the guys, you could tell she was a true, genuine fan and was excited to be there. Finding out she was such a huge Hanson fan made me hate her a little less, only because I'm jealous of who she's married to (Paul McDonald... *Sigh*).

Kat was clearly very excited to be in it as well:

The song is called 'Get the Girl Back', so the story revolves around the guys in video trying to get their girls back. One of which (Alex Beh), spills a drink on his girl (Kat Dennings) and she takes off. The video even has a dance battle scene with Josh (JMac) Hanson! The song is super catchy and fun. It's along the same style as Shout It Out. They had a horn section on stage with them who call themselves the Brass Knuckles. They posted a video talking to Zac here:

 Taylor was very, very involved, and vocal throughout the shoot. He was calling out continuity issues and working on things with the director to get everything just right. Zac and Isaac didn't say much, and just left it to Taylor. Taylor took a special interest in the crowd and directed us multiple times to just go as crazy as possible, but as he said "We want you to go crazy! Well maybe not foaming at the mouth crazy, but crazy!". He was also big on making sure we had all the hand claps and rhythms down perfectly.

The highlight of the night for me was when I got selected to actually have a part! There was a scene where a fan in the crowd was to faint, and I got picked to be the girl that catches her, so I definitely will be getting some face time from that! Yay! The other highlight was when the guys came up to the front rows and shook everyone's hands, which was being filmed, and I'm hoping my shake with Taylor makes the cut! After the final shot inside, they said goodbye to all of us, and shook all our hands again. I even managed to form a sentence (which is a rare occurrence with me and Hanson), and asked Taylor when the song would be released and he responded with "Uhhh...a couple months", and kind of laughed. So basically, TBD.

Once we were done inside, we all had to lineup outside the venue for one more quick shot of all of us, as if we were going into the show. We also saw Kat, Nikki, Alex and Drew walking hand in hand as if they were leaving the venue. Taylor, Zac and Isaac even came outside to watch the final shot, even though they weren't in it. Once that was over, they invited us all to huddle around them and they graciously thanked us and said the new album would be out "soon". They gave hugs, shook hands and said goodbye to everyone. I didn't see anyone get a picture with them, since it looked like they took off pretty quickly, so I left too.

All in all, it was an amazing day! I'm so excited for the new album and of course for this video to premiere!

P.S. To all the other fans who were there, I just wanted to say, you were all so sweet as usual. I've never had a bad experience with Hanson fans, so thanks for keeping that streak going!

Robert Schwartzman at The Satellite

Show: Robert Schwartzman (of Rooney) with The Sleeping Bags and Emily Greene
Venue: The Satellite (aka Spaceland), Los Angeles, CA
Date: 1/12/12
Show #2

In case you haven't heard, The Satellite (formerly called Spaceland) does a series of shows called Satellite Nights, which is code for FREE! Yes you read that right, free shows. I highly suggest checking out their calendar (click here), they have a lot of great shows coming up. And even if they're not free, they're usually under or around $10. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

I most recently saw Robert Schwartzman of Rooney play here. It was my first time to this venue so I wasn't sure what to expect. A few tips:

1. Pay for valet.
It's only $5, save yourself the trouble of getting a parking ticket, there's permit parking all around, so I wouldn't risk it. I read a lot of reviews on Yelp from people who got tickets because they didn't want to pay the $5, just do it.

2. Have a drink.
This place is more of a... bar that has live music, than a live music venue that has a bar, if that makes any sense. I got there on the early side and felt out of place to say the least because no one was lining up to save a good spot by the stage, they were all by the bar, socializing. So if you're going by yourself, I'd show up on the later side if you don't want to be the only one standing in front of the stage waiting for the show to start, drinkless.

3. Don't expect your pictures to turn out all that great.
I brought my Nikon with me to this show (they don't care about cameras here! Win!) and was so disappointed by the drab, boring, dark blue setting on the stage. No variation in lighting through all 3 acts. This made for some rather boring pictures. I'm hoping it was just this show and that's not how they all are. Made for the sets overall to be much less exciting as well.

Opening Acts:

Emily Greene-
Loved this girl! I took a video (here), but the sound is a little rough. I was experimenting recording video with my Nikon instead of my Lumix, and it didn't work out too well, but looks better than my Lumix would have done.

The Sleeping Bags-
These guys were SO boring! They all looked like they had just crawled out of their own sleeping bags backstage. No energy. Have a cup of coffee (or 4) before getting on stage next time.

Main act- Robert Schwartzman (of Rooney)
I saw Robert's first solo show a few months ago at the Troubadour, and you could tell it was his first show. The songs were a little rough around the edges, and he didn't look very comfortable up there. I'm happy to say that this time around he seemed much better. Much more comfortable up there, the band was on it, and he was having fun. The songs started growing on me more this time around as well. I just needed to see that energy I know he can posses on stage.

The treat of the night though was when he covered a Rooney song! It was a nice change of pace from his slower solo songs.

Here's my video of Robert performing "Second Chances"- Click here

And now for pictures!

 I give The Satellite the award for Most Original Hand Stamp. So awesome.

Jack's Mannequin at The Viper Room

Show: Jack's Mannequin
Venue: The Viper Room, Los Angeles, CA
Date: 1/11/12
Show #1

Tickets for Jack's Mannequin at The Viper Room sold out as fast as they went on sale, and unfortunately, I was not one of the lucky ones to get a ticket. I was disappointed, but Voxhaul Broadcast was playing a free show that same night at The Satellite so I decided to go to that.

Wednesday night rolled around and as I got up to leave work and head over to The Satellite, I realized I couldn't bear the thought that Jack's Mannequin was going to be playing such an amazing, small venue and I wasn't going to be there. Last minute, I decided to go over there without a ticket, hoping for the best, and I'm so glad I did! Long story short, a very nice person was able to pull some strings for me and get me in for $20. WIN!

 
Opening Acts: Black Kettle and ??? (They said their name once and for the life of me couldn't understand what they said, which is really sad because they were great! I'll edit this post if I find out what it is)

Update 2/7/12- Mystery band is no longer a mystery! They commented on one of my videos of them to point out that their name is Erland. So there ya go, mystery solved.

Black Kettle: I got inside late so I only saw the end of the last song, but from what I saw they were pretty good. 2 girls, indie singer/songwriter types.

Erland: I loved everything about these guys. It was their first show, and they're good friends with Andrew. Andrew even produced one of the songs they performed. (See video here).

3 reasons to love these guys:
1) There's harmonica on almost every tune, what's not to love about that?
2) Songs are simple, sweet and melodic. Just right.
3) Andrew from Jack's Mannequin produced a few of their songs, so you can hear a little Jack's influence on those records.

Here's a little video about Erland and their time in the studio with Andrew:

Main Act: Jack's Mannequin
Jack's never puts on a bad show. They said they were doing the show in order to get some practice in preparation for their upcoming tour (can't wait for that!), so lucky for us they played a few songs they don't normally do including "Doris Day". (See video here)

See all my videos from this show on my YouTube page here

And now for pictures!

More after the break, click here