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!

Dan Layus at Hotel Cafe

Show: Dan Layus (of Augustana)
Venue: Hotel Cafe- Los Angeles, CA
Date: 4/4/12
Show #21

There's something about simple shows, in small intimate venues that just blow major productions out of the water. Sometimes all you need is a guitar and some kick ass lyrics. That was the case when I saw Dan Layus of Augustana perform a solo set at Hotel Cafe.

If you're not familiar with Augustana, you probably are and don't know it. This was their big hit in 2005:

Armed with just a guitar and light piano accompaniment, Dan Layus proceeded to captivate the attention of everyone in the room that night. Usually at that venue there's always an annoying group of hipsters standing in the back chatting away, but that wasn't the case at this show.

He of course played the big hits such as Boston, and Fire, but he also debuted a few brand new songs that did not disappoint. I recorded a few:

Love in the Air
Need a Little Sunshine

Jordan Knight at House of Blues

Show: Jordan Knight
Venue: House of Blues, West Hollywood CA
Date: 3/8/12
Show #10 

On this Thursday knight night in Hollywood, hundreds of 30 something women flocked to the House of Blues to see a childhood crush come alive again. Jordan Knight, of New Kids on the Block was in town on a solo tour. Yet instead of hearing the normal boy band talk in line about where to put that new poster you just got from Tiger Beat, it was "I wish I could have gotten here sooner but the babysitter was late." While the fans may have grown up, it was apparent their inner teenybopper never left them.

While New Kids on the Block was before my time (All about BSB for me), I had the chance to see them on the NKOTBSB tour (3 times :-) and after the first song, instantly knew I was a  "Jordan girl" as the fans say. So I was very excited to hear he was coming to HOB.

The show was opened by a YouTube sensation named Chad, who was known for his 1 minute Boy Band Medley. Jordan saw his video and asked him to open the show! Pretty cool! The mash up can be seen below:

He also sang an original song which was pretty hilarious. Definitely reminded me of Andy Samberg.

He was followed by Spankie Valentine... She was... Hmm... Trying too hard may be an understatement. She acted like she was headlining at Madison Square Garden. Which I guess you gotta give her props for that, but it was just a little too over the top for Jordan fans, and the small venue. 

Then it was finally time for Jordan to come out! He opened with "Let's Go Higher", which was the perfect song to get the crowd going. But let's be real, he could have just stood there and stared at the crowd for 20 minutes and everyone would have still showed up. 

I think if you were to ask anyone there though, there would be a unanimous vote that the highlight of the night was when he performed "O Face". Why you ask? Let's just say, hip thrusting was back in full effect and the video I recorded of it is NSFW.

The other highlight of the night was when he picked 2 girls to come on stage with him during "Rockstar". Before picking the girls, he prefaced it by saying he always gets girls on stage who act crazy in the crowd, but when they get on stage, they're shy and don't dance. Unfortunately 1. I didn't get picked, and 2. the girls who were picked were extremely boring to watch and you could tell Jordan was upset they wouldn't do anything. Nonetheless it was fun to try and live vicariously through them for a few minutes.

All in all, it was an amazing show and completely exceeded my expectations. Can't wait to see him again!

Venue Tip

Do "Pass the Line"! While it's a ploy to get you to spend more money there, HOB has a program called "Pass The Line" where if you buy an entree from the restaurant, or spend $20 in the store, you get to go in a special line which goes in before the general admission line. A few things to remember for this:

1. Order food at the bar upstairs and then go eat in line. It's better to have someone in your party go order the food, while someone stays in line.

2. Make sure you tell them you're buying food for pass the line, they need to sign your receipt, that will be your early ticket in.

3. Ask where the Pass The Line is. You'll learn this place is super unorganized, and if you ask 10 different people, you'll get 10 different answers. I'll tell you that when I went for this show, I happened to ask the right security guard who told me where the right line was going to be, and everyone else had started a fake line, so I got to get in first. It was at the end of the hill, by the VIP entrance near the stairway to the Foundation room, near the Valet. Go there first.

4. Don't freak if a few people go in before you, there's usually a meet n greet that gets to go in even before pass the line. All in all it's worth it if you want to get up close.

To see all my videos from the show (yes, there's more!) visit my YouTube page.

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.