Roger Waters - L.A. Coliseum - 5/19/12

Categories: Last Night

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Chris Victorio
Roger Waters...woah, don't shoot!

Roger Waters
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
5/19/12

Say this about Roger Waters: he isn't as irritable as he was 30 years ago. When the mic cut out during "The Thin Ice," only the second song of the evening, the technical foul-up caused the former Pink Floyd member to scrap the tune and start again from the top. The old Waters would have freaked out and been furious. However, last night at the Coliseum, a kinder, gentler version of the rock legend handled it gracefully.

Throughout the performance of Pink Floyd's landmark album The Wall, the audience was treated to a night of rock theatre performed with confidence and charisma; something that wasn't intended when Waters first wrote the album. In fact, the infamous Montreal show in 1977, where he spit on a fan out of disgust (the moment that inspired him to write The Wall )seemed to be a thought that had long passed.

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Sinden - Detroit Bar - 5/19/12

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Patrick Montes
Sinden at Detroit Bar
Sinden
Detroit Bar
5/19/22


Sinden is part of the recent crop of electronic music anomalies that has both versatility and eclecticism on his side. He's collaborated with the masked beat-maven behind SBTRKT (Aaron Jerome) and produced for southern hip-hop group G-Side. His scope extends both deep inside dance music's acid house past and incorporates hip-hop and R&B shaped by soulful eccentrics like Cee-Lo Green. Most importantly, Sinden knows that in order to survive in a world of demanding fans, staunch critics and crowded playing fields, artists must have a the ability to adapt to their surroundings.
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Flight To Mars - The Constellation Room - 5/14/12

Categories: Last Night

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Andrew Youssef
Flight To Mars
The Constellation Room
5/14/12

Generally, opening nights of tours are when the small kinks that audiences don't notice are worked out. It could be the sound is off or that the band is a bit rusty after having not been on-stage in a while. Flight To Mars had a built-in excuse on top of whatever opening problems could have occurred: this was their first ever performance outside of their native Seattle. As we highlighted in our feature last week, the Mike McCready-led band has been playing one-off shows in the Emerald City for the past nine years in order to raise money for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. In honor of their 10th year performing, the group decided to take the show on the road.

Naturally there were some spotty moments, but all in all, Flight To Mars kicked some serious ass. Throughout their 75-minute set of UFO covers, McCready treated the nearly- packed room to the same energetic and excitable solos that he's been known to do in much larger venues, providing a treat to the diehard Pearl Jam fans in attendance. I'm not sure if they noticed, but the solo in "Rock Bottom" felt eerily similar to the one in "Porch," which shows that if you dig deep enough into a rocker's roots, you could find hidden gems in unexpected places.

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Washed Out, Memoryhouse - The Observatory - 5/6/12

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Windish Agency

Washed Out and Memoryhouse
The Observatory
May 6, 2012

A Sunday following a major drinking holiday isn't the best time to put on a show. The day is meant to be spent recovering, nursing whatever remnants of a hangover are left from the night before.

Apparently, someone forgot to mention this to the full house at The Observatory last night, as the main room was packed with hipsters and geeks swaying to the synthpop chillwave stylings of Georgia native Ernest Greene, better known as Washed Out, who was playing his first ever OC show.

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OC Punk Rock Picnic - Oak Canyon Ranch - 4/28/12

Categories: Last Night

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Javier Cabral

If your vehicle was sturdy enough to get you to this year's Punk Rock Picnic at Oak Canyon Ranch (aka the middle of nowhere) -- meaning your car didn't overheat during the uphill slaloms or get stuck in the makeshift loose-dirt road parking lot -- then you experienced what was probably the best Punk Rock Picnic to date.

Thousands showed up for the all-day, early-bird punk rock festival. The crowd included just about everybody in the punk rock pantheon of fans: full-fledged punk rock families complete with mohawked little ones, middle school kids who just heard their first Black Flag song, even old-school veterans with walking canes. The gates opened at 11 a.m. and the first band went up at noon. There were 10 stages with eight bands set to play on each, guys on bikes doing backflips off ramps and a "Punk Dogs" food stand. It was pretty much the place to be for any alternative-minded individual in Southern California.

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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena - 4/27/12

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Andrew Youssef
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena
4/27/2012

One-two-three-four! No signs of fatigue at night two of Bruce Springsteen's run at Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena; The Boss and the E Street Band turned in a three-hour, 25-song barnburner where everyone in the building knew all the words and loved every second of it.

The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, the red-headed stepchild of Southern California sporting and concert facilities, was at rare capacity again Friday night. People were still filing in at 8:40 p.m., an hour after the listed start-time, when Springsteen and the E Street Band started into "No Surrender" with the house lights still on and pretzel vendors in the aisles.

All that didn't matter because Bruce was on.

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Pulp at the Fox Theater, April 19 2012

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Pulp
Fox Theater
April 19, 2012


Jarvis Cocker knows how to do a lot of things. He knows how to work a crowd (along with implying just how he could work them if given half a chance). He knows how to take a rose from an audience member and set it up on a mike stand along with a black bra.  He knows just how to use his stick insect limbs to create the most astounding moves. He even knows how to look not only perfectly fashionable but flat out fantastic with a beard even when you'd think that was somehow the most played out look around. To quote a friend on Twitter, "Jarvis Cocker is such an inspiration because society tells us no-one who looks like that should act *that* comfortable in their skin."

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Dillon Francis at the Observatory, April 16, 2012

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Charles Lam


Dillon Francis
The Observatory, Santa Ana
April 14, 2012
LA-based producer Dillon Francis visited the Observatory last Saturday, playing to a crowd largely made up of white trash and Asian ravers. The doors, originally scheduled to open at 7, opened an hour and a half late. By the time audience members were allowed in, a drunk and stoned line had already formed.

Inside was not much better.

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Refused at the Glass House, April 12, 2012

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Refused
The Glass House
April 12, 2012

Prior to Refused's intensely anticipated show at the Glass House, frontman Dennis Lyxzen posted a Youtube video on his Facebook artist page of punk legends The Germs performing "Lexicon Devil" at the Whisky in 1979. Lyxzen remarked that "we are going to do some last minute rehearsals so that we can sound at least as good as the Germs!" The performance he was speaking of was a perfect example of the repertoire of the early punk rock spectacle: raw, noisy, and driven more by the crash-and-burn minded forces behind the instruments than the actual physical parts controlling them. After so many years out of the live performance circuit, would he and Refused be able to capture the crux and core of what made Darby Crash and his band of punks so extraordinary? Only early Friday morning could say.
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Mike Doughty at the Coach House, April 12, 2012

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Daniel Kohn
Mike Doughty
The Coach House
April 12, 2012


For a guy that's been to hell and back, Mike Doughty has a funny way of showing the gravity of what he's been through. The man who used to front the New York-based Soul Coughing brought his Book Of Drugs tour to The Coach House last night, as he promised in the piece we ran on him last week, the show was going to be unlike anything he'd ever done, and likely anything that anyone's ever done.More >>
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