A few months ago, I purchased tickets to Ray LaMontagne at the Wiltern here in LA. It was a second show that was added after the first show quickly sold out. I was so glad when it was announced because I hadn’t been able to see him live yet. Anyway, another one of my friends got tickets to the show in San Diego before the second show was announced, as it didn’t sell out immediately like the first LA show. Between getting the tickets and the show, circumstances came about that she might not be going with the person she had originally intended. So one day, I came up with this crazy idea of us sharing our tickets with each other and going to both shows. My friend loved the idea.
I don’t have many pics from the shows…just a couple of really dark pictures from the San Diego show (the Wiltern doesn’t allow photography)…but here is Leona Ness (the opening act) and Ray at the Spreckels Theatre:
I enjoyed both nights quite a bit, but for different reasons. I think the San Diego show was a little better…at least Ray’s portion of it. The set was at least one song longer in San Diego (I think…I wasn’t counting…but the LA show just felt shorter). We had great seats in San Diego, however they were off to the left and the view was partially blocked by the speakers. We basically just saw the side and back of Ray. In LA, the seats were in the balcony, so we were looking down from the center, but much further away. Both venues were excellent for ambiance and sound quality. Very fitting venues for the music. My only complaints…in San Diego, we had some annoying folks around us, a couple where the guy was demeaning and pretty much just horrible to his date, and a girl who kept recording on her cell phone in 30 second blocks the majority of Ray’s set. In LA, I was disappointed how little difference there was in the set list from the night before from Ray. While Leona Ness played pretty much the same songs, she at least switched up the order. Ray’s set was pretty much exactly the same, with the exception being him not performing Roses and Cigarettes in LA. More pics from the weekend are here.
Did I mention I voted? Have you? Less than a week to go!!!
I took a friend to a concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday. It was the first show for both of us at the Disney Hall. The concert was part of the Songbook Series put on by the LA Phil. The theme of this concert was “Country” and featured Vince Gill. It was intimate affair (despite the grandiose of the hall itself), with Vince front and center with only a rhythm section trio backing him up. In between songs, Vince related stories about where the songs came from, and in the second half of the show, invited the audience to shout out requests. All in all, it was a pretty enjoyable show. I’ll leave the rest of the details to the LA Times review, if you are more curious. (The reviewer liked it as well.)
Other than that, not much happened in the last week. I’m going to San Diego for a concert on Saturday and then going to a show at The Wiltern on Sunday. More about that next week though.
Last night I went to a screening of the new Charlie Kaufman film, Synecdoche, New York
Like his prior work, its a bit strange, but also amusing. Originally conceived as a “horror film” for Sony, this is what Kaufman came up with. A story about a theater director so afraid of death that he is misses life and the good parts of it. I thought it was a fascinating film, and fit perfectly alongside the rest of Kaufman’s work.
My friend went with me said “near the end, I just wanted it to be over already.” Not because it wasn’t an enjoyable movie, but just because it was getting long. What I just realized though, is perhaps this was a good thing. This is a film about living and dying after all. For some people at the end of life, you wish for it just to be over, the suffering of pain, loneliness, whatever. But for whatever reason they linger on, in pain, alone until finally the warm light embraces them.
We’ve been singing this song (you can listen below) at church the past few weeks. Its by Bruce Cockburn, but with some additional lyrics written by the guy that is in charge of the service (though the version below is just the Bruce Cockburn version).
As I’ve been preparing to move to a new apartment, I’ve been thinking a lot about life and its mysteries. So of course this song has been running through my head.
I never thought I’d ever live in Los Angeles, yet here I am. I’m here and will be for another year or two probably.
I’m firmly in my thirties now, but I still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up. My work experience is scattered all over the place.
Sometimes by a woodland stream he watched the water rush over the pebbled bed, its tiny modulations of bounce and flow. A woman’s body was like that. If you watched it carefully enough you could see how it moved to the rhythm of the world, the deep rhythm, the music below the music, the truth below the truth.
from The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
