Slick Rock

During our two days there, I came away with a mixed impression of LA; on the one hand we had a great time with some nice people and a successful time at a rock show, and on the other I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with the sheer volume of tools I ran into. Perhaps it was the neighborhoods we visited, but LA felt overwhelmingly populated by tool-ish people. Rosen ensures me that this is not a completely accurate depiction of the city of Angels, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

We went out to dinner with a bunch of Michigan transplants on Friday night. At around 6:30, the band’s friend B.J. came by with a video treatment for them to go over. After they had discussed it, a bunch of us jumped in BJ’s car, while the rest of the party grabbed a taxi to the restaurant BJ had picked, Mexicali.

The appetizers at Mexicali are the real standout. From the tortilla chips and pico de gallo, to the cocktail shrimp and empanadas, the pre-meal experience was excellent. For my entrée, I had a Kobe beef enchilada, which was seriously lacking in tasty. It felt as though it had been sitting under the warming lamp for a bit too long, the tortilla was really dry and the beans and rice were tepid at best. I think if I were to be back in LA with money to burn, I would go to Mexicali for drinks and then somewhere else for the real meal. I have to give major props to Mexicali’s staff for handling our party of 16 with aplomb. They kept us fed, watered and boozed up, and handled our slow ordering on a busy night with a firm hand, but without being cross.

The venue we played in LA was the Troubadour, a club with a whole lot of history. Tom Waits, Carole King, Joan Baez, James Taylor, GnR, and Jackson Browne all got started there. The club holds about 500 people and is probably one of the better-equipped venues of its size in the country. The gear is all high quality and was state of the art back in the late ‘90s. The staff is super professional; it’s obvious they put on rock shows a lot. Their sound guys Bobby and Frank were super nice and accommodating, though they work a little faster than I’m used to so that took a little bit of adjustment. Mike, the house manager was nice, going so far as to park our van for the load-out so I could stay inside and continue packing up.


It was pretty cool getting to hang out in the green room at the Troubadour. When I think of all of the bands who have come through that club over the years (GnR, QOTSA, Incubus, Weezer, and almost all of the hair bands), I’m impressed by how much the rock and roll lifestyle must have changed. Instead of lining up to do rails of blow off groupies asses or shooting up in the bathroom, we lined up to plug in our laptops, and shot photos with fresh-faced fans.




For dinner, the band, Bora, a gaggle of fans and I went to a place called Burger Haven, which is only a few blocks from the venue. Burger Haven is housed in a ramshackle ‘50s or ‘60s shack with Dairy Queen colors. It feels like it should be at a crossroads in some small town instead of on Santa Monica Blvd in the middle of West Hollywood. The staff was really nice and quite accommodating to our 25+ person party. I had the “Sassy Cheeseburger” with bacon and a side of fries.

Between a bangin’ performance by the band, which felt pretty loose and comfortable, and a good night of sound for me, this show was definitely the best of the tour so far. Although I had been skeptical that the band would be able to pull of the acoustic portion of the set, I was proven wrong as the entire audience was quiet and many people even sat down around the band as they sang and played.

Due to the overwhelming number of friends of the band at the show, Bora, our backline/video tech, and I ended up striking most of the instruments and pretty much packing the trailer alone. The security staff of the Troubadour did us a solid and helped us get out of there in a major way. It’s nice to have willing, agreeable help.

Right now we’re on I-5 North headed for San Francisco. I slept for an hour or so in the car, but am pretty out of it at the moment. I’m listening to Binky Griptite’s GhettoFunk Power Hour, the bonus tracks from the most recent Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings Album. It’s an hour long radio show format cd with some really good funky music on it, including Antibalas, The Mighty Imperials and the Sugarman 3. My nostrils are filled with the sour milk smell of cow manure. Gross.

We’ve been driving by farms of all kinds, from fruit trees to dogwoods, from veggie patches to wind and solar energy farms. I knew the country would be big, but I didn’t know it’d be this big. Right now as I look out the van window, there are dogwood trees as far as I can see in any direction, little pink-flecked puffballs.

Blogger navel gazing ahoy!
I never thought I’d be able to write 1500 words off the cuff like this. In college, writing was always a hassle. Until my senior year, I’d have to force myself to sit at the keyboard and just write and get my ideas digitized. Once I get started on these blog posts, though, I can’t seem to shut myself up. We’ll be in Portland on Monday and Tuesday. Hopefully I’ll have more time to write and photo and stuff. I can’t wait to see my friends and my dog. I miss them all a lot.