Awkward Press

The piano is not an easy instrument to rock on stage. it’s difficult to jump when one is playing a piano, and, as everyone knows, the key to a dynamic live show is a lot of jumping. (See: Van Halen.)

We arrived at the Greek Theater at about 8:00. The Greek Theater is an outdoor amphitheater located in Griffith Park, about a mile up the hill from my apartment. When I say “up the hill,” I mean straight up. It’s not a walk for pansies. But the alternative is spending $15 to park a mile away from my apartment, and I, for one, simply do not cotton to that kind of behavior. I was with my wife, Sarah, and her dad, Bob who is visiting for a week from Louisville. I’d posted an earlier Regina video on Awkward Press that Bob fell in love with, so when we heard that Regina was here, we talked to people and made things happen. The people we talked to were Ticketmaster.

Jupiter One went on at 7:30. We decided to skip them because their name is terrible and the song I heard online sounded like Toad the Wet Sprocket crossed with a nap. The minute we arrived, we got right in the food and drink line. We stayed in this line until 8:30. The people at the Greek Theater are unconscionably slow. We watched disdainfully as everyone in front of us left the line with massive amounts of chicken fingers, hamburgers, pizza, and beers. It’s 8:30, dicks! Eat before the concert! And then we got to the front of the line and it took them 4 minutes to pour us 3 hot chocolates, which we had ordered because it’s freezing in L.A. right now. (Interesting fact: in L.A., water freezes at 65 degrees.)

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I have seen a lot of bands play in my life, and I’m still on the fence about the experience. For every transcendent show I have attended, I’ve probably seen fifteen other shows that have me glancing at my watch after the second song. It’s not that I go see a bunch of bands I’ve never heard of, either; I will rarely see a band play unless I really like their record. But the whole process of seeing a show is just obnoxious; they always start an hour later than you think they’re going to (like, even after you’ve done the smart thing and shown up an hour late), there’s always a second opening band that wasn’t advertised, it takes forever to set up each band, the drinks are expensive, and you’re generally relegated to a 2 foot square piece of space behind some seven foot tall guy for 3 hours. It takes a rare talent to rise above these conditions and give me an experience worth my $20 ($75 after Ticketmaster fees).

But still, I keep coming back. Because the only way to hit that special show that you’ll remember forever is to wade through a lot of mediocrity. And this week, at age 34, I am finally hitting the apex of my band-watching experience. 5 shows at 5 different venues in 8 days. I know that’s a paltry sum compared to a CMJ or SXSW marathoner, but for a regular week that isn’t centered around a festival, that’s a lot of shows. Last night was Sunset Rubdown & Tune-Yards at the Troubadour, tonight is Regina Spektor & Jupiter 1 at the Greek Theater, tomorrow is The Antlers at the Bootleg Theater, Saturday is Dirty Projectors & Little Wings at the Jensen Rec Center Studio, and next Wednesday is the Pixies & No Age at the Palladium. These bands have released five of my favorite albums of the year, and they were considerate enough to space out their shows for me, so I figured I should try to hit them all.

Will I survive? After this week, will I be done with live music forever? I’ll admit, going out on the Pixies Doolittle tour ain’t a bad way to go. Fitting, even, since they were the first band that ever really blew my mind. But more about that next Thursday.

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