There aren't many times I wish I was one of those concert bootleggers who stashes state-of-the-art recording equipment, like omni-directional tiny mics in a baseball cap, to record concerts. Last night I wish I had one of those set-ups.

As part of this month's series of concerts and films, LA Philharmonic hosted Concrete Frequency: Sounds of The City. This is the third curated concert I've gone to at LA Phil and like the other nights, it was a mellow, beautiful experience. My buddies and I were grateful for uber professional lights and sound and in awe of Disney Hall's hidden intimacy. Each guest artist was assigend the task of playing 2 songs and encouraged to explain why those songs spoke to the evening's themes of exploring urban living. The stage was actually backdropped by each guest artist sitting on stage in a dimly lit living room set. The half-circle shape echoed the little amphitheater and the graceful curve of the Hall itself. With the Gehry organ shooting up into the audience in the round, every performer took the spotlight nervously, looking up at their pretty surroundings. With a collection of folk-rock musicians, everyone would have probably been more comfortable at the Troubadour, well, at least familiar. The curated event took singer/songwriters out of their bands and into the prestigious spotlight. Echoing the young crowd, the Disney Hall was filled with jeans rather than tuxes. Each artist's nervous energy only drew us in, listening to the words of radio hits rather than just plugging into our iPods for a morning bus ride. A city theme seems far too easy. Couldn't every indie-rocker explain why that one tune inspired by their last grueling tour is also an anthem about love lost and found in the urban environment? Isn't every rock song a love song written in some metropolis? Moving beyond this hype I was happy to learn that most songs are about what they are about, literally. I may load a mix tape up with all the moody tunes to make my latest lover an emotional wreck, but it's actually refreshing to learn Money Mark's neo-soul ditty "Black Butterfly" is really just about catching a black butterfly. The man mostly know in underground crowds and by Beastie Boys fanatics sat at the piano last night and told a sweet anecdote of chasing butterflies in the abandoned fields of his LA youth. John Doe from X not only played the obvious choice "Los Angeles" but I also learned he likes to write songs about skyscrapers. Zach Rogue from the Rogue Wave's song "Chicago x 12" is really about playing a shitty bar in Chicago 12 times in one year. Like an emo girl's wet dream, you can up the cutie factor simply by letting a shy shoegazer talk about his music. Rogue was especially easy on the ears and I was toe-tapping along to his song currently on the airwaves "Lake Michigan". In lieu of a recording here's my highlights:

Biirdie - A lovely quintet opened the night with "LA is Mars". The lead singer reminds me of every cool guy in High School who quietly doodled in the back of the class and sported an Amnesty International sticker on his Trapper Keeper. Joined by a harmonious group, each cute line like "take the last train to Griffith Park", makes them the newly crowned most crushable LA indie band.

Annie Stela comes from that group of lovely ladies who can't help but share themselves through song. I picture her sitting in her apartment constantly at the keyboard trying out new poetry. While not the most musically challenging, she fits the niche of the story of a girl coming to LA to make it and then years later actually finding happiness. She's got quite the set of pipes and can rock the piano foot pedals in stilettos especially when she played "Fool". She also played the story of her falling in love with LA thanks to walking the dog during the Jacaranda bloooms, even though the audience had to help her with that one. She just knew them as "those big purple flowers." It seems that's what every new Angeleno calls them.

Marc Bianchi was an awfully cute toothache. With a large bass acoustic guitar around his skinny frame he won us all over rocking back and forth, pointy elbows a-soaring. Known for fronting indie band Her Space Holiday he played "The Boys and Girls" a faithful version of the recording under his side project xoxo, panda. He said it was about three people in love and in different parts of the country. Very sweet, indeed.



Zooey Deshcanel brought the movie industry theme to the LA concert. A quirky actress, as well as an accomplished torch singer, she was accompanied by M. Ward on guitar. Not just bringing the movie star reference by being herself she also sang "Lonesome Town" which I don't think was some happy accident. Most of us know it from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. Zooey and I are roughly the same age so I'm gonna believe we were introduced to the Ricky Nelson hit the same way, although probably not. She's way cooler. She probably knew every word by the time she was ten rocking out on her parents' shag rug with a pair of those oversized headphones. She invoked this little fantasy in my head last night rocking a voluminous white baby doll dress. She then wailed it on a cover of "I Put a Spell On You". Here's a video yanked from myspace:



Sondre Lerche got a loud applause, especially when he acknowledged the crowd behind the stage. It was like his fan club was all sitting there. The Norwegian cutie always puts on a good show. He was especially chatty last night, detailing every bit of his move from Norway to New York City. He played "Wet Ground" from his early album Two Way Monologue and "Minor Detail" from the jazzy 2006 The Duper Sessions.

Inara George from The Bird and the Bee sang for composing legend Van Dyke Parks at the piano. Inara wins best dressed for the night all decked out in a stunning brown floor length gown. They will be releasing an album together later this year and swang a number from it. But it was "Vine Street", the Randy Newman standard favored by Harry Nilsson (they both happen to have been BFFs with Van Dyke Parks) that really had the rest of the artists in a hard act to follow.



Bob Mould rocked his old Husker Du tunes "Thumbtack" and "Surveyors and Cranes". He said he hand't played these in ten years since leaving Austin. They sounded dated and he was underdressed but I felt fortunate to see someone so influential. Plus Mould spoke about dropping out of urban engineering school, which gave validity to the night's theme. Being a current DC native he got a big applause when he claimed, "Don't worry. Things will be better in November". Appealing to the cultured liberal = always a crowd pleaser.

Kyp Malone from TV On The Radio concluded with a long meandering experimental set. I was surprised to see the night take a dark turn full of ambient noise. Malone followed Grizzly Bear's front man and anyone who's gone to a Grizzly Bear concert knows how esoteric those boys can get. Malone's anecdotes were candid and real but I think the majority of the crowd had tuned out after the back to back of more famous faces. People started to take off early, in true urban LA fashion.

Labels: events, music, reviews