(no subject)
So this weekend I woke up early Saturday morning to head down to Los Angeles. The plan was to try and surprise my friend Liz for her birthday, albeit two days late. I wasn't quite sure that would be happening however as my old roommate the night before had posted something to the effect of 'OH MY GOD HOW COME YOU DID'T TELL US THAT YOU WERE COMING TO LOS ANGELES' on my facebook wall. I was kind of sad that my original totally badass present to her didn't quite work out as planned, so I ended up getting her a cupcake book instead.
Some stuff happened in the hour or two between these two paragraphs, but this entry is getting way too long.
The venue that Automatic Drawing was playing at was the Viper Room. The Viper Room kind of surprised me because I had expected something a little bigger and fancier from what I had heard, but it turned out to be a small intimate venue not unlike the Pound in Hunter's Point. Advantage goes to the Viper Room since walking out the door takes you right to Sunset whereas walking out the door at the Pound could get you shot if you took a wrong turn.
Anyways, Automatic Drawing turned out to be really good. Liz's friend Drew had a really good stage presence and was able to touch the crowd pretty well. The rest of the band, while not quite as engaging, was eclectic enough I think to make things more interesting. As far as sound goes, I would say the vocals were akin to Death Cab/Postal Service with a hint of Irish Punkiness. See 'Captain and the Sea' if you want to hear what I'm talking about. The first couple songs I wasn't so sure about, but once they got into it things really took off. There were at least 3, maybe 4 songs that I could easily imagine hitting 105.3's regular playlist and at least for me that says a lot.
The next band on stage was United by Sound. I thought they put on a pretty kick ass live show, although I'm still not sold on them. Little bit of reggae/hip hop and some other improv music styles. The singer had a really smokey sexy voice, but yeah, I guess it's just too far away from what I normally listen to for me to have a solid opinion. Like I said though, great live show. I'd link their myspace but their live stuff has a completely different sound, so I'm not too sure what's up with that. Oh well, I guess it couldn't hurt. Oh yeah, I'm told that all the band members were total hotties, except for Eugene Levi.
Spent the night on the couch after watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. I was originally planning on leaving relatively early, like just after lunch or something, but that didn't really work out so well. It really didn't occur to me until I got to Los Angeles that the amount of time that I would be staying there was only slightly longer than the time it took to drive there and back. Anyways, I ended up making chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast for everyone. They didn't turn out half bad, considering I had never made pancakes before. I also decided to make some artichokes from a recipe that I found on the internet about a week earlier. I didn't really expect them to take about 3 hours to cook and prepare, but whatever. I think they turned out alright, although next time I think I'll be a lot more liberal with the chicken stock and the salt.
Hmm, what else.. Met Ashley's parents who were really cool and I got a chance to talk to her dad for a bit. Watched Yevi spontaneously zonk out on the couch on multiple occasions. Got lots of awesome Liz hugs. Got squished by a couple Alex hugs. Avoided paying 15-20 dollars for a dragon fruit thanks to Ellen. Hmm, then I went home!
The trip home was pretty uneventful except for that one epiphany and the enormous police escort guarding a mystery giant white cube strapped to a truck at 1 am in the morning, blocking the whole 4 lane road, and using signal changers to prevent people from getting within 50 yards.
Some stuff happened in the hour or two between these two paragraphs, but this entry is getting way too long.
The venue that Automatic Drawing was playing at was the Viper Room. The Viper Room kind of surprised me because I had expected something a little bigger and fancier from what I had heard, but it turned out to be a small intimate venue not unlike the Pound in Hunter's Point. Advantage goes to the Viper Room since walking out the door takes you right to Sunset whereas walking out the door at the Pound could get you shot if you took a wrong turn.
Anyways, Automatic Drawing turned out to be really good. Liz's friend Drew had a really good stage presence and was able to touch the crowd pretty well. The rest of the band, while not quite as engaging, was eclectic enough I think to make things more interesting. As far as sound goes, I would say the vocals were akin to Death Cab/Postal Service with a hint of Irish Punkiness. See 'Captain and the Sea' if you want to hear what I'm talking about. The first couple songs I wasn't so sure about, but once they got into it things really took off. There were at least 3, maybe 4 songs that I could easily imagine hitting 105.3's regular playlist and at least for me that says a lot.
The next band on stage was United by Sound. I thought they put on a pretty kick ass live show, although I'm still not sold on them. Little bit of reggae/hip hop and some other improv music styles. The singer had a really smokey sexy voice, but yeah, I guess it's just too far away from what I normally listen to for me to have a solid opinion. Like I said though, great live show. I'd link their myspace but their live stuff has a completely different sound, so I'm not too sure what's up with that. Oh well, I guess it couldn't hurt. Oh yeah, I'm told that all the band members were total hotties, except for Eugene Levi.
Spent the night on the couch after watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. I was originally planning on leaving relatively early, like just after lunch or something, but that didn't really work out so well. It really didn't occur to me until I got to Los Angeles that the amount of time that I would be staying there was only slightly longer than the time it took to drive there and back. Anyways, I ended up making chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast for everyone. They didn't turn out half bad, considering I had never made pancakes before. I also decided to make some artichokes from a recipe that I found on the internet about a week earlier. I didn't really expect them to take about 3 hours to cook and prepare, but whatever. I think they turned out alright, although next time I think I'll be a lot more liberal with the chicken stock and the salt.
Hmm, what else.. Met Ashley's parents who were really cool and I got a chance to talk to her dad for a bit. Watched Yevi spontaneously zonk out on the couch on multiple occasions. Got lots of awesome Liz hugs. Got squished by a couple Alex hugs. Avoided paying 15-20 dollars for a dragon fruit thanks to Ellen. Hmm, then I went home!
The trip home was pretty uneventful except for that one epiphany and the enormous police escort guarding a mystery giant white cube strapped to a truck at 1 am in the morning, blocking the whole 4 lane road, and using signal changers to prevent people from getting within 50 yards.