Cold War Kids and The Little Ones at the Echoplex

While I was patrolling Ticketweb for upcoming shows I stumbled upon The Cold War Kids and The Little Ones benefit show for 826 and African Water Wells at the Echoplex. 826 is a student program that helps students improve their writing skills. African Water Wells is self explanatory. I figured I needed another show prior to my vacation to Las Vegas and it happens to be for a good cause.



Let's Go Sailing have conjured up a respectable amount of buzz lately. They happened to be the special guests openers for the show. You may have heard one of their songs featured in Grey's Anatomy or heard their KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic broadcast. Let's Go Sailing is the brainchild of Shana Levy who used to be in Irving. Clad in a retro Radio Clyde t-shirt like Frank Zappa, Shana and her sailors led the audience through a nice collection of mellow indie pop with flourishes of violin and piano. The mix at the Echoplex was horrible as it was difficult to hear Shana's vocals. I may have to catch them again at the better sounding Troubadour on July 19th with Oh No! Oh My!.






The Little Ones have been garnerning an equal amount of buzz with their EP release "Sing Song". The Little Ones also recently did a session for spinner.com were they recorded some tracks in a studio for a podcast. If you check out the Little Ones page at spinner.com you will see they used my quote describing The Little Ones as "Bubble Gum pop with an infusion of Beatles like sensibilities". I still stand by this quote and think they have a bright future ahead of them. The Little Ones were also a victim of bad mixing as Ed Reyes (Guitars/Vocals) vocals were mixed too low. They played a short and sweet thirty five minute set that left the crowd wanting more. My song recommendations are the whole EP but especially "Oh! MJ" and "Lovers Who Uncover". They will be heading across the seas to do some more touring in the U.K. before returning to record their full length debut album.





Cold War Kids Setlist for The Echoplex (6/12/07)

The Cold War Kids keep heating up. They are onward bound for the Bonnaroo festival and then have the lofty job of opening for the White Stripes on their U.S. tour. By the time the Cold War Kids started playing, the mix at the Echoplex was decent enough to hear Nathan Willett's vocals or it could be that Nathan was yelling them out. The crowd was singing along like a choir when "Hang Me Out To Dry" was played. The Cold War Kids have fine tuned their live show and are extremely tight live. It was also interesting to see members of the Delta Spirit set up their gear and help out on "Saint John" by banging on cymbals and snare drums. The real treat of the night was when they played their new song "Expensive Tastes". It was a wistful love song that centers around Nathan Willett's vocals but quickly becomes encroached by reverb laden guitars and a shuffling drum pattern that quickly disassembles itself back to Nathan's vocals. I got my tickets for the White Stripes and Cold War Kids show in September to see how many White Stripes fans they can convert. My guess is that they won't be playing the Echoplex or the El Rey theatre in the future. I foresee multiple sell out nights at the Wiltern.

LCD Soundsystem at the El Rey Theatre

One of the casualities of going to Las Vegas a few months ago to see Interpol and Tool was that I missed Coachella. My friends kept talking about LCD Soundsytem as one of the highlights from Coachella. James Murphy and his fellow bandmates had the tent rocking and dancing along. I guess everyone else heard about the buzz of LCD Soundsystem because they sold out three nights at the El Rey Theatre.



Planning to Rock opened the show and sounded familar to me for some reason. It came back to me because I remembered that she was supposed to open for the Knife back in 2006 but cancelled at the last minute. Planning to Rock is Janine Rostron as a one woman show that incorporates synth basslines. electronic programming, and visuals into her performance. She reminded me of a mixture of Eminem, Peaches, Jem and Bjork. Most of the crowd seemed bewildered by the various imagery and performance antics.






In case you haven't heard of LCD Soundsystem, they play a combination of dance funk punk in an electronic context. James Murphy (Vocals) is one half of the DFA(Death From Above) production team that has had their trademark stamp on a few albums including Rapture's "Echoes". I had never seen LCD Soundsystem live before and heard that they brought the energy live on stage. This was confirmed as James Murphy gave a compelling performance singing in his microphone with the audience in front of the stage dancing along in the palm of his hand. I was surprised to discover that he mentioned that he received a Vitamin B-12(Cyanocobalamin) injection earlier in the day since he was feeling under the weather. I hope this would not affect his next two sold out nights. "Us V Them" was a solid opening track that got the crowd worked into a dance frenzy that would hardly let up until they hit "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down". My favorite tracks were "Movement","Tribulations", and "North American Scum". Most of the tracks were extended out a bit compared to the album version. I did notice James tell the drummer to slow it up a few times because he was propelling the beat a bit too hard. Overall, a high energy show that confirmed my friends sentiments.

Gliss at the Art Bar

After seeing Morrissey at the Pearl, I had caught wind that Gliss was playing at the Art Bar in Las Vegas later in the evening. Gliss blew me away last time I saw them in December at the Knitting Factory. They also just finished up a Spaceland residency in May. "Love The Virgins" was one of my favorite albums last year with one of my favorite tracks being "Moped" which features some blazing guitar work and haunting vocals.

My friends and I double timed into downtown Las Vegas to pull up to the Art Bar. There was no cover and we walked in to find out that both bands hadn't started yet. The Other Side opened the night with their jangly introspective British inspired fuzz pop in the vein of Stone Roses, and Interpol. The set sounded progressively better with each successive song. Their latest release is "Dead Trees". Unfortunately it was pitch black in the club and my pictures didn't turn out well.

Gliss was up next and debuted a lot of new songs that I was not familiar with but rocked just as much as their older songs. Martin Klingman (Guitars/Vocals/Drums) has a very characteristic singing style that is reminiscent of Jesus & The Mary Chain crossed with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. David Reiss was pulling out razor sharp riffs from his Gibson Les Paul and Orange Combo Amplifier. Victoria Cecilia was holding down the basslines as well as alternating between the drums. They played some older songs such as "Blue Sky", "Huh...What?" and "Off To Bed". Gliss will release their cover of the Smashing Pumpkins song "Rhinocerous" on the Myspace compilation tribute to the Smashing Pumpkins in July attached to Spin Magazine. I look forward to their new album and will try and catch them again on June 23rd when they play the Long Beach Prospector. I hope they go on late because I will have to double time it again after catching the Police show at Dodger Stadium.

Morrissey at the Pearl In Las Vegas

How does one top an amazing performance at the Hollywood Bowl? If you are Morrissey, you go to Las Vegas. While waiting in line to go into the show, the Palms security stated that digital cameras were now allowed into the show. I ran back to my car and grabbed my camera. I didn't think I would be able to get good shots in, but the lighting at the Palms is spectacular.

Kristeen Young opened with her usual forty minute set. She thanked the members of the crowd that was not chanting for Morrissey. Her latest album is entitled "The Orphans" and was produced by Tony Visconti.

As much as I like "The Queen Is Dead" as a show opener, it was a pleasant surprise to hear "First Of The Gang To Die". I always enjoy the sampled line of "Los Angeles.. You are too Hot!". "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys" featured another slinky Moog Voyager solo courtesy of Mikey Farrell. The real treat of the night was when they played "Whatever Happens, I Love You" that had Boz Boorer rocking the clarinet. After hearing six Smiths songs the night before, I was surprised again when Morrissey played "Panic". I was fairly close to the rail and was glad that Morrissey threw his shirt in the other direction during "Let Me Kiss You". I like Morrissey just as much as the next Morrissey fan, but I value my personal health enough not to try and get a piece of Morrissey's shirt. My friends were not as lucky when one of them fell to the floor as a victim of mob that leaped for Matt Walker's Drumstick. It was ironic that Morrissey closed the set with "The Queen Is Dead" since most of the shows were opened with it. The wash of feedback at the end of the song will reasonate in my ears for quite sometime.

Morrissey at the Pearl in Las Vegas (6/9/07)
(Max Capacity 2,352)
"First Of The Gang To Die"
"The Last Of The Famous International Playboys"
""Whatever Happens, I Love You"
"You Have Killed Me"
"Disappointed"
"In The Future When All's Well"
"Let Me Kiss You"
"That's How People Grow Up"
"The National Front Disco"
"Ganglord"
"Everyday Is Like Sunday"
"Panic"
"Irish Blood, English Heart"
"The Boy With The Thorn In His Side"
"You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side"
"I Just Want To See The Boy Happy"
"All You Need Is Me"
"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want"
"I've Changed My Plea To Guilty"
"How Soon Is Now?"
"The Queen Is Dead"

Morrissey at the Hollywood Bowl

My first concert at the Hollywood Bowl was Morrissey in 1992. Times were different then. Morrissey played for about an hour and change and no Smiths songs were played. Ticketmaster also wasn't as greedy back then as they are now. The bowl show in 1992 sold out in a record 23 minutes. This is mindboggling considering that there was no online ticketmaster site back then. I couldn't help but smile when I saw Morrissey's name on the marquee with "Sold Out" placed underneath.

Kristeen Young opened yet again at almost exactly 8:00. She did a better job compared to Gallon Drunk who opened back in 1992. The crowd was receptive and applauded most of her songs. The bowl was not a fully capacity since it was a friday night and traffic was horrendous. Kristeen used a wah pedal on her keyboard during one of her songs which gave her piano tone a cracked psychotic tone. They played their usual forty minute set.

"Hooray for Hollywood!" Morrisey quipped as he dashingly appeared on stage. The crowd was truly electric. Their were a ton of cameras setup onstage and I spotted a steadicam filming during the show. I hope they captured the magic of this night. A large screen was showing different angles of Morrissey and the band all night. It was like watching a DVD. Morrissey wasn't as chatty but he was in a good mood and his voice was in top shape. The only small complaint I have was that the music was not loud enough. I was in Section D and I didn't even need my earplugs. I can only imagine it was a faint whisper in the back of the bowl. Morrissey added some of his usual banter including that many famous people have graced the stage at the Hollywood Bowl including himself. He also mentioned that the bowl was the hippest place to be except for the Cat and The Fiddle. The version of "How Soon is Now?" was epic. I can not wait to see how it turns out on DVD because I still get shivers thinking about it. The pounding of the bass drum by Matt Walker at the end of the song combined with the feedback was outstanding. Another highlight of the show was the sheer number of Smiths songs played. I always joked with my Morrissey friends about the Smiths song cap in that Morrissey never exceeds four songs per night. The Smiths cap was busted tonight as those lucky people in attendance received six songs which maybe a record for this decade. By ending the night with "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" was simply magical. I hope I get a Morrissey Live at the Hollywood Bowl DVD for Christmas.

Morrissey at the Hollywood Bowl (6/8/07)
(Max Capacity 17,562)
"The Queen Is Dead"
"The Last Of The Famous International Playboys"
"Ganglord"
"The National Front Disco"
"Let Me Kiss You"
"All You Need Is Me"
"The Boy With The Thorn In His Side"
"Irish Blood, English Heart"
"Disappointed"
"I've Changed My Plea To Guilty"
"Everyday Is Like Sunday"
"In The Future When All's Well"
"I Will See You In Far Off Places"
"Girlfriend In A Coma"
"First Of The Gang To Die"
"I Just Want To See The Boy Happy"
"You Have Killed Me"
"That's How People Grow Up"
"Life Is A Pigsty"
"How Soon Is Now?"
"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want"
"You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side"
"There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"

Raveonettes and Midnight Movies at the Detroit Bar

Have I mentioned how cool the Detroit Bar is lately? In between my mini tour of Morrissey shows, The Raveonettes happened to play a show at the Detroit Bar. The last time I caught the Raveonettes was with a few thousand people when they opened for Depeche Mode at Staples Center. I love the fuzzed out reverb drenched guitar sounds that the Raveonettes magically create.


I have covered the Midnight Movies a couple of times when they opened for Ladytron on Halloween last year as well as opening for Silversun Pickups at the Troubadour. They have recently released a new album on New Line records titled "Lion The Girl". I was in front of Larry Schemel (Guitars) and was impressed by his guitar playing and setup. He was using a Line 6 Delay Modulation pedal, Z.Vex Super Duper, Dunlop Wah, Electro Harmonix LPB-1 (Power Booster), and a Boss Fuzz pedal. They opened with "Lion The Girl" which ends in a fuzz flurry that had one audience member trying to form a pit in front of the stage. Gena Olivier was multi tasking switching between her tambourine, Korg MS 2000, and drums. I recommend you pick up "Lion The Girl" if you like textured dreamy psychedelic indie pop coated with keyboard lines.




Raveonettes setlist and Midnight Movies setlist

Sharin Foo Pedalboard

Sune Rose Wagner Pedalboard


One of my favorite Raveonettes songs is "Twilight". The hypnotic quality of the guitar riff coupled with some coats of fuzz make playing guitar along to the song extremely fun. The Raveonettes had some problems last year when all their gear was stolen which included Fender Jaguars. Jazzmasters, and vintage pedals. They had some impressive replacement gear on stage when they performed at the Detroit Bar. They opened with a feedback cover version of Buddy Holly's "Everyday". During the show, Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo would alternate between guitars, bass, and drums. Sandra Vu from Midnight Movies also came out to help on drums. "Twilight" featured a scorching fuzz tremolo picked ending. They also covered Sonic Youth by playing "100%" which sounded spot on. I included pictures of Sharin Foo's Pedalboard and Sune Rose Wagner's Pedalboard which both featured Pro Co Rat Distortion pedals. I have to give extra points to Sharin Foo for her inclusion of a Z. Vex Fuzz Factory pedal. The Raveonettes are in the process of recording a new album which is shaping up to be just as fuzzed out as their previous efforts. It was a splendid guitar driven intermission in between my Morrissey marathon.

Morrissey at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium

James Dean and Richard Davalos in dress rehearsal footage from East of Eden
Another shot from Las Vegas.


I seriously thought it was a misprint when I read that Morrissey would play Riverside. I figured if I can brave the traffic out to Ventura that a trip to the Inland empire can't be that bad. After two hours in traffic that is stopped for no good reason at all, I arrived to a sweet parking spot in front of the venue.

Kristeen Young gave another solid performance, yet the crowd in Riverside was not as forgiving. The Morrissey chants increased as she continued to play her forty minute set. Kristeen Young thanked the few members of the crowd that weren't chanting as she soldiered on. The funny part was that everyone seemed real eager to get a free drumstick when Jeff White(Drums) threw them out to the crowd.

After the amazing performance at Ventura, I was hoping for a repeat performance. The Riverside Auditorium is an old theatre that held an open floor for about 600 people with roughly 900 seats behind the floor area. The Auditorium looks like an old mission and had a decent soundsystem but it was not as crisp as Ventura. I could have taken a camera in but figured the pit would be too rowdy. My suspicions were correct as multiple fights broke out in the surrounding areas. I didn't take too many notes because I was busy fending for my life. "The Queen is Dead" is one song I would love to hear on a desert island for the rest of my life and still sing along every time. If you are unfamiliar with any Smiths material, check out "The Queen Is Dead". I have given up hope though that I would ever hear "Cemetary Gates". "Ganglord" is a great song live that features Morrissey changing up the lyrics to "Get your scrawny ass back to the ghetto". Jessie Tobias was sporting his Fender Starcaster most of the night which features an interesting headstock. The real highlight of the night was "Lucky Lisp" was perfomed which happens to be a song I had not seen performed live yet. It was performed gracefully just like I imagined. "All You Need Is Me" was performed in seemingly record time as the band blazed through the quick number. The transition between the end of "Life Is A Pigsty" into "How Soon Is Now?" features an interlude of "Auld Lang Syne". Morrissey later teased the audience with "To Die in Riverside is such a heavenly way to Die" leading 80% of the crowd into thinking he was going to play "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out". Morrissey fooled everyone again but led the crowd into "You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side". It didn't occur to me until later that Morrissey may have been foreshadowing to the Hollywood Bowl.

Morrissey Setlist for The Riverside Municipal Auditorium (6/6/07)
(Max Capacity 1,950)
"The Queen Is Dead"
"The Last Of The Famous International Playboys"
"Ganglord"
"The National Front Disco"
"Let Me Kiss You"
"Lucky Lisp"
"The Boy With The Thorn In His Side"
"Irish Blood, English Heart"
"All You Need Is Me"
"Everyday Is Like Sunday"
"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want"
"You Have Killed Me"
"In The Future When All's Well"
"That's How People Grow Up"
"I Just Want To See The Boy Happy"
"Disappointed"
"I Will See You In Far Off Places"
"Life Is A Pigsty"
"How Soon Is Now?"
"You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side"

Morrissey at the Ventura Theatre

Morrissey Belt Buckle
Morrissey Money Clip



It has to be an amazing artist for me to make the drive up to Ventura to see a show. I actually have been to a few shows at the Ventura Theatre back in the day but the drive is quite long. The theatre itself is an amalgamation of the Wiltern Theatre and the El Rey theatre. I don't often check the concert calendar for Ventura but couldn't pass up opportunity to see Morrissey at a small venue.

I had a chance to go by the merchandise booth before the show started and was happy to pick up a Morrissey money clip and belt buckle. I have been to hundreds of shows and it is always nice to see cool merchandise besides the obligatory black t-shirt. The belt buckle and money clip always seem to sell out as they did in Pasadena.

Kristeen Young (Vocals/Piano) opened the show with her emotionally charged piano driven rock in the vein of Tori Amos crossed with Bjork. Kristeen does have an amazing vocal range as she belted out her songs. She and Jeff White(Drums) played in front of a white back drop that projected their shadows in different sizes in time with the music that added an extra layer of paranoia to her music. The crowd responded well to her songs and didn't start the chant of Morrissey like it has in the past.

"Welcome to the Hollywood Bowl!" as Morrissey cheekily addressed the audience. Some friends and I were lucky enough to secure some rail spots in front of Morrissey on the second tier so that we were eye level with Morrissey about 15 feet away from the stage. Morrissey addressed the crowd rhetorically asking if San Diego had been a nightmare or what? Morrissey was extra chatty tonight and seemed to be in a good mood from the beginning. Morrissey added some percussion via his tambourine during opening of "The Queen Is Dead". Morrissey continued to change up the lyrics throughout the night with some highlights being during the "The Queen Is Dead" saying "of course I can't you silly thing". "The Last of the Famous International Playboys" featured a crazy Moog Voyager solo courtesy of Mikey Farrell. "Ganglord" started off with a snazzy ebow intro by Boz Boorer(Guitars)."All You Need is Me" is another new track that is an uptempo rocker similar to "Irish Blood, English Heart" and "You Are Gonna Need Someone On Your Side". "The Boy With A Thorn In His Side" featured Jessie Tobias (guitars) playing with a capo on the 5th fret and Boz Boorer using a capo on the 2nd fret of his gorgeous Gretsch White Falcon guitar. "Irish Blood, English Heart" featured the lyric change that "Americans are sick to death of Republicans and Democrats". The biggest tease of the night when Morrissey talked about how he would play something off of "Southpaw Grammer" but stated that only Julia and him liked that album. I disagree as I would have loved to have heard any of the tracks off that album. I gasped when a bunch of the audience members stormed the stage during "You Have Killed Me". Boz Boorer signaled to the rest of the band to kill the song as they walked offstage. The band quickly returned to finish off the set without any incidents. Morrissey did mention that the stage invaders just wanted his bank account. "Life Is A Pigsty" is one of the best songs off the new album and is spectacular live. The song features Boz playing two glasses of water that are placed in front of a microphone until he switched to an acoustic guitar. The set ended with the barnburning "You Are Gonna Need Someone On Your Side". The combination of the crowd, the view, Morrissey's mood and voice makes this one of the top five shows I have witnessed by Morrissey.

Morrissey setlist for the Ventura Theatre (6/5/07)
(Max Capacity 1,200)
"The Queen is Dead"
"The Last of the Famous International Playboys"
"Ganglord"
"National Front Disco"
"Let Me Kiss You"
"All You Need is Me"
"The Boy With A Thorn In His Side"
"Irish Blood, English Heart"
"I've Changed My Plea To Guility"
"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want"
"Everyday is Like Sunday"
"In The Future When All's Well"
"Disappointed"
"You Have Killed Me"
"I Just Want To See The Boy Happy"
"That's How People Grow Up"
"I Will See You In Far Off Places"
"Life Is A Pigsty"
"How Soon Is Now?"
"You Are Gonna Need Someone On Your Side"