Los Angeles (Follow-up)

I'm going to chock my New Orleans posts up to a loss. I had that flicker of motivation, but it has since passed...or passed about two weeks ago. Either way, I went to Los Angeles this weekend:



No, that isn't my home video of the trip, though I do have a new found appreciation for what Randy Newman is saying. Seeing as I only spent 3.5 days there, for now, let's just say I've got a little crush on L.A. (Now I know this isn't a travel blog, but please bear with me, it becomes relevant down the way).

Everything in my being had told me "L.A. is fake, it sucks you in, kills your identity, and pollutes the hell out of your body." And I can't say that all of that is false. But I can say that there are plenty of positives to be found right alongside all of that.

I arrived 4 EST, 1pm PST. It is extremely exciting to get off a 5 hour flight and realize you only lost 2. My good friend Ryan hosted the weekend at his pad in what I like to think as the perfect beach scenario: Hermosa Beach, CA. The weekend was overall a lot of debauchery and testing for our bodies ability to handle small meals and large volumes of alcohol on less than 4 hours of sleep. Jury's still out.

Friday night the plan was to catch Jon Brion at Largo in Beverly Hills at 9:30pm and swing over to downtown to catch Dead Confederate at Spaceland. What I hadn't planned on was a ticket price to Largo. $30 a head would have been fine had it just been Ryan and myself--I would've been front row--but we ended up with a local Hermosa posse. The more the merrier, but at such a price, not all could be included. So, sensing a slight defeat, I shouted as loud as I could from Southwest LA "Hey Jon, I like your music!" and hoped the good man heard.

We arrived at Spaceland...I don't even know what time, but Apollo Sunshine was about mid-set. We grabbed some drinks and surprised the heck out of the good fellas in Dead Confed. I was happy to see them. I don't care if you're traveling with 20 other folks: When you're in an unfamiliar place, it is ALWAYS good to see a familiar face. After brief reunions and slight confusion as to where exactly I lived, the band set up and performed. I have to say, it was the coolest thing to watch the reaction of the local L.A. folk to Dead Confederate. You could have easily thought these guys were performing at one of the usual spots in Atlanta or Athens. The crowd was thick, response was wonderful, and the band's performance was solid. Ryan and I couldn't help but feel so happy for those guys.



They closed out their set with "Flesh Colored Canvas", a song I hadn't heard live to date (and my personal favorite from "Wrecking Ball"). I was afraid this 12-minute mellow-rocker would run some folks off, but everyone in the crowd stayed glued to what was going on on-stage.

Afterward, drinks and conversations were had until last-call. There was talk of an after-party, and seeing as it was only 2, we ventured to the worst side of Hollywood Blvd (and my first glimpse of it). We entered the sketchiest Thai restaurant/bar I have ever been in and to sum it up: there was theft, illegal alcohol, and constant karaoke until the sun started to peak o'er the horizon. At the time, I concluded that this was a typical Friday night in LA and later cried myself to sleep back in Hermosa.

I love L.A.!