MENAGERIE OF MUSIC

I have very diverse taste in music. I love music - ALL kinds of music, and the last few weeks have demonstrated this to me more than ever before.

<--- First up - I saw Alice Smith at Hotel Cafe. She is an up and coming Sony artist with an impressive first CD and a very charismatic stage presence. I love seeing these kind of acts in smaller venues like this. Crowds are appreciative and allow the performer to connect with them. (The Hotel cafe has an excellent chicken quesadilla also!) She a very soulful artist (think Joss Stone meets Macy Gray) that I hope garners an audience.

Next up  The Vines at The Troubador (one of my all-time favorite music venues).  These boys have been working on  a new CD and seemingly needed to play their new songs live, hence the non-advertised show. It was a short but sweet set, and they threw in some older hits for crowd pleasers. They ended the set with with some guitar and drum bashing - a good and  destructive time was had by all.

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<--- Now let's take a sharp left. I was fortunate enough to be able to motor down to the Disney Hall and see the heir apparent to the Los Angeles Philharmonic - the new musical director beginning in 2009... 26-year-old wunderkind... ladies and gentlemen, Venezuela's own Gustavo Dudamel. Although I only saw him play second-fiddle Mozart for the LA Chamber Orchestra, he was wonderful. Me (and it seems all of LA) are anxiously awaiting his permanent arrival.  Dudamel heralds from the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela — known popularly as el sistema.A government sponsored program, el sistema provides lessons and youth orchestras to some 250,000 youngsters. "The philharmonic announced plans to inaugurate a program, “Youth Orchestra L.A.,” that is directly modeled on a Venezuelan prototype. Youth Orchestra L.A. will begin with youngsters between the ages of 8 and 12 in a disadvantaged district in central Los Angeles, but its ultimate goal is much grander: to provide a musical instrument and a place in a youth orchestra for every young person in Los Angeles County who wants one.  

Bring it, Gustavo.  All we have now is Guitar Hero.

<-- took a load off, Ani. Ani DiFranco - talented singer song writer who I've been familiar with over the years but I'd never seen perform before. It was a very girl-friendly crowd, not that there's anything wrong with that. I must admit that for me, part of the fun of going was to see a performance at the beautifully restored Orpheum Theater downtown (I missed seeing PJ Harvey there). Adorning many of he old theaters' marquees was "BRING BACK BROADWAY" -  Indeed.

Ok, now let's swing back with a sharp right to the left:

Ground-breaking industrial forerunners - Ministry. This was/is to be the farewell C U LaTour for Al Jourgensen as the front man and only original member of the band. Many fans complained as setlists were posted - he is playing only a couple of the songs from older albums that saw Minsitry at the top of their game back in the day. Keeping this in mind, it was totally worth every penny of  the VERY cheap tickets we bought from desperate and disgruntled fans who wanted to unload them. Eh, you still gotta love Al Jourgensen ranting anti-Bush songs indistinguishably on stage -  and this time I did not forget my earplugs.

*A final note - I picked up the new Racontuers CD - "Consolers of the Lonely" it's now in the car on regular rotation. It's getting Ok reviews, but who cares? I like it.