Concerts on the Road: LA, Berkeley and Seattle

I've been rattling around the Golden West the last few months seeing a few choice shows here and there. I made a trip down to LA (Burbank to be more specific) in early October especially to see Elbow at the Greek Theatre.  The week before, I had seen another favorite, Bon Iver at the Berkeley Greek, with opening act Other Lives.  Most recently, I took a long weekend in Seattle and stopped in to the Neptune theater to see The Belle Brigade and Dawes.

I've wanted to see Elbow live for years and years, ever since I first heard them performing live on KCRW. I thought then, and still think, that their live performance is even better than their studio recordings, which are also excellent. They are in the midst of celebrating 20 years together as a band, and many of their long-time fans (Brits included) were in the audience, so it felt kind of like a combination concert and 20th Anniversary celebration. I really enjoyed the woodsy setting of the Greek, which is on the southern edge of Griffith Park. Incidentally, although I've done lots of business day trips to downtown LA, this was my first trip driving solo around LA and Burbank.

Bon Iver played the Berkeley Greek at the end of September. Seeing Bon Iver live gives me chills (in a good way)- when they play my favorite songs, I literally get a tingling sensation up and down my spine. A bit of venue commentary: Unlike the LA Greek, which isn't a true Greek theater (i.e. it has reasonably comfortable folding seats and cupholders) the Berkeley Greek is based on an extant ancient Greek theater and as such is probably about as comfortable as an ancient Greek theater would be. The "seating area" is composed of concentric half-circular concrete steps which are oversized so that you can sit on them with a little room left over. The Ancient Greeks must have been really thrilled about having the person sitting in front of you actually sitting on your feet (probably kept their toes warmer than those sandals) and the person behind you repeatedly kicking you in the lower back (good stimulation for the kidneys maybe?) I got one of these collapsible seats and was extremely smug and comfortable all night long.

About two weeks ago, I went up to Seattle for a long weekend, and managed to see a show at the Neptune, in the University District. The headline act was actually Blitzen Trapper, but during the second intermission I had an episode where I thought my phone had been stolen out of my pocket only to realize that it was, in fact, IN MY HAND the whole time I was looking for it. I decided to call it a night at that point before I walked into a telephone pole or something worse.

Barbara Gruska of Belle Brigade was channeling a young Bob Dylan (in appearance only)- no sooner had the thought occurred to me, then a young gentleman in front of me said it out loud to his friend, and I kept hearing "Bob Dylan" whispered throughout the set.

The Neptune was cute - a bit like the Great American Music Hall in SF, and kind of like if you took the Fox Theater in Oakland and shrunk it by about 75%. Most of the crowd seemed to be UW students, a friendly and upretentious bunch. Maybe I'm projecting that, but someone actually struck up a conversation with me during first intermission! In years of live shows in SF that's never happened once...