matthew’s alibi

Looking for trouble in Los Angeles? Here are five ideas for this week…

Cirque du Soleil's Delirium. Photo: Jean-François LeBlanc, Costume: Michel Robidas, © 2006 Cirque du Soleil

WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY, AUGUST 20-24, 2008:  CIRQUE du SOLEIL’s DELIRIUM at YOUR LOCAL CINEMA

Cirque du Soleil comes to the local cinema for four nights only.

Delirium is not an original Cirque du Soleil production, but rather a multi-media stage show that remixes portions of other Cirque shows and soundtracks.   It took its final bows in April of this year, so if you want to see it, the theater may be your best bet, (at least until a potential DVD release.)

The show is released under the Sony Pictures Hot Ticket imprint, which brings theatrical events to select theaters for strictly limited runs.

This performance was filmed live at London’s O2 Arena during the show’s final performances, which seems to be a theme with the Hot Ticket shows - the next one, in September, captures Rent’s final performances on Broadway, with special appearances by the original cast.

Scott H Biram

THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2008:  SCOTT H. BIRAM at THE ECHO

There are a few record labels who I trust so much, I will pick up anything they release; one of those is Bloodshot Records.  (I know, I know, No Depression is over, move on, right?)

But as long as Bloodshot keeps signing folks like Scott H Biram, I’m going to keep getting all their new releases, for fear of missing something this good.

Biram mixes the sacred — gospel music, although the way Biram sings it, it’s not so holy– with the profane — murder ballads, I guess you’d call them, although they’re really not so fancy– so well, he turns them into pretty much the same thing.

It’s a southern gothic musical phenom:  there’s some real grit in the gospel of Biram, but there’s also some real tenderness in his rage.  And, how often does psychobilly lend itself to singalong choruses?  Only with Scott H. Biram, friends, step up and be healed.

I love Bloodshot’s own description (from their press release for his most recent album, Graveyard Shift):

Preaching from the first church of ultimate fanaticism, keeping one eye on the collection plate and the other on the girls with short skirts in the front row, Austin’s Scott H. Biram returns to his pulpit, delivering more of his trademark call-and-response psychobilly gospel with his looming message:“Whiskey and holy water’ll both burn you if you ain’t careful.”

Sunset Junction

SATURDAY-SUNDAY, AUGUST 23-24, 2008:  SUNSET JUNCTION in SILVERLAKE

Hold on, wasn’t there a big TBA for Sunset Junction this summer?  Whatever happened to that?  Who was it?  Who’s even the big draw at the Junction this year?

I mean even with Isaac Hayes as headliner –  rest in peace and all, but –  I don’t think I’d have paid 20 bucks a day to see this year’s lineup even if I lived in Silverlake and didn’t have to deal with the parking.

Sure there’s Broken Social Scene, but I’ve never liked them as much as their labelmates.  And !!!.  Has anyone outside Silverlake even heard of !!!?

I suppose Sunset Junction has never really been about the music (which, in my experience, you’d be lucky to be able to hear anyway, through the busted amps and feedback), but rather the about being among the great unwashed of east L.A.  And dodgy carnival rides.  And get-tested-for-STD’s-while-u-wait booths.  Hm.  I might sit this year out.

Sondre Lerche. Photo: Ruvan Wijesooirya

SATURDAY-SUNDAY, AUGUST 23-24, 2008:  SONDRE LERCHE at the TROUBADOUR

Am I really so un-Silverlake that I’d recommend a nice air-conditioned club on the west side, where a sexy young guy croons new songs that sound like old standards, over the hordes of sweaty, swarthy hill-dwellers at Sunset Junction?  Yes.  Yes, I am.

Particularly when that guy is Sondre Lerche and the club is the Troubadour.

If you like your Scandinavian indie teen-idols to be just the slightest bit more accessible than Jens Lekman, this is the show for you.

Thom Yorke gets his picture taken.

SUNDAY-MONDAY, AUGUST 24-25, 2008:  RADIOHEAD at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL

So, it’s listed here because we both know that is has to be, because it’s the most obvious thing to do in Los Angeles this week, and everyone you know is going, and it will be totally amazing, and you’ll probably see Ryan Phillippe and Beck and Gwen Stefani and Jesus himself at the Hollywood Bowl (although He may not have enough clout to get a box…)

Looking for trouble in Los Angeles? Here are five ideas for this week…

Josh Joplin

SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 2008: JOSH JOPLIN GROUP at THE MINT
Josh Joplin is one of those artists you’ve probably only ever heard if you spent some (very specific) years working in college radio.

Most of the artists who fall into that category are forgettable for good reasons, but Josh Joplin is the leader of the “why aren’t these guys famous?” group. This is a dubious honor to be sure, but at least he’s in good company (I’d include the Household Names, Chris Kowanko and Math and Science in this list.)

So what can I tell you about the Josh Joplin? He dropped out of school in tenth grade because he wanted to be like Phil Ochs. He makes fun of the fact that he sounds like Michael Stipe. His song “It’s Only Entertainment,” has one of my all-time favorite lyrics: “Years go by and chords don’t change / we’re all Pat Boone by different names.” (The song also slyly namechecks PJ Harvey, imploring “Save us, Polly Jean / we know not what we mean.”)

And the Mint is simply one of the coolest venues in Los Angeles. Built in 1937, it’s been fantastically restored, and is the only reason I know to go to Pico Blvd.

Hot in Hollywood 3 at Avalon

SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 2008: HOT IN HOLLYWOOD 3 at THE AVALON
My latest TV-on-DVD addiction is Bones.

Like any good mystery fan, I came to Bones by way of Kathy Reichs. (David Boreanaz had nothing to do with it, I swear. Okay, maybe a little. Okay, maybe I found out Bones was based on the Reichs books in a happy accident after I was through ogling David Boreanaz on the cover.)

My point is, while Boreanaz Bones is great, the best part of the show is Bones’ adorable grad student, Zack Addy, played by Eric Millegan. And Eric Millegan is performing this weekend at the third annual Hot in Hollywood benefit at Avalon. (You knew I’d bring it back around eventually, right?)

There’s lots of other great folks - starting with Bones herself, Emily Deschanel. The evening is hosted by Ugly Betty, America Ferrera. And, Neil Patrick Harris. And, Josh Radnor. And T. R. Knight (who knocked a mashup of Sondheim favorites “You Could Drive a Person Crazy” from Company and “Losing My Mind” from Follies out of the park at the Good Medicine benefit for the Writers Guild earlier this year. If he sings that again, you’re going to want to steady yourself for the big heaping wave of awesome.)

And, it’s an AIDS benefit, in support of the Real Medicine Foundation and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, so it’s for a good cause and all, but can I just say that Hot in Hollywood is the worst name ever for an AIDS fundraiser? Listen up, kids, getting too hot in Hollywood is how AIDS happens in the first place.

Tig Notaro

MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2008: TIG HAS FRIENDS at LARGO
I haven’t been to the Largo at the Coronet yet.

I heard an early report that there was no bar in the new venue, and that they were being even bigger jerks than usual about their cell-phone policy.

(They’re strictly no cell-phones, which is fantastic, but they used to give everyone a full-on lecture when they walked in the door. Like kindergarteners (if kindergarteners got lectures in hip supper clubs, which I guess they don’t very often, which is where the metaphor breaks down.)

(These lectures were a little over the top, considering for a while, I went to Largo at least once a month, and was kind of surprised that they (a) didn’t recognize me to begin with, since the place only seated about 30 people and (b) gave me the same lecture every time about how they would kick me out for texting.)

(However, I love the stories I’ve heard about owner, Flanagan, going up to patrons who were talking during the set and offering to give them their money back if they would go to the Kibitz Room across the street to finish up their chat. That’s pretty great. Hold on, what was my original point? Oh yeah…)

If there’s any show that I want to see badly enough to lure me into the new-improved Largo, it would be Tig’s. I wish I could think of a description that would do her justice. The best I can do is, she is the most original stand-up comic I have ever seen. She’s tremendously inventive; if there’s a cutting edge in the often hackneyed genre of stand-up, it’s Tig. Tuesday’s “friends” include the always-funny Laura Kightlinger and AD Miles.

Showgirls

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2008: SHOWGIRLS at the ARCLIGHT HOLLYWOOD
Arclight Hollywood (not to be a snob about it, but I’m just going to pretend the one in Hollywood is still the only Arclight) continues its Viva Las Vegas series of 21+ screenings with Showgirls. The New York Times called it an “instant camp classic,” and that’s the blurb on the front cover of the new “Fully Exposed” special edition DVD, but I can’t imagine that’s how they marketed it back in the day.

I’ve actually never seen Showgirls — I was too young at the time, and haven’t gotten around to it since — but my love for the previous Joe Eszterhas/Paul Verhoeven camp classic, Basic Instinct, is complete and un-ironic, so I can’t imagine what could be wrong with a movie they made about Las Vegas (did you hear that noise? That was what was left of my credibility slipping away…)

Well, in any case, booze should help, and there, the Arclight’s got you covered. The Viva Las Vegas series ends next week with a 21+ screening of the L.A.-centric Swingers.

Glen Campbell

TUESDAY. AUGUST 19, 2008: GLEN CAMPBELL at THE TROUBADOUR
And speaking of all-Pat-Boone-by-different-names, there’s the Rhinestone Cowboy himself, Glen Campbell.

Meet Glen Campbell is the first new album Campbell’s recorded for his old home, Capitol Records, since 1981.

The first single is a cover of Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).” On the rest of the album, Campbell re-interprets everyone from U2 (”All I Want Is You”) to Travis (”Sing”) to the Velvet Underground (”Jesus”) and Jackson Browne (”These Days.”)

A covers album is particularly appropriate for Campbell, whose hits were all written by other people. But since the most interesting covers always do something new, I think this album has a lot of potential. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this might even be better than Paul Anka’s 2005 covers outing, Rock Swings. I’d be curious to hear where Campbell takes these unusual selections - but the Troubadour will be a tough ticket, one night only.

Looking for trouble in Los Angeles? Here are five ideas for this week…

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2008: STEPHENIE MEYER at ROYCE HALL
No doubt all the angsty teenage girls in your life have already got their tickets to Stephenie Meyer’s speaking engagement at Royce Hall.  Else, they’re probably brooding about having missed out on the coming of Meyer (it’s okay, they like to brood).

Meyer’s third and final stop on her national tour sold out in minutes.  Entertainment Weekly breathlessly called the Twilight series “The Hottest Books Since Harry Potter,” on a recent magazine cover.

If you haven’t heard of Meyer yet, hold on (and possibly savor this moment) because this fall she’s going to be everywhere, in conjunction with the movie adaptation of her teenage-girls-in-love-with-emo-looking-vampires series. Meyer is speaking with her musical muse, Justin Furstenfeld from the band Blue October (I must be getting old, ‘cos I’ve never even heard of this band.)

Furstenfeld is slated to play songs such as ““Sound of Pulling Heaven Down,” the platinum-selling “Hate Me”, and “Overweight,” whose titles may give you some idea of the sort of evening you’re in for.  But the real draw, fans insist, is the book signing after the show.  Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be an emo vampire in that room.

Detail from portrait of "Cosette" by Emile Bayard, from the original edition of Les Misérables

FRIDAY, AUGUST 8-SUNDAY, AUGUST 10: LES MISERABLES IN CONCERT at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL
Are you sitting down?  Because you’re going to want to be sitting down to hear the news that Rosie O’Donnell is going to be featured in this weekend’s three-show run of Les Misérables at the Hollywood Bowl.  “Who will she play?” we wondered as we left the Bowl after last weekend’s Eric Idle show. 

Probably Madame Thenardier, huh?  But I’m still secretly pulling for her to play Inspector Javert. In fact, I think they should stage a whole lesbian cast of Les Miserables.  (Lez Miz?  Anyone??)

Apparently the L.A. Phil doesn’t share this particular grand vision, and have opted for more traditional casting choices, with Tony-award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell slated to play the diligent inspector, which I guess is okay too.

88boadrum

FRIDAY, AUGUST 8: 88BOADRUM at the LA BREA TAR PITS
On July 7, 2007, Japanese experimental rockers the Boredoms got 77 drummers together in Brooklyn to play for 77 minutes.  This year, eighty-eight is enough - eighty-eight drummers playing an original composition for eighty-eight minutes, starting at 8:08 PM at the glamorous La Brea Tar Pits.  It’s free, but tickets are required.  Get ‘em next door to the tar pits at LACMA, or at Amoeba Records, or at brownpapertickets.com.  The event is sponsored by Nike, who is launching a t-shirt line in conjunction with the performance.  Everyone in attendance gets a free shirt, to be hand-screened during the event.

Hatchet at Shadow Circus' last Los Angeles performance. Via Flickr.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 2008: SHADOW CIRCUS at CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF ABNORMAL ARTS
You know what the neo-burlesque movement needs more of?  Creepy puppets! 

So thank heaven for Shadow Circus, which claims to be the Bay Area’s “most belligerent puppetry troupe.”  They’re playing their second-ever L.A. area show this weekend.  So, if you prefer your oddball puppet shows without all the distractions that go along with naked-lady-dancing, this would be an ideal night for you.

I’ve not been to CIA yet, but it looks pretty rad - and the web site claims that AOL voted it the “#3 Freakiest Attraction in the USA” a couple of Halloweens ago.  (I’d love to know what #1 and #2 were, but AOL appears to have taken down the list.) 

But, in terms of bona fides, Salon.com says “If Frederico Fellini and Salvador Dali had ever collaborated on a funeral service. it might have resembled what the CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF ABNORMALARTS did a few weeks back” and Rock City News calls it “P.T. Barnum’s bad acid trip” and that’s more than good enough for me.

Etta James

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2008: ETTA JAMES at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL
And then there’s Etta James, who the Bowl barely even bothers to hype on the event page.  Just one sentence that covers the bases - here’s the highlights:  “Queen of Blues… belting… sass…”  And what more do they need?  If a person needs to be talked into Etta James at the Hollywood Bowl, they’re probably not worth talking to in the first place, right?

Supporting Miss James is the criminally underrated “King” Solomon Burke, whose recent Don’t Give Up On Me won a much deserved Grammy.  And opening the evening is the quarter-life-crisis-inducingly-young-and-talented Paolo Nutini.

Dolly Parton. Photo © dollypartonmusic.net

During a Monday-morning not-quite-ready-to-get-to-work-yet office chat, a couple of my co-workers and I marveled at the enduring popularity of Dolly Parton.

One colleague offered up a challenge:  name another female musician who has reached Parton’s level of success and lasted as long (itself, a difficult task) who has not turned into a parody of herself.  (Hint:  Not Cher.  Not Whitney, or Britney, probably not Madonna.)

In our pop culture, women musical superstars of a certain age have an extraordinarily high burnout rate.  It’s easy to make a long list of the MTV-damaged.  And yet Dolly endures.

Here’s why:

First, Dolly, unlike most of her contemporaries, is in on the joke.  She’s a show-woman first, a performer who understands that it is her job to please an audience.

In a 1992 interview with the Chicago Tribune, she said ‘

‘Years ago, people used to tell me, ‘Dolly, you’re a great writer, you’re a good singer, if you’d just kind of dress down and not be so gaudy and outrageous and this and that…’ And I said: Well, why? Then I won’t have any fun….

“I think people take me as seriously as I want them to. They take me as seriously as I take myself — let’s put it that way. I’m very secure about my talents and about who I am. But it’s fun for me, and I think I’m fun for other people, and it’s just an unusual kind of package, and why not? That I can look totally artificial and be totally real is perfectly fine with me.”

Dolly understands that she cuts an absurd figure, so she beats you to the punch by being forthright about her appearance (for instance, the old Dolly chestnut “it costs a lot to look this cheap!”), and about her plastic surgery, (”If I see something sagging, bagging, and dragging, I’m going to nip it, tuck it, and suck it.”)

But, more than just a showman, Dolly has endured because she is an artist.

Over the course of her performance at the Greek, she played guitar (both acoustic and electric), banjo, dulcimer, tin whistle, autoharp, tambourine, piano and harmonica - sometimes as many as three instuments on the same song.  (In a nod to showmanship, nearly every instrument was white and covered in rhinestones.)

In terms of artist cred, she’s written some of the most recognizable and enduring pop music of the last fifty years.  Does anyone still write “standards?”  Take a look and see how many other artists have recorded covers of “Jolene,” or “I Will Always Love You.”

Dolly Parton writhes around in the grass on the cover of Halos and Horns

Finally, Dolly is nothing if not sincere.  Sure, she’s hokey.  But she owns it.  She tells the same stories about growing up in the Great Smokey Mountains for what must be the nine millionth time, and still connects with the audience.  She’s totally engaged. She loves to talk to her audience, tells them again and again how glad she is they came and how lucky she feels to get to fulfill her dream of being a performer.

Besides her talent, the main thing that keeps her on tour around the world — instead of in a resident show in Branson — is that she’s able to create the kind of connection that only comes out of respect for an audience and a love for what she’s doing.

And, it doesn’t hurt that she plays what people want to hear.  She opened her set with “Two Doors Down,” followed it up with “Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That?” and it wasn’t too long before she got to “Jolene,” and “Coat of Many Colors.”  She finished off the first set with a rousing gospel medley, and ended the second with “I Will Always Love You,” hitting “9 to 5,” and “Islands in the Stream,” along the way.

But the highlight had to be when she brought the (eleven piece!) band down and sang “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind,” in a wall of a cappella soul sound.  She followed that stunner up with a near-a cappella “Little Sparrow,” which she knocked out of Griffith Park, and which they could probably feel all the way in Silverlake.  My only complaint about the song was that it was not completely a cappella - it was embellished with dobro that was an unnecessary distraction.  For a performer in her 50th year of show business, Dolly’s voice is as remarkable as ever.

There were some jokes that fell a little flat, and Dolly herself seemed a little uncomfortable with some of her material.  In particular, she joked about how the country would go awry once a month if we elected a woman president.  Really, Dolly?  As someone who’s broken so many barriers for female musicians, you deserve better lines than such reactionary Hee-Haw crap. (And I liked Hee-Haw.)

Aside from the one remark, Dolly was resolutely apolitical.  She pointed out that she had recorded an album of patriotic songs.  She did not mention the subsequent studio album of 60’s music that featured several anti-war songs.

One of the challenges of being Dolly Parton is that she’s got to be something of a politician herself.  You’ll notice, for instance, that not many other country artists have recorded an album of patriotic songs, and then two years later, recorded an album with a number of anti-war songs.  There is probably a good reason for this.  It’s a very tough line to straddle, and there’s a very real danger of appearing cynical.  With Dolly, sincere as she is, you can believe that she simultaneously holds these two ideas, which are so often positioned as a false dichotomy.

Dolly’s got the evangelicals to please, plus all the little ones who know her as Aunt Dolly from Hannah Montana, plus her gay fan base. (Despite her religious views, she’s been outspoken about her support for sexual minorities, and even recorded an Oscar-nominated song for the movie Transamerica.)

Understandably, she’s got to phrase things very carefully to fulfill her primary obligation, which is to entertain the people who pay to see her.  But, it vexes me when people talk about politics without saying anything, so I wish Dolly would either offer an actual opinion or else not bring up the presidential race at all.

But in the end, it seems unfair to quibble about the small things after such a fantastic show.

There was even a Q&A session!  Someone asked, “what would you like people to say about you 100 years from now?” to which Dolly replied “hopefully, the same thing they say now - ’she looks great for her age.’”

Looking for trouble in Los Angeles? Here are five ideas for this week…

Life of Brian

FRIDAY, AUGUST 1 and SATURDAY, AUGUST 2: ERIC IDLE at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL in ‘HE’S NOT THE MESSIAH, HE’S A VERY NAUGHTY BOY’
Eric Idle has never been shy about exploiting the legacy of Monty Python (note, for example, a previous stage show, Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python.)  Or the concert recording he made at the Getty, called (less forthrightly) Eric Idle Sings Monty Python.  Or, for that matter, the Tony-award winning musical Spamalot, currently playing on Broadway, in London, at the Wynn in Las Vegas and on national tour.

Actually, that show won three Tonys: Best Musical, Best Musical Director, and Featured Actress for the overwhelmingly amazing Sara Ramirez.  Point is, exploiting Monty Python’s formidable back catalogue is as inevitable as exploiting Mel Brooks’.  Personally, I’m glad it’s being done with such panache by an actual Python.  (Okay, I’ll admit, Idle was always my favorite anyway.  Well, maybe Cleese.  Or Palin…?)

But three years after Spamalot bowed, the Holy Grail teet has been sucked dry (and if you have any doubt that this is the case, I’d like to point out that even Clay Aiken has come and gone.  And he didn’t even play the Lady of the Lake, which would have been the only possible way that casting could be worthwhile!).

So, naturally, time’s come for Idle to turn his attention to Life of Brian, which he does on Friday and Saturday at the Hollywood Bowl with Spamalot collaborator John Du Prez.

No one’s on the fence about Monty Python.  You either love them or you don’t.  I know where I’ll be on Friday night!

Janet Leigh in Touch of Evil

SATURDAY, AUGUST 2: TOUCH OF EVIL at the HOLLYWOOD FOREVER CEMETERY
Janet Leigh!  Orson Welles!  Marlene Dietrich!  Charlton Heston (as a Mexican, no less!)!!

Cinespia keeps the film noir classics coming Saturday nights at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  This week, it’s Welles’ 1958 classic Touch of Evil.  Though the originally released B-movie version was significantly altered from the version Welles submitted - re-edited and partially re-shot - there have been a couple of attempts since to release versions more faithful to Welles’s vision.  No word on which edit Cinespia plans on showing; most likely it’s the original cut.)

In any case, Cinespia is almost certainly the largest group of people you’re ever going to hear collectively gasp at a tracking shot, so that may be worth the price of admission.

If you’re more into camp than crime, come on Sunday instead, when the graveyard screens Barbarella.

Dolly Parton

SUNDAY, AUGUST 3:  DOLLY PARTON at the GREEK THEATER
One of the first times I visited Los Angeles, back when I could barely believe that Jay Leno lived here, and you could see him (in person! taping The Tonight Show!) we got in that damned NBC early-morning ticket line twice in one week.

The first time we did it for the novelty of The Tonight Show, but the second time we did it for Dolly.  We had seen the week’s list of guests at the first taping, and when we saw her name on the list, we resolved to get up at the crack of dawn to drive to Burbank a second time.  And she was even more worth it than I’d hoped.

As funny as she’s charming; as self-effacing as she is sexy; I would go anyplace for Dolly, and this weekend, that’s the Greek Theater.

Amoeba Music Hollywood

MONDAY, AUGUST 4: CONOR OBERST at AMOEBA RECORDS
In case you missed out on tickets to the Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band show at the Troubadour next Tuesday, Best-Thing-in-Los Angeles  Amoeba Records (seriously, LA Mag?) has got you covered with a free instore performance on Monday.

After ten full-lengths as Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst is putting out a record under his own name.  He’s on the road this month in support of the new album, with several stops in record stores along the way.  But, if you’re hoping to get any closer to the superstar of Saddle Creek than the international DVDs the second floor corner, better get to Amoeba early.

Amanda Palmer. Photo by Nickie Mcgowan.

MONDAY, AUGUST 4: AMANDA PALMER at the TROUBADOUR
Dresden Doll Amanda Palmer tours behind her first solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer? (named with a nice nod to Twin Peaks).

The album, to be released in September, is produced by Ben Folds, and was recorded (and remastered… and remastered…) in his Nashville studio.

According to the Boston Phoenix, Palmer had considered calling the album the somewhat less radio-friendly That’s Amanda Fucking Palmer to You, but realized the title might not “fly at WalMart.”

Hold on, do fans of Brechtian punk cabaret hang out at Walmart??  Ima hafta go back there…