Day 32: Los Angeles, CA
Welcome
Yesterday we arrived in the city of angels, for our show at The Fonda Theatre.
I woke just as Rob was nosing Golden Sparkle Face into the alleyway behind The Fonda. It was a typical Los Angeles winter day, the cool air nicely offset by a warm sun radiating through a cloudless sky.
We had a busy day ahead of us. Our faithful Keurig® K-Duo Essentials™ Single Serve & Carafe Coffee Maker coffee machine was booted up, and delivered us the steaming hot juice of life. From the bus lounges came the merry sounds of vocal warm ups as we coaxed the membranous tissue of our vocal folds into motion.
Rob had headed off to his hotel to sleep so we piled into a couple of cabs with our gear and set off for our first appointment, a podcast recording. Ten minutes of scary LA driving later we were delivered to a building in West Hollywood which contained a very nice little studio. There was a glass wall along one side so an audience could watch, and there was a little stage with drums and amps set up ready for us to play.
We were performing on a podcast called Improv4humans, hosted by comedian Matt Besset. The format of this show is basically that we would perform a song for four improv comedians and then talk with them about the song’s lyrics and subject matter. They would then improvise a scene, sometimes even several scenes, based on the themes or specific lyrics in the song.
This was a type of art I hadn’t experienced before, the intersection of scripted music and improvised comedy. The first few minutes started off slowly as everyone warmed up and began finding their way into characters. After that everything they said was hysterical. We performed three songs and there were multiple improv scenes based around each song which brought us to uncontrollable giggling every time.
Afterwards we all had a good chat with the performers and ended up talking about breakfasts, specifically chicken and waffles. This is how I learned of the existence of Roscoe’s, House of Chicken and Waffles. Another piece of scary LA driving got us back to the bus to drop off our gear and then we made our way to Roscoe’s, located only a few blocks from the venue. This place had one of the more formidable menus I’ve encountered in my time. Luckily I had a great website to help me optimise my order, midtownlunch.com, which gave me a thorough rundown of the pros and cons of each chicken cut, as well as the cheapest way to achieve your chicken goals.
I studied the midtownlunch article carefully and then ordered a Number 18 - a thigh and a waffle - to which I added an extra thigh.
We were a satisfied bunch that loaded our gear into The Fonda that afternoon. It was one of the more unique rooms we’ve come across on this run with a checkered tile floor leading into walls that are covered in huge renaissance murals, and art deco furnishings and trim in the lobbies and corridors.
I don’t usually post drum kit pov shots but this one was a beaut.
The theatre was located on Hollywood Boulevard, and this was the first time I’ve walked down this very famous street. I was surprised that I hardly recognised any of the names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and that a lot of the stars were very dirty. We did find the star belonging to a very famous band though…
Yesterday was very exciting day to be my bass strings. I had finally received my new custom pick – a .73mm Jim Dunlop nylon, in yellow, with The Beths inscribed on the front. I played it for the whole gig and it performed perfectly.
This was a lovely theatre to play in. The curtains and other decorations made it feel very grand. It was one of the larger rooms on the tour; around 1300 people filling up the checkered dance floor and the seated mezzanine. We had a lot of friends come to watch the show and it was nice getting to see their faces when the spotlights drifted over the right spots.
After the show we had some lovely reunions with friends from Rosie Tucker band, Girl Friday, and even some folks from back home in NZ. A perfect end to a great evening.