Day 17: Los Angeles, Pt 3
Welcome
Yesterday we played our second of three shows at Lodge Room, in Los Angeles.
It was another warm, dry day in LA. As people rose from their beds the lounge of our Airbnb began to fill up until everyone was sitting around eating, reading, caffeinating, and getting themselves ready for the day. I put together a sophisticated breakfast platter of items that could be dipped in houmous. The houmous I used was Boar’s Head Everything Bagel Hummus, and the dipping sticks were made from celery, cucumber, capsicum, and toast.
We left the house a couple of hours early so we could make a few stops on the way to the venue. The first was on the 101, the Hollywood Freeway, where we got to enjoy one of the quintessential LA experiences of sitting in stopped traffic on one of the busiest freeways in the US. Eventually we made it to our next destination, a nondescript house in Silverlake which restores and sells interesting guitars under the moniker Old Style Guitar Shop. They are especially well known for their acoustic guitars that have been fitted with a unique sounding, rubber bridge, but they also had a great range of electric guitars and old amps. Liz and Jon both had itchy wallet fingers and could have browsed for a while but there was only one bass in the store, so I insisted we leave out of fairness.
Gabe tries a tiny guitar while the author catches up on some writing.
It's difficult to write a captivating narrative around tour logistics in the first place but it’s a lot harder when nothing goes wrong. Yesterday’s load-in was boring and easy. If I had to pick a villain in this story it would be the elevator which travelled at a snail’s pace; nothing like the blistering 18km/h of the lifts in Auckland’s Sky Tower! But at the same time this piece of transport infrastructure saved us from carrying our heavy cases up two flights of stairs so perhaps it is slightly less than a villain; a complex character might be a gentler label.
Once we had finished loading, we had a pleasantly long soundcheck. You might think that that we didn’t need one since we had already played on the same stage with the same equipment two days before but there is always room to improve, and Gabe continued to chase his perfect mix as we ran through a few of the lesser-rehearsed numbers that were in the setlist.
The hero of yesterday’s story was Jess Kallen who opened the show with a beautiful selection of songs from their recently released LP Exotherm. We met Jess last year when they toured with us, playing guitar in Rosie Tucker’s band and enthusiastically participating in the legendary and record-breaking The Beths/Rosie Tucker Tour Run Club. Jess has now put together a fine band of their own and last night’s performance was exquisite, a wonderful display of finesse and empathy that we felt lucky to witness.
The fact that it was a Saturday night show was obvious from the energy in the room, the current which we waded through as we walked out on stage. We had put together a different setlist for night two and it had a fierce momentum. A slew of fast songs crowded the middle of the set and they were happily received by a crowd that wanted to bounce around. All the members of The Beths enjoyed every moment up on stage last night but the highlight was the scary and exhilarating moment that we performed 2am, the final track on our last LP that last night finally made it out the doors of the rehearsal room and into the world. It was a magical way to end the evening and we walked off stage feeling happy and proud of each other.