Day 18: Los Angeles, Pt 4
Welcome
Yesterday we played our third and final show at Lodge Room.
I began my day with a simple breakfast: two slices of gluten-free toast, each with a layer of Boar’s Head Everything Bagel Hummus spread across the open face of the cooked bread.
The plan for the day was to take advantage of our relaxed schedule - a rare afternoon on which we didn’t have to load into a venue – and take Tess and her sister Georgia around some of my favourite LA spots. We set off at 10am in our Mercedes Benz Sprinter, the white paint job still gleaming furiously even after several days of hard labour as our tour workhorse. This vehicle was well suited to the task of driving on LA’s roads and I was only too happy to indulge the Sprinter with an enjoyable little stint on the 101 freeway as we headed northwest through Hollywood. Twenty minutes later we were in north LA pulling into the carpark of one of the city’s hidden gems, the Burbank Empire Centre.
If you wanted to experience one of the best Walmarts in the country or go to a Target with a Starbucks inside, this sprawling multiplex was the perfect place to do it and as Tess and Georgia enthusiastically began their shopping trip, I stayed back to keep the van company.
Next on the list was Griffith Park Observatory and so we left Burbank, taking another iconic freeway, the I-5, which delivered us to the south edge of this large urban wilderness. We drove into the park, heading part of the way up the hill and then walked the rest, arriving at the top having expended a lot of sweat but feeling grateful for the exercise, not to mention the incredible vista that greeted us. Taking the stairs to the top of the observatory delivered us a spectacular panorama of this massive city, the scale of which is hard to fathom until you’ve seen it from such great heights.
The observatory’s 12 inch Zeiss refracting telescope, an instrument dating back to 1935.
Our final stop-off on this day of touristic activities was in Echo Park, one of the many charming neighbourhoods that sit astride the east-west arterial route known as Sunset Boulevard. As well as seeing the swan boats and the geyser-like fountain of Echo Park Lake I wanted Tess and Georgia to experience the thrill of trying to find a park for a 12-seater van on a busy Sunday afternoon, and in this pursuit I was successful.
After grabbing lunch, I went back to the accommodation, dropping off Tess and Georgia and picking up a highly caffeinated drummer who was rearing to go, excited to get to the venue and do some playing. The drive to Highland Park took us on two iconic pieces of infrastructure: the aforementioned 101, the Hollywood Freeway, and the Pasadena Freeway, the 110, which is the oldest freeway in the US with the first segment dating back to 1938. The 110 is a scary road, designed for cars driving at 1940s speeds and now used by cars driving at a very confident, modern pace. Offramps come out of nowhere and don’t provide anything close to the space needed to safely decelerate, and the tiny onramps appear from around blind corners and don’t provide any runup for your entry onto this high-speed roadway.
Here are some photo highlights from our trip to the venue. Sing out if you know any of these spots!
Tristan skilfully navigated these hazards and got us to the venue safely where we caught up with the other members of the tour party. Jon and Gabe had come over to the venue early and gone out for lunch while Liz had done a podcast recording, the details of which probably aren’t secret but it’s easier to presume that they are. It was a new microphone day for Jonathan and everyone was excited for him. From a local music store he had found himself a nice version of an Electrovoice 644 Soundspot, the first interference tube microphone (shotgun mic) and a revolutionary design that won an academy award in 1963 for its excellent directional characteristics.
It was a new shirt day for Liz and she picked up this fabulous Chee-tos long-sleeve from a vintage store.
Our instruments and amps were all exactly where we had left them after walking off stage the night before so we wandered up and began rehearsing, sprucing up a few songs that we wanted to put into the setlist for night three of this mini residency.
POV from onstage at Lodge Room.
Illuminati Hotties opened up the show a couple of hours later. We first saw this band at South by Southwest in 2019 and although the line-up has changed a bit they are still just as captivating as when they graced the stage outside Cheer Up Charlies, playing a scorching set in the mid-afternoon heat. Last night the room was very well air conditioned, but Illuminati Hotties still brought the heat, playing a full forty minutes of power that included a few of the old favourites and plenty of exciting new songs.
We finished our little run at Lodge Room with a great third show. Again the setlist was different and the pacing had changed, and hopefully those people enthusiastic enough to come along to all three shows got something different from the final night. Afterwards we packed down and prepared everything for the flight to New York. Our equipment would travel separately so we left everything neatly stacked in the venue’s lobby to await the arrival of the shipping company. With that task completed we were free to head back to our accommodation and enjoy a night of good rest.
