I was on a quick hiatus from writing reviews. But, I’m back! Saturday Night’s Justice Tour 09 Finale at the Henry Fonda in Hollywood was so great it compelled me to attack the ol’ wordpress.

If you have ever attended any of these benefit shows thrown by the incomparable Tom Morello (Nightwatchman/RATM), you know they are ALWAYS a good time! Few things have remained constant w/ these shows. They are usually held around L.A. in intimate venues like The Hotel Cafe to The Troubadour. The Ticket price are always at what Tom calls “The People Price” ranging from a whopping $10-$15 bucks, 100% of which is donated to Charity btw! Oh and the friends he gets to jam out with him? How about the likes of Ben Harper, Slash, Jerry Cantrell, G. Love, Perry Farrell, Flea, David Navarro, Travis Barker, Stuart Copeland, Cypress Hill, Joe Satriani are just a few that I have seen perform at these gigs.

This last Saturday’s show was no exception. The roster of artists joining Tom at the Fonda were… Slash (GnR), Corey Taylor (Slipknot), Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead), Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains), Eugene Hutz (Gogol Bordello), Wayne Kramer (MC5), Shooter Jennings, Boots Riley (The Coup), Sen Dog (Cypress Hill) and more.

Each artist takes turns doing mini 3 song sets with Tom jumping in and out. Then it gets nutty when all the artists hop on stage collaborating (mostly impromptu) on crowd pleasing cover after crowd pleasing cover.

Top 5 Highlights of the night
(1) Jerry Cantrell, Slash, and Corey Taylor – covering Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”.
(2) Slash, Corey Taylor, Sen Dog, and Tom Morello – covering not one but TWO Guns and Roses Classics “Paradise City” and “It’s So Easy”.
(3) Sneak Peek at Street Sweeper (new group consisting of Boots Riley and Tom Morello) – in addition to a couple new songs they did a cover of MIA’s “Paper Planes”! Whoever is attending the NIN/JA Tour this year make sure to get to the venue early and catch these guys!
(4) Surprise (not billed) performances from Eugene Hutz (Gogol Bordello) and Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead).
(5) Everyone (including the entire crowd) – performing Woodie Gutherie’s “This Land is Our Land” to close out the show and tour.

3 hours of great music and entertainment for $15 bucks and all going to charity? Everyone wins – especially the fortunate fans that got to experience it. Thanks again Tom!

Special Shout Out – goes to E.D.B.M & O.E, Aziz & Paul of Human Giant, and Chef Roy & Aliiiiice of Kogi for good times last Thursday night on the Great L.A Taco Tour! Everyone should vote for them! Although my NCAA bracket is dust (Thanks for nothing Pitt!) my Taco Madness Bracket is still pristine and no offense to James Beard Award Winning Grandma Yuca (we all know this place all about the conchinita pibil burrito and not the tacos), but I’m predicting a Championship Final w/ Kogi ultimately pulling out a close victory over the King Taco Evil Empire. Come on people! Kogi tastes so much better! Here’s are recaps of the night food met comedy met music…
http://eatdrinknbmerry.blogspot.com/2009/03/taco-tour-with-roy-choi-of-kogi-bbq.html
http://oishiieats.blogspot.com/2009/03/appreciating-taco-warriors-with-kogi.html

and more videos from the Moviebruin here http://www.youtube.com/user/moviebruin

This is the 4th and last installment of my 4 concerts in 4 nights series.

I had known about this tribute concert for awhile now, unfortunately it has been soldout for longer than I’ve known about it.  But, after a lazy Sunday at the movies I decided to give it a shot and drive down Pico and see if anyone had an extra. I met the owner of McCabes Guitar Shop out front right before showtime and he said sure why not cruise on in. Score!

What me and about 80 others had in store was a GREAT night of music in an amazing venue! I had never seen a show here before, but to see a show in a barn like backroom with walls covered with great guitars in a historic guitar shop is not a bad way to spend a Sunday evening.

It was a tribute concert for country singer Chris Darrow, which was weird because the guy is still alive?!?!  Aren’t tribute concerts suppose to be for dead people? There was about 7 different music groups that performed including Chris Darrow himself.

2 hours into the tribute concert marathon – after the first 5 acts (who were all pretty good) and the subsequent set changes, it was obvious who everyone was there to see.  Ben Harper then came out and played his first song solo with a slide on an acoustic guitar that resembled more like a big sushi boat than a guitar.  Then he was joined by Darrow on a duet of “Whipping Boy”, which many people think is a Ben Harper song, but in actuality he just covered it from the guest of honor.  Darrow then told a great story about how he introduced Ben’s parents in Claremont. So you can literally say if it wasn’t for Chris Darrow there would be no Ben Harper. No wonder Ben took time out of his busy recording and touring schedule to perform this tribute for a bunch of Westsiders in a room the size of a 1 bedroom apartment.  Ben was then joined on stage by his new group the Relentless 7 and they did a number. Although the crowd was chanting for more, Ben stuck to the 2-3 song mini set all the prior performers did.

The lights then turned on and half the audience started to leave. What they didn’t realize was Akron/Family were on next!  A great up and coming Bluegrass/Indie/Country/Rock trio out of Pennsylvania. Think the next My Morning Jacket. So it was a treat to see them in such a rare venue.

Catch them at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood when they have their 3 night stand there next week if you can…

http://www.steveallentheater.com/akron

So that concludes my 4 concerts in 4 nights.  All different types of music in all different types of venues that all make living in L.A. pretty cool. Hope you all enjoyed reading, now time to rest until the next one…

This is the 3rd installment of the 4 concerts in 4 nights series and it’s an EPIC one.

To catch a legendary performer in a small venue like this was quite a treat! So the history of how this last minute somewhat surprise concert came about is a long story but in short Tavis Smiley was holding his 10th anniversary of his State of the Black Union Convention across the street at the Convention Center and Prince wanted to show his support to his friend by throwing a concert where all the proceeds went to his foundation. There were many proceeds to be given, seeing  the $150/$200 GA price and $300 VIP price tag.  But, to pay $150 to see a legend in a 800 capacity club is a bargain! Being at the very back of the room in such a great venue would still be a nicer and more enjoyable experience than seeing him from the pit at any venue the purple one could normally sellout – which is pretty much any venue in the world.  This concert was initially schedule to be held at Nokia Live, then the Forum, then last minute Prince decided to hold it at none other than Sheila E’s club The “new” Conga Room at L.A. Live downtown.

The setlist included a good mix of hits, covers, and Prince classics…

8:35 p.m.
Ol’ Skool Company
Dreamer
Everyday People
I Want to Take You Higher
Without Love
1999
—–
Shhh
Musicology
Play That Funky Music
Play That Funky Music (Reprise)
Hollywood Swinging
—–
Bridge Over Troubled Water
When Will We B Paid
Cream
U Got the Look
I Feel 4 U
Controversy
—–
The Bird
Jungle Love
The Glamorous Life
–Holly Rock
Purple Rain
10:18 p.m.

If Prince is not one of the best live concert performers ever he’s right up there. This is my third time seeing him perform and every single time the man just absolutely kills it.

Two highlights of the night:

(1) During his rendition of “Play that Funky Music” he invites all the black activists and civil rights leaders in the place to come on stage and get their groove on. To see Dr. Cornell West and Jesse Jackson get down was surreal.

(2) During like the 3rd encore when you thought the concert was almost over he asks “Who’s house is this?” and Sheila E comes out and they rip into “The Glamorous Life” and then right into the song everyone was chanting for all night…”Purple Rain”.

Two low-lights of the night:

(1) The heavy throne of henchmen at every Prince concert that busts fans taking pictures, videos, etc.  Hence, I couldn’t post videos of the concert here but rather a crappy IPhone pic.

(2) Not being invited to the after concert party and performance at the “77″ – his mansion in the Hollywood hills. These all night jam sessions at his place are stuff of legend.  Maybe next time…

Part Two of the 4 concerts in 4 nights series.

Friday night found me at the Dragonfly in Hollywood. Mostly known for The Spazmatics (infamous 80s cover band) on Sunday nights and Point Break Live (play with crowd participation based on the classic flick) on Saturdays.  You’re probably saying this place is not exactly known for legit music concerts.  On this particular night, however, Moby’s new blues/rock band The Little Death NYC was due to perform a rare show outside of the 212 – where all the members reside. Still the club was only about 70% capacity by show time. The crowd might of been small but it was a cool one -  a good mix of hipsters, industry peeps, and music lovers. Even Rollergirl Heather Graham was in the house.

Moby, mostly known for his electronic music work, displayed that he is not a one trick pony. He played both the guitar and bass on some great bluesy rock tracks that all seemed like they came straight from the soundtrack of a Tarantino movie.  However, to talk about The Little Death NYC and not mention the real star in the group would be a shame. Laura Dawn, the lead singer, was straight channeling Janis Joplin all night. Her voice is immensely powerful and she really carried all the songs . Check them out when you can – you won’t regret it.

This is my first ultra mini review in my 4 concerts in 4 nights series

This last Thursday night, my friends and I headed to one of our favorite music venues in the city, Spaceland in Silver Lake (which was recently named one of the best things about L.A. by Los Angeles Magazine).

Performing was a brand new group from Montreal named The Clues. No one quite knew what to expect, all we knew about this group was it consisted of ex members of The Unicorns and The Arcade Fire, two groups that we really liked. The amount of accessible material available on the internet from them is next to zero (no facebook or myspace pg).  What I did manage to find was a random mp3 for the track “Perfect Fit” and after I gave it a quick listen, I immediately knew that they were one of those “not for everyone” groups.  But, I was looking forward to finding out if they were for me and it turns out they were.

After a spirited ~45 min set of material from their forthcoming full length debut due out in April.  I am certain that The Clues album will soom be uploaded to all indie hipster ipods across the country. In addition, it’s inevitable a glowing review by Pitchfork and other music blogs are also on headed their way.  I would just like at this time to officially kick off the bandwagon now.