Not that she was ever really gone, but LeAnn Rimes is back on the music scene with her soon to be released Remnants album and played a preview this weekend at the El Rey in Los Angeles. She took the stage with the lights focusing on her and sang solo “Long Live Love” from her new album before her band kicked in. If anything in the twenty years since her voice exploded onto the country scene at age 13, she has just gotten better. It was apparent from the get-go that her pipes separate her from the pack. You didn’t even want to sing along.
Old Dominion played a stellar performance in Los Angeles last weekend at the Nova by Microsoft. Goldenvoice is getting everyone excited for the recently announced Stagecoach 2017 and brought in an act that played last years festival. This was my third time seeing the band and the first time as a headliner, but its also their first tour as a headliner, so I’ll go with first time seeing them without sunglasses, who knew they had eyes?
Nineties heavy hitters Bush came to the Wiltern in LA last weekend and it was like a time machine back to 1995. Twenty years ago seemed like now. It felt like everyone in attendance had reached back in their closet for their favorite long-forgotten flannel and tied it around their waist. And the band sounded fantastic, just like you wanted them to sound when you first heard “Glycerine” on MTV.
Dolly Parton played two nights at the Hollywood Bowl, and if there is one thing you’ll realize, when you see her perform, it’s that she is timeless. At 70 she still has the vigor of a teen, the mental wit of a recent college graduate and all the endearing charm of a grandmother. I don’t know how she does it. There are two aspects to a Dolly Parton concert; one is obviously the music, the other is her storytelling. Maybe it’s a long gone art of performance, since the only other artist I’ve seen use this technique so successfully was B.B.
The people from Best Fest came to LA to perform what’s become an annual tradition: Petty Fest. A tribute to Tom Petty featuring the Cabin Down Below Band as the house band and bringing up guest musicians to play hits and deep cuts of the top-notch songwriter Tom Petty.
Bandette puts the (wrist)band in band for their album release party. Their self-titled debut album was released digitally and as a USB slap bracelet. That’s right a band named Bandette released their album digitally on a USB drive that was also a wristband. Its like the English language has finally been validated.
At the last minute I decided to check out Hall & Oats at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night because I had dozens of friends going and a ticket was floating around. I’d been thinking of going to this show but failed to commit because of life issues, but I really wanted to see the opening acts Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings. Once I was sure I could make it there in time to see the openers and was ready to commit.
The man, the myth, the legend, Garth Brooks came to Anaheim for the weekend and blew the roof all the Honda Center. Well the roof is still physically there but the metaphorical ceiling has been raised. There’s a reason he’s sold more albums than Elvis and almost as many as the Beatles: he’s that good.
Guns ‘N’ Roses returned to their home turf of Los Angeles on their Not In This Lifetime tour. I’m just giving a brief update since I did full coverage on both of their MetLife shows in New York earlier: http://festivalsandgigs.com/never-say-not-lifetime. Having seen three shows on this tour, it’s almost amazing the attention to detail that the band, especially Axl, pays to making sure it’s the same performance.
When I first moved to Los Angeles 16 years ago I struggled to get my bearings straight in a new city. Within 6 weeks of my arrival one of my favorite bands from my college days, 311, played at the Palladium in Hollywood, it was one of the first times I realized how many more concerts I was about to be able to see by living in the heart of the record industry. I’ve seen dozens of 311 shows since then, but Friday night at the Palladium they played as tight and strong and as energetic as they did the first time I saw them at the Capital Ballroom in DC in 1995.
