The Live Music Week in Review

It's good to be a live music fan in Los Angeles. We regularly get the opportunity to see shows that people in other cities (with the exception of New York) don't get to see. Last week we attended three "special" performances.

Sun 4/2 - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Silversun Pickups played a benefit show at Spaceland. Silversun Pickups wore their fancy clothes and played sitting down. Usually they put on a sweaty, energetic performance. Black Rebel Motorcycle also played sitting down (acoustic guitars only) without a rhythm section. Instead of thinking the show was "special" we walked away a little disappointed ($20 for this?). Hardcore fans probably loved it.

Mon 4/3 - The New York Dolls only did two U.S. shows this time around (New York and Spaceland). It was a packed house but you could still buy tickets right before the show. They played a mix of crowd favorites ("Looking For a Kiss" and "Trash"), new songs (not that memorable) and covers ("Piece of My Heart" and Sylvain's tribute to Johnny Thunders' "You Can't Put Your Arms Round a Memory"). David Johansen still has plenty of Mick Jagger swagger. Their new guitarist looks straight up Sunset Strip. We got a good laugh when he came out shirtless for the encore.

Sat 4/8 - The Boy Least Likely To has been on tour with James Blunt. We felt this was a "special" show (also at Spaceland) because we didn't have to contribute any money to James Blunt. The band is even better live than on the very enjoyable record. The two primary members round out their sound with four musicians who add some oomph to the sound. They are very charming Brits and the packed house left humming their post-adolescent love songs. Our only complaint is that we were all hoping for an encore.

That terrible photo is the New York Dolls @ Spaceland.