The Mae Shi played to an enthusiastic home crowd the other night at Spaceland, their last Los Angeles show before they rocket off across America in support of their fantastic album HLLLYH. The audience was lucky to have drummer & vocalist Brad Breeck in the house (he doesn't usually tour with the band), and the infamous Mae Sheet made a guest appearance. The Mae Shi are legendary for their explosive, interactive live performances; it's almost......

Camper Van Beethoven/Photo by "Friends of Camper Van Beethoven" via their website By Roger Park This June marks the 25th anniversary of one the most unique bands still rocking the sonic cosmos: Camper Van Beethoven. On Thursday, Camper Van Beethoven performed at the House of Blues in Hollywood as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival (SSMF). On the same bill that night was Soul Asylum and Everclear. Combing elements of rock, Celtic, ska,......

It's classic romantic comedy formula--Boy Meets Girl, Boy Falls for Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Girl--but it has its roots in the venerable tradition of BritLit icon Jane Austen, whose mere six novels continue to capture the modern imagination. But imagine coming up with a full Austen-esque plot line, characters, witty repartee, and resolution in about 90 minutes? It's no easy feat, but for ImproTheatre's Unscripted Repertory performers (some pictured at right), it's simply......

Photo by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr. ART* Attend the closing reception for Two Roads Gallery's group show featuring works by Kelly Thompson, Walt Hall, Teri Berman, and Douglas Alvarez. Artists will be in attendance and will be painting together, live. 6 p.m. // Two Roads Gallery // 4348 Tujunga Ave, Studio City // Free FILM The Silent Movie Theatre offers three showings of The Kid, a Charlie Chaplin......

One week after mysteriously canceling his gig at the Echo, Beck and his brand new band appeared undercover and treated a full house of 300+ to an hour-long set of oldies, goodies, and tunes which remain unreleased. And no, Danger Mouse did not make an appearance.... But here's a song we've never heard before: Beck and the gang are off to Europe for the summer but catch 'em late summer at the Hollywood Bowl (w/......

Modest Mouse opened for REM at the Hollywood Bowl this Thursday. It seems safe to say that it's been just long enough for their big hit "Float On" to have passed its airplay over-saturation and be ready for a mini-comeback. Well, maybe just a one-time refresher listen.......

Los Angeles really can be an amazing place sometimes. Where else will an artist the stature and as experienced as Elvis Costello decide to play a secret, free midnight show? Very, very few places. Luckily, we are in Los Angeles and this exact thing did happen Wednesday night. Announcing the show at 7pm on Indie 103.1, Costello came straight from his performance in support of the Police, and proceeded to rock the El Rey for......

A Chorus Line | Photo by Paul Kolnik First brought to the boards of Broadway in 1975, Michael Bennett's stark, blunt, and brilliant musical about being in musicals became one of the longest-running musicals of all-time. Now in revival after over a decade's absence on the Great White Way, the national touring company of A Chorus Line has landed in LA's Ahmanson Theatre for a limited engagement. Considering that Line is wholly emblematic of......

If there is a more beautiful place to see a concert than the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington please direct me to it. Each year, this is the home for the annual memorial weekend blowout known as the Sasquatch! Music Festival. A short two-hour drive east from Seattle takes you to the Gorge, built on the side of a cliff, overlooking the Columbia River. The scenery is as gorgeous as anywhere, when you add in some......

It just wasn't my night for taking pictures, so, here's photo of AM at ASCAP's Music Cafe- Sundance '08 via MySpace The heat was somehow trapped inside the darkened depths of the Hotel Cafe this Thursday night. Those fortunate enough to nab some of the few seats fell into two camps: The cautiously unmoving and the intent on revelry. Those left to stand shifted back and forth with an undeniable restlessness. The heat is......

There were nearly as many people on stage as in the crowd at the Echo last night to witness the phenomenon that was a 35-minute set from Dark Meat, the 17-piece psychedelic rock collective from Athens, Georgia. Dark Meat has been tearing up small venues in the South for a few years. Now signed to Vice Records, this orgiastic cacophony of punk vocals, horns, gospel, double drums, and manic prancing on the dance floor made......

Country diva and Palm Springs native Shelby Lynne treated the folks in the audience for her show last night at Indio's Stagecoach Festival to an earful. But she wasn't serving up just the sweet sounds of her songs--she had an awful lot to say about how unhappy she was with the venue and the attendance."I love singing to empty seats," Lynne sarcastically said as she opened her set, remarking about the vacant chairs in the......

Mike Doughty attracts a particular crowd. They are the kind of people who know how to use the term "irony" correctly. They will dance like your crazy hippie friend did in high school and everyone pointed and laughed but you knew they didn't care because, dammit, they were feeling it and having a good time. They will play vigorous air drums with syncopated head bobs. They cannot get enough of a good thing. Mike......

Photo by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr FILM There aren’t many good movies to see this weekend so why not grab a seat at the Nuart tonight and watch the classic World War II film, The Great Escape (1963)? The film is a part of the United Artists’ 90th Anniversary celebration series, starring Steve McQueen and shown on a new 35mm print. 8:30 p.m. // Nuart Theatre // 11272......

In the previous installations of Coachella there have been some huge headliners. Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead, Bjork, The Beastie Boys but none quite on the level of day two's headliner, the Purple One, Prince. From the moment he hit the stage with Morris Day and Shelia E. it was apparent that the audience was in for a lesson in musicianship and showmanship. As he played through a set mixed of standards and the cover......

Miwa Gemini at the Hotel Cafe | Photo by Lindsay William-Ross/LAist When the opportunity to check out New York-based singer-songwriter Miwa Gemini live at the Hotel Cafe came up recently I jumped at the chance based on one line in the PR materials: "Think Nina Simone meets Sparklehorse meets Cat Power, and you're getting close." Intrigued, I showed up Sunday evening to the Hotel Cafe, nabbed a seat in the room's soothing darkness, and......

Sons and Daughters' entourage and others watch the band perform from the control room. For the third consecutive year, KCRW's Nic Harcourt and crew set up shop in Austin's Tequila Mockingbird studios to produce Morning Becomes Eclectic during South by Southwest. We caught up with them for the first of three live in-studio sessions last week and witnessed the raw power of Glasgow's Sons and Daughters. If our SXSW posts make it seem like......

Dave Koenig of LA-based Spindrift, Little Radio Day Party, Red Eyed Fly, SXSW 2008, Austin, TX We made it through another South by Southwest Interactive, Film, and Music Conference and Festival in Austin, TX. After writing out that sentence, we need a nap but stay tuned for more interviews and live footage documenting LA's presence at the 21st annual event. Shout Out Louds at the Austinist Day Party, The Mohawk, Austin Enjoy some live......

We caught up with Jonathan Coulton after he participated in a live taping of the Heather Gold show, an experience he blogged as well, without noting the more relevant details -- he sang a duet of Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta" with Gold reading the lyrics from an iPhone and then sang Billy Joel's "Don't Ask Me Why" with Harvey Danger's Sean Nelson. We had a couple minutes (before running out of hard drive space)......

Big Business, Red Fang, The Cops @ Spaceland (Tho Cops reviewed on LAist, 3/20/06) New York Dolls @ House of Blues (Anaheim) Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra, George Sarah & String Trio @ Safari Sam's (George Sarah video below) The Riders of the Purple Sage @ Live at the Lounge (Hermosa Beach) Peter Himmelman @ McCabe's (Music for the kids) Sunday Residency (See all March Residencies) Alex & Sam, Liz Pappademas @ Tangier ($8), Los Feliz (Read......

When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "recommend" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. So here's this week's top posts, as endorsed by you via the recommend feature, or as indicated by the level......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on LAist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Pasadena Art Weekend, for three days of free events. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a week. If you're interested in advertising on LAist or any other site in our network, check out our online mediakit.......

Artist: Rakim Album: The Archive: Live, Lost & Found Label: Koch Records Release Date: 03/04/08 There’s not much to say after mentioning that Rakim released a new album, The Archive Live, Lost & Found, which has live performances of some of Rakim’s biggest hits and new, unreleased tracks. Even the novice hip-hop fan will know that this album is a bona fide crowd pleaser, with nothing even coming close to being comparable, well, that is,......

Photo by Lush.i.ous via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Speaking of that 14-car pile-up this morning on the 101 freeway, how about this fact via the Daily Breeze? There's a near $11-billion price "cost to society" due to car crashes according to a study called "Crashes: What's the Cost to Society?" According to the study -- conducted on behalf of the American Automobile Association by the transportation policy firm Cambridge Systematics --......

UPDATE: Damn it, it's confirmed: A press release issued by the actor's spokesperson Wednesday said: “Patrick Swayze has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and is currently undergoing treatment. Patrick’s physician Dr. George Fisher states The Good news? ‘Patrick has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far. All of the reports stating the timeframe of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue. We......

"...And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming" by kpe II via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Newly elected state speaker, a Democrat named Karen Bass who was raised in Los Angeles, has made friends on both sides of the aisle, the LA Times said. She is the first African-American to assume the top spot and has some pretty lofty goals, including providing healthcare and improving education. Wait, those are things EVERY......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on LAist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Missy Higgins, with an album that is available now. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a week. If you're interested in advertising on LAist or any other site in our network, check out our online mediakit.......

Live, from in front of our television set, it's LAist's Oscar night liveblog extravaganza. I've spent the hours preceding tonight's telecast half-assedly getting ready by drinking beer, making brownies, and marveling over how few movies I actually saw this year (yet again.) I've stocked the larder with movie-going snacks, like popcorn, junior mints, and Twizzlers (sorry, this Canadian cannot do Red Vines; they taste like candles). Last night some amped up pitch gal with a......

"Banksy phone booth crashes Downtown LA?" by xxjetlab via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Five are dead and one person was hurt in an apparent murder-suicide in Yorba Linda, close to the Richard Nixon Library. A 14-year-old called in to report that his father had shot him. Police later found that the gunman shot his wife and 3 of his children before turning the gun on himself. As we have pointed out before,......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on LAist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Kanye West at the Staples Center, the third show they've added in L.A.! Other People's Love Letters, the book where you can see 150 love letters you were never meant to see. Joe Jackson's Rain, available now on Amazon.com. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a......