Never been to a show at a cemetery before...guess I can check that one off the list. Friday's Glasvegas show at the Masonic Lodge inside the Hollywood Forever Cemetery was a good time for many reasons. I'm not goth enought to be THAT excited about just being in a cemetery but I have to admit it was quite peaceful and beautiful and not spooky at all. The sun had already set but there was still some light over the trees while we ate our takeout food (Mario's Peruvian!) and drank a large pale ale wrapped in its brown paper bag (classy!) in my phonebooth of a car before the show. After debating pouring out some of the brew for our new dead homies (RIP Katz! You must be loved to have a full picture of yourself carved on your tombstone) we wandered up to the Masonic Lodge. The caretaker must have been busy diggin ditches as about 7 of us walked right in without anyone taking our tickets. Score! (even though we already had paid $25 each, it still felt like a surprise freebie)
The Lodge itself was really quite cool. Don't think of a lodge...think more like a 1920's movie stars Hollywood hills home with its garden courtyard surrounded by long, lighted palm tree trunks and a stairway that leads up to the "antechamber". We grabbed a Newcastle (or wine...both $5) and walked up to said antechamber where we found the small soldout crowd waiting to be let in to the main performance hall. The large, old room with its woodfloors held a fireplace on one side, groups of chairs strewn about for people to relax and a table of merch apparently being sold by Geraldine herself (the star of Glasvegas' most popular song). Not sure why she gave up the social worker gig. I should've asked. After not too long we were welcomed into the darkly lit main hall where we took a comfortable seat along the side of the room and waited for the Glasvegans to start.
As we waited, it dawned on me how excited I was to be seeing a band I liked in a new venue in Los Angeles. Not that I've been to every theater and hall in Southern Cal, but I've been to enough to make this one feel special...almost to the point that I thought I was in a new city. Definitely reminded me of when I moved to NYC and I got to try out all the venues I had heard about from afar. Plus, I'm a sucker for concerts taking place in unique venues and/or old (semi-) historic buildings...just adds to the ambience. I believe this was the 3rd concert they've had at the Masonic Lodge (Lykke Li and Iron + Wine played in the past few months).
Glasvegas turned out to be just the Glas- part of the band as only half the quartet (James and Rab) played a very mellow set for us. I was perfectly in the mood for the quieter Glasvegas but there were a few angry fans who eventually left when the guys started playing the normally upbeat favorites (Geraldine, Daddy's Gone, etc) in the same somber tone. Good riddance...I can understand disappointment but you're still there to see the band perform THEIR songs the way THEY choose. Maybe they didn't want to wake the Ramones or George Harrison...or melt the ice sculpture. Don't worry though...they'll be back with the full band sooner or later. And when that day comes and you are watching them from the last row of the Nokia Theater you'll wish you were back in the cemetery.
Setlist:
'S.A.D Light'
'A Little Thing Called Fear'
'It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry'
'Flowers & Football Tops'
'Stabbed'
'Geraldine'
'Cruel Moon'
'A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss)'
'Daddy's Gone'
'A Little Thing Called Fear'
'It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry'
'Flowers & Football Tops'
'Stabbed'
'Geraldine'
'Cruel Moon'
'A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss)'
'Daddy's Gone'
1 comment:
Thanks for posting that. I was at the show the other night and loved every minute of it. The video totally captures the spirit of the evening. I saw them play a few months back at the Troubadour, where the show was a wall of sound. I was really curious whether they would reign it in for the show at the Masonic Lodge or blow the windows out of the place. I thought it was amazing!
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