Bolt of Blue

The Sondre Lerche show last Sunday was amazing. He was losing his voice but I honestly could not tell. He sounded divine. It was a long night with 2 opening bands. He didn’t get on stage until 10pm and then played for over 2 hours. New songs. Old Songs. Sing a longs. Ballads. Rockers. It was a bit odd to see him up there with a full band and with the place packed with new casual fans. He also played a lot of new material that he’s recording with the Faces Down in Los Angeles as I type. He wanted to test it out. Very impressive. A big change from his early work as the songs are more rock edged and danceable. But they still have that Sondre charm of course.

We didn’t have the best spot. So photos turned out rather horrible. Posted a couple of the semi-decent, but still awful ones up at rock star… which has gone through a total redesign. After a lot of searching and testing, I finally found an almost perfect photo gallery script. I’m just relieved that I got something up that works, that I like, and that will make updating the site far easier and faster. It took a lot of tweaking and work but check it out and let me know what you think.

Back to Sondre’s show… here’s the set list from his site:
1 Tragic Mirror (solo)
2 Everyone’s Rooting For You
3 Minor Detail
4 The Curse Of Being In Love
5 Dead End Mystery
6 You Know So Well
7 Days That Are Over
8 Modern Nature
9 You Sure Look Swell
10 (I Wanna) Call It Love
11 She’s Fantastic
12 Airport Taxi Reception
13 If Not Now
14 Johnny Johnny Ooh Ooh
15 Boxing Day
16 Say It All
17 The Tape
18 Phantom Punch
19 After All
20 The Day I Die (solo)
21 Face The Blood
22 Well Well Well
23 Happy Birthday Girl
–
24 Suffused With Love
25 Dead Passengers
26 Human Hands
27 No One’s Gonna Come
28 Two Way Monologue

Random music thoughts.

In a week, I’m seeing Sondre at the Troubadour. I haven’t had a chance to get his new album yet. I suck.

Coachella is 4 weeks away.

Getting more and more excited.

Details are coming out about Madonna’s summer tour. She’s kicking it off at the Forum again.

21 May 2006
Great Western Forum, Inglewood, CA
Prices: $55 to $350
On sale 9 April 2006 at 10:00 a.m. PST

I’m probably going to wait… see how Coachella goes. And if I can’t resist, I’ll just get tickets the day of.

I love Susanna Hoffs. I’ve adored and admired her ever since I was a pre-teen obsessed with the Bangles. She’s still gorgeous and her singing voice has only gotten better with age.

She’s got an new album coming out. Under the Covers. A collaboration with Matthew Sweet where they cover their favorite pop songs from the 60′s. They already played Hotel Cafe early this month and I didn’t even know. Argh. That place is TINY. They are now going to play the Roxy on April 22. And I’m super tempted even if I have to go alone.

I forgot to mention two shows I recently went to. I saw Majandra Delfino perform at the Knitting Factory on the 3rd of this month. It turned out to be an enormously fun night. Majandra was pretty impressive. I wasn’t sure how she would sound live… Brendan Fehr and Nick Wechsler were there and I had a lot of fun talking with them. I have not yet seen the photos I took with them as they are on my friend’s camera. But I’ll post them soon, I hope, cause I hear they turned out really cute. Such sweet, down to earth, and unpretentious guys. Really very cool.

Also saw Sondre Lerche twice this past Monday. First, he performed at Amoeba Records and did a signing. Then he performed at the Knitting Factory a little later on. I’m glad I went to both because it showed me different sides to this young, talented performer. He really won me over. Granted, I love his album and was hoping he would be even better live… and he did not disappoint. At Amoeba he talked a lot more with the audience and was very funny… it’s always weird seeing a performance at Amoeba. The flicking of CD cases throughout the large space competes with the music being played but Sondre held his own. He just oozes this lovely and adorable charm and puts you in a good mood. The Knitting Factory was a more intimate setting. Instead of the sounds of CD cases knocking against one another, the rudeness of folks talking up a storm by the back bar where competing with Sondre and his acoustic guitar. At one point between songs, a man yelled very loudly for folks to shut the fuck up and give this guy a break. Everyone actually into the show cheered. Sondre blushed and thanked him. This didn’t really shut the jerks up for very long. But in the end, it didn’t matter. I had a smile on my face the whole time he performed. Just Sondre and his guitar. Impressing the heck out of almost everyone there. Photos will be posted one of these days. I promise.