I was fairly happy with the results of the election though my enthusiasm was a bit subdued due to the tiredness I was experiencing from 4 nights of absolutely no sleep. From Halloween night to Monday night’s show in LA (which, dear reader, I will get to shortly) I was running full throttle. There really wasn’t much time for sleep and by the third day the old hurling mantra, “You can sleep when you’re dead” was on a constant loop in my brain like a personal trainer you want to punch out. These last four nights have brought back some memories of my Milwaukee Hurling days when the week started with Monday night tacos at the Landmark and didn’t end until Sunday night’s Round Robin location, bloodied and bruised from the field but feeling fantastic. Sleep was merely a hassle forgotten and I seriously thought at the time that I might just be 25 forever. It amazes me that I held down two jobs during the same time frame (one professional, one bartending) and I did very well at both of them.
I am obviously not 25 anymore.
As most of you know, Kevin and I tend to hang out at the Harp in Costa Mesa. The Harp is a bit of a Succubus in by the fact that it has (at least since I’ve been going there) some sort of draw to expatriates. Many of the regular clientele are from the UK and they tend to form a pretty tight knit group. One of these groups, or an off shoot of the conglomerate group, often goes to concerts in during the week. A lot of Fridays Kevin and I will go in and they will be talking about the great show they saw on the previous Monday or Tuesday. “Blah blah blah saw the Subways….” “blah blah blah Tokyo Police Club blah blah blah…” “Blah blah blah” (This is the point where you substitute ‘blah blah blah’ for English slang which I won’t even attempt due to the fact that I would get blasted for it’s inaccuracies by the very people I’m trying to mimic.) Every time I heard about one of these great shows I would feel a twinge of envy and inside whine to myself, “but I would have wanted to gooooooo.” Thankfully I didn’t outside whine or else I would have never been invited. Well, sort of invited.
As mentioned previously, I’m on Facebook. After the pub quiz a couple weeks ago, Dave and Andy had agreed to be my Facebook friends. Dave and Andy are two of the blokes (ha! I’m leaving it!) who go to the weekday concerts. When Andy posted on Facebook a few weeks back that he was going to see the Kaiser Chiefs in LA in November, I commented back “I want to go!” While this was sort of an outside whine, there were less ‘O’s in ‘go’ so therefore not as whiney. Anyhow, Andy talked to Dave and all of a sudden Kevin and I had successfully invited ourselves along. Since we were going to that show, we were properly invited to attend the Last Shadow Puppets a week earlier. Hurray!
Usually at this point of an entry and I usually tell you how awesome and great my such and such friend(s) are. While I do think Dave and Andy (and Fergie!) are awesome and great, I’m not going to tell you about it because they are British and will get big heads about it. You can’t go around having a Brit with a big head. They are apt to stick a flag in you and call you property of the Queen.
So yes! The Last Shadow Puppets! I’m a big fan of the Arctic Monkeys so when I had heard that one of its members formed a side project, I immediately bought the album. While the Last Shadow Puppets is distinctly different from the Arctic Monkeys, they are still incredibly good. Think over the top 70’s rock with a string section and an alternative twist and you might just have described them. Maybe.
The night before the show, I had gotten at best 4 hours of sleep. I was suppose to be the designated driver but seeing as I could hardly stand straight dead sober, it was agreed that Kevin would be doing the driving in my car. He’s such a champ. We met Andy, Dave and Fergie at the Harp around 6:30 PM and proceeded to drive up to LA. Now my car is a Nissan Sentra and doesn’t have a large backseat area. I was the shortest person by at least 3 inches but that didn’t stop me from calling ‘Shotgun’; it was my car after all. So now its Kevin driving, me in the passenger seat, and 3 long legged Brits crammed into the tiny backseat bench of my car. I can’t be the only one who thinks that sounds like the beginning of a joke. For the entire 45 minute drive Kevin and I said practically nothing while we listened to the barrage of shouting from the backseat.
“FASTER! FASTER! DRIVE FASTER!”
“Get your arse off me!”
“Can you please just put the iPod on random?”
(Over any small bump a thump is heard which is the result of Dave hitting his head on the ‘oh shit’ handle on the ceiling) “OW! OW! OW!”
“FASTER! DRIVE FASTER!”
“Oh, you should have merged over there mate.”
“FAST! FAST! FAST! DRIVE FAST!”
When we got to the Mayan, the 5 of us jumped out as though the Sentra was on fire. I was still giggling though.
The Mayan Theatre is in a very sad desolate area of downtown Los Angeles. Not much happens in the evening in downtown LA, very much a work there and get the hell out kind of vibe. The Mayan though, was pretty impressive. It was dark and ancient ruin-y. I read reviews online that slam the Mayan for its salsa nights, but since we weren’t here for salsa it really didn’t matter. They have three levels with a bar on each one. We settled up to the 2nd level bar, had a couple rounds of $7 Heinekens and waited for the show to begin.
Kevin, Fergie, and AndyUnlike the Wombats where the wait to actually see the Wombats seemed like a time vortex of wasted time, the wait to see the Shadow Puppets was incredibly quick. Or so it seemed. I was having a really good chat with Fergie about restaurants and we also met this girl who got into the Last Shadow Puppets the same way I did. I wish I remembered her name, but I’m crap, so sorry nice lady at the bar who also thinks Alex Turner is hot but way too young for us.
Opening ActWhen the show did begin we moved out to the main floor at the lower level. Since I’m shit at describing the actual show, I’ll just give you pictures.
As a matter of fact, that is a full stringed orchestra behind them.
I personally thought the show was excellent. They were fantastic. My only complaint was that it wasn’t long enough. Then again, I was having such a good time that it may have accelerated the time vortex.
The ride home was a lot more mellow, what with Fergie fast asleep, Dave consulting his iPhone for driving instructions and Andy in the “OW” seat but avoiding it by sticking his head out the window claiming to finally understand why dogs enjoy it so much.
Dave's iPhone (and the only photo that turned out that had Dave in it) and a sleeping Fergie.Next week the Kaiser Chiefs!
Hmm…and I wonder where my money has run off to…
