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Vaud & the Villains, The Mint

March 17, 2012 “Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future”. Turns out every Villain has a story, too. The “19-piece 1930s New Orleans Cabaret and Orchestra show” that goes by Vaud & the Villains seems to have stepped out of time to deliver us from ourselves. With the likes of The Animal, […]

Dumpstaphunk, The Mint

March 1, 2012 Dumpstaphunk is slippery, stinky, smelly, funked up stuff. It says so in the name. We get it, but just to make sure nobody misses the point, Nick Daniels III and Tony Hall lock up dueling basses at every D-phunk gig. The prowess of the players is unquestioned, the history and Neville legacy […]

Red Baraat, The Mint

February 25, 2012 The cultural reach of New Orleans music makes for a different kind of eclectic. Blender eclectic. Not every combination hits the sweet spot but the willingness to try anything out mirrors New Orleans resilience, roots and diversity to a tee. Where else could native Swedes Anders Osborne and Theresa Andersonn plant themselves […]

Honey Island Swamp Band, The Mint

February 10, 2012 You couldn’t miss it. She was vintage. All black and chrome. Gleaming under the streetlight. Probably mid-80s, but who knows. The guys had a bus. Rolling from gig to gig in comfort, if not style. Not flashy. The sight of that thing parked smack in front of the Mint on Pico (couldn’t […]

Galactic, Tipitina’s

December 31, 2011 Bill Graham spoiled me. The man knew how to throw a New Year’s party. 4-5 hours of cosmic Dead jams, epic substance abuse and 6,000 or so of my newest friends. The calendar would turn, Uncle Bobo would descend, Sugar Mag would kick in and all was right with the world. OK, […]

Dragon Smoke, The Mint

December 7, 2011 “Supergroups” are described by Wikipedia as one “whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups”, citing a 1974 Time article that such configurations are an “amalgam formed by the talented malcontents of other bands”. Wiki does not know all, but the concept of taking a bunch of […]

Stephen Stills, City National Grove of Anaheim

November 22, 2011 Some songs, some artists, never go away. That’s not always a good thing. Times change, everyone ages, life gets tougher or better, and we go on. Since I was probably all of 8 the first time I heard “For What It’s Worth”, I was too young to really understand it, but still […]

Return to Forever IV, Greek Theater

September 20, 2011 There are only so many seminal musical moments in one’s life, and the first time I saw Return to Forever live was one of them.  I felt as if my head cracked open and exploded from the inside.  But I digress. As a teen of the 70s, I was drawn (without explanation) […]

Babette Ho Benefit with Jackson Browne and Ben Harper, The Mint

September 19, 2011 A friend asked me to describe Ben Harper’s sound and the best I could come up with was world-infused, surf-influenced, rhythm, roots and soul.  Harper is a singer/songwriter/guitarist who defies description and has a relentless following (pun intended).  I’ve seen Ben Harper a few times – almost two decades ago in The […]