Largo

Last Friday night I had the extreme pleasure of seeing Jon Brion's weekly show at Largo in Los Angeles. It was a wholly unique experience. I had heard his orchestral compositions and I had heard his pop music and I had numerous albums he had produced, but none of it prepared me for the ridiculousness of his live show. He was all over the place creating live acoustic drum loops, playing piano, keyboard, guitar and singing over them; playing the most beautiful solo jazz piano (Mood Indigo was a particular highlight); playing what sounded like old timey player piano tunes; playing shouted out requests and leading the whole audience in songs by the Beatles, Beach Boys, and Soft Cell's "Tainted Love"... and this was all in the first set! I was with middle agers so when the first set ended at 11:30 we split, but I'm going back this Friday and I intend to stay for the whole show. If any of you are interested in hearing what his live show consists of, check out the bootlegs at: http://www.fairfax-avenue.com/bootlegs.php I haven't gotten to listen to them yet, but it seems legit. Whoa!

PS- All of this is not to mention that at the beginning of the show, he brought out super surprise guests Flight of the Conchords who did their own 45 min set. It was amazing!