| 07/06/03 Los Angeles, CA, Henry Fonda Theater |
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w/ M. Ward, Tim Kasher, The Golden Age |
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[setlist] it's a hit |
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[review] Dear Los Angeles, I hate you. Or at least driving on you. And the 101 exit is on the left? Thanks a shitload, Yahoo Maps and MapQuest. But enough about the drive. I just want to make it clear how much I hate driving from San Diego up to LA.. you know, so you can see how strong my Rilo love is that I would endure such hell. But the first show of a tour is always fun because of the anticipation and uncertainty of what the setlist will be like. Thanks to the internet and bootlegs, when I go to see one of my favorite bands, I often already have a pretty good idea of what they're gonna play. And that's cool, but being surprised is nice, too. So anyways, time for me to contribute to deconstructing any mystery. (Hey, I ain't forcing you to read!) The last few years, I've pretty much stuck to small shows, so I got
spoiled on being able to get right up the the stage. But not this time!
Doors opened at 7:30. I entered about 7:45 and already the area near
the stage was pretty much booked up. I checked out the balcony, but
even the best seats up there were taken, too, so I decided to stick
it out on the floor.. hoping maybe, just maybe, a bunch of those good-view
hogs were there just to see one of the openers and would leave before
the Kileys took the stage (but it didn't happen). When it was time for Rilo, the familiar (familiar to the obsessed fans, anyway) chords of "It's a Hit (Holiday For Hanging)" crept into the air. Here we go, this is my thing! The curtain stayed closed, however. Then after a few seconds the crowd (and spotlight operator) caught on that Jenny was standing alone with her guitar on the little mini-stage (whatever you call it) off to the side of the stage. Maybe it was nerves (biggest RK show to date), or rust (a few months since they played), but one part in particular tripped her up a bit. And damn, it seemed like one-third of the audience was taking pictures! Myself included. The final note of the song was emphasized by the band and quickly evolved into the extended intro to "Always", while Jenny scurried to join the rest of the band as the curtain raised on the main stage. Turns out they were just teasing, unfortunately, and the song ended with just the intro. After running through three songs off the last album, they dusted off the Blake chestnut "August". And soon we were treated to the live debut of "Jenny, You're Barely Alive". Later on, they did "Spectacular Views".. no, not that one, but the hidden track on Take-Offs one. It started out with just Blake, like on the album, but soon the band joined in. That was really cool. Then they bust out a song I never heard before. Apparently this was "Emotional", a 'new song' that has actually been around for a couple years but hadn't been played in a while. I liked it. Kind of a rockin' Cure "Pictures of You" vibe, but not really. The main set ended with a blast via "Spectacular Views" (the other one) and that crazy ending. After a few minutes of the crowd cheering for an encore, Jason the drummer came out and set up a box-looking thing.. turns out this was some instrument in the piano family. Blake came out and the two of them did "So Long", stripped-down like. Then for the last song, the band bust out a cover song, which I later found out was John Lennon's "Woman is the Nigger of the World". M Ward joined on guitar. Jenny was really strutting her stuff on this one. Definitely a fitting closer. - anonymous |
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[bootleg] Audience DAT recording. here's all the info... available for download via Bit Torrent encoded in FLAC (which is a lossless compression). |