Have fun tonight everyone

November, 27 2007 at Naked Angels (Tuesdays @ 9)
St. Nick’s Pub, 8450 W. Third Street, Los Angeles, California 90048

So I though I'd post about last night's show. It wasn't your typical CR show at all. In fact I thought I was in the wrong place at first because the guy at the downstairs bar didn't know anything about a band playing. He directed me upstairs though where there was a show going on. Turns out that every week a bunch of writers and actors gather and read/perform snippets of plays or books or whatnot. There are no props or anything, the actors just sit on chairs on the stage and read from scripts that they've been given that night. Having had no idea what I was in for I enjoyed most of the performances. There were definately some talented writers in the audience, one of which was the guys friend Peter (he filmed a lot of the documentary). I though his play was one of the funniest, particularly because of the actors who read it. Anyhow they did two performances (usually about 10 pages of script) and then Adam and Eric came out and sang Trumpet. Shapenew remarked to me that it was the first time she'd seen a reaction from the audience during that song and I agreed. Adam introduced it as a song about prayer and masturbation and when they got to the chorus everyone cracked up each time. It was pretty great to see a good reaction. After that they left the stage and then there were about two more performances. Then A and E came back out and did EUTS with Adam on the harmonica of course. It was pretty great (even with a chatty Cathy in my right ear. Grr). Two more performances and then the boys came out for their last song which was True Hollywood Romance. It was nice to hear that one since I'm pretty sure it's been quite a while since I last heard it. And that was that!

It was pretty cool to experience something like that since it was so new and interesting. I only wish we could have heard more than three songs! The audience (most of whom had never heard CR before) seemed to really like them so that's great.

Anyways, looking forward to the MBar in a week and a half.

cheers briel! sounds like a v interesting evening, indeed it does...wish i lived near some naked angels.

Great account, Briel! The evening's emcee, John (I think?), announced that Common Rotation will be on an NPR (National Public Radio) program this Friday. I did not catch the name of the show, but it should be track-downable. It was also very interesting watching the audience react to Common Rotation. This was not a crowd primed to listen to music, though most of them were respectful and quiet -- it was SRO and Briel and I had the bad luck to be stuck near the door, where a couple of people were yakking, but mostly the audience was very attentive. Mostly, the crowd seemed to expect (and to a large extent, received) verbal scripted comedy, so they responded to the songs, especially "Trumpet," with a lot of appreciative laughter. Adam and Eric (they were the lineup) played off the crowd reaction, with Eric playing an instrumental bridge that's usually not there on "Trumpet" and Adam waltzing alone, explaining, "There's nothing wrong with waltzing alone." "EUTS" of course isn't comedic, so the audience listened extra-attentively and responded enthusiastically at the end. "True Hollywood Romance" has some very funny lyrics, but I've never seen the audience seize those words as they did here. Funny pre-show story: like Briel, I wandered around the bar and didn't find anybody who knew what I was talking about. (You'd think with two separate people wandering around and asking, they'd have figured it out by the second one ...) Finally, I was told, "Oh, maybe it's part of the theatre upstairs." I get upstairs and ask about "a band" and everyone there looks askance. "Oh, we wouldn't have a band ..." I said, "It may be just two guys and a guitar." "Oh, maybe yes, then." Finally I was assured by that yes, Common Rotation actually would be performing. (I was further reassured when I saw Adam come through the door; from my point of view, Eric just magically appeared when it was time to perform.)

It was an interesting experience on several levels. One, I love the band in all its incarnations, I love Jordan Katz's musicianship, but it was fun to see Eric and Adam as a duo again (haven't seen that in years). Also, it was intriguing to see how this different type of audience responded (I should add that it was an extremely full house). For that matter, most of the scripted pieces were really good -- the one by (Common Rotation documentarian) Peter Stass, about a crime scenario that keeps reversing itself, was fairly hilarious, really well-plotted (and the actor playing the bad guy was a hoot).

So that's my report!

Shapenew

Hullo shapenew ...thankee kindly! I'd definitely be grabbing a seat here every week ... awesome fun. heeee a Magic Eric?

Thanks for the reports Briel and Shapenew, sounds like just my sort of evening, pity LA is so far away!

Thanks Briel and Shapenew, sounds like an entertaining evening. At the Leamington Spa show the guys sitting in front of us found Trumpet amusing too. I guess it's the kind of song that guys can relate to! When I die I hope I'm holding someones trumpet in my hand