The Halloween show at the Time Travel Mart was unusual, not least because of the venue. The Time Travel Mart in Silverlake (east of Hollywood, north of downtown Los Angeles) is an odd little shop with posters on the wall explaining that certain things come from certain years and "dinosaur eggs" on display in one of the refrigerators. There are eclectic books for sale, old Highlights magazines (remember those from grade school?), an array of purple vinyl Ricky Martin lunchboxes and some mundane items like donuts and coffee.
This is the shop in the front room. There is a theatre space in back. It was explained before the show that the Time Travel Mart actually has an after-school tutoring program for neighborhood children. They also have a series of Readings by Dead Authors. How does this work (the authors being dead and all)? Well, on this Halloween, it consisted of Danny Strong portraying Washington Irving and a gentleman who's a regular cast member of the Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour, whose name I am sorry to say I cannot remember right now -- I think it's something like John Krakowski -- as Edgar Allan Poe.
Common Rotation tonight consisted of Eric, Adam (with glock) and Ken with cojone and shakers. There were no microphones, which seemed to make the CR guys really happy, and it was a seated audience, which meant no chatter about drink orders in the distance, which made me happy.
Common Rotation opened the performance with "Here We Go" (as, indeed, we did) with really great harmonies undiluted by artificial amplification, Adam on glock and Ken judiciously tapping the cojone.
Next up was "Drown Me Out," which I've heard Eric say at another performance is a response to other performers at the Santa Monica Promenade. Instrumentally, Eric was solo on guitar. Again, great harmonies -- Ken's contribution to this number was rhythmic nodding.
John then came out in costume and character as "Ed Poe," and did a dramatic reading of "The Raven."
Then Common Rotation was back on for "Satan Is Real," with Ken on cojone. Very big sound even without mics. They segued into "Gone Dyin'." Ken was very graceful on the cojone and the harmonies were (at the risk of repeating myself) great -- a really, really upbeat rendition of the song.
Then Danny Strong was on as Washington Irving, reading the last section of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman). When he finished, Danny and John did an in-character Q&A session -- that is, they answered questions as though they were Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe (they'd both studied their own characters, and each other's, on Wikipedia in preparation for this). It was pretty funny and both of them did a great job of ad-libbing.
Common Rotation came back on stage for the finale, the upbeat, campire-song-style version of "True Hollywood Romance" and closing with a cover of Tom Waits' "Innocent When You Dream," with Adam on glock and Ken on a sandy-sounding shaker. They seemed in really good spirits.
And then it took me three hours to get home through Halloween traffic in what is normally a twenty-minute journey, but that's another story
Shapenew
Satan Is Real - fabulous. haven't heard that for aaaaaaaages- I feel the need to go listen immediately