Photo by Ellen Tunney via LA Weekly
Just got back in from Fountains of Wayne’s acoustic show at Largo. First off some words about Largo. It’s great to see music in a place that really lives and breathes music. It’s the perfect venue for people that love music, and want to actually pay attention to the artist performing rather than listening to bored scenesters gossip through the new songs.
Those of us lucky enough to have seen a show at the old Largo will forever miss it. The intimacy of that venue could only be matched by top artists stopping by your apartment and playing some songs on your couch. Until this happens we’ll keep the old Largo as a fond memory, and support Flanagan and Largo at their new location, the Coronet Theater on La Cienega.
My first impression was.. well actually my first impression was No Booze?? At first I thought they were going for that old family-owned movie theater vibe with the chocolate chip cookies and coffee for sale, but rest assured, the liquor license is on it’s way. You can bet your shillelagh that a guy named Flanagan is not going to go too long without a liquor license. My second impression was that the theater room was actually a lot smaller than I had expected, which means no matter where you’re sitting, you’re still really, really close to the stage. There’s also a small room that I didn’t get to poke my head into, and artists like Ben Lee are playing shows there. I couldn’t take any photos of the show due to the “no photography” rule, so here’s a picture taken from LA Weekly of Flanagan in front of the Coronet Theater. I know what you’re thinking. Where the hell did he get a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee in LA? Ellen Tunney if you’re out there please clue us in.
The show was good. It was a night of harmonies, 9th chords, key changes, and pop melodies. Mike Viola opened the show accompanied by Kelly Jones. The songs were great, interesting, and their harmonies were excellent. Kelly Jones has that Juliana Hatfield type voice that makes any lead vocal sound perfect. Not that Viola needed it, he was in top form and worked the crowd well. The highlight was when he and Kelly stepped in front of the mics to go all acoustic for us. I’d like to see more of that.
I’ve seen Fountains of Wayne live countless times (like 3) and they never disappoint. I was expecting this show to be a bit more downtempo, and focus more on the genius song craftsmanship that these guys are known for. Instead they seemed to want to “rock out” the same way they would if they had their plugged in instruments. The slower songs were the highlight, “Hackensack, Troubled Times, and even Radiation Vibe.” As far as the uptempo songs, the newer songs chugged along, but songs like Red Dragon Tattoo and Bright Future in Sales really got the crowd going.
After I realized that I wasn’t going to get the well-polished lesson in songwriting I head expected, I started to appreciate the fact that I was watching these guys just jam on the stage. False starts, guitar malfunctions, jokes about New Jersey.. it was all pretty cool. In the end my only real issue with the show was that Chris Collingwood’s shirt for the first part of the set made him look a little like Bob Saget.
I’d be interested to hear what other longtime FOW fans throught about the show. And hey, Jody was hammered right? He knows he’s not Ronnie Wood right? Just checking.
