I didn't want to leave LA. I was okay with leaving the Super 8 though.
We left from the MyStudio office Thursday afternoon, which is a platinum launchpad because the secretary is cute and there are cookies and inspiring things like platinum plaques lying around. We packed into a Ford Escape (?) with no cd player and spent the remainder of the afternoon going to banks, costume stores and other random locations t0 get V for Vendetta masks, grab cash etc. The drive was long, and no stereo was rough (at least Joel and I didn't digress into singing Fashion Nugget acapella), but we rolled into LA that night without much adventure. We pulled into the wrong Super 8 first, and then went to a different part of Hollywood to the right one.
Roscoes chicken and waffles ensued and we passed out to be 100% for the show while our road manager got plastered at a bar downstairs with free hotdogs. I was asleep first, while Epidemic and Carnegie watched Taxicab Confessions (depressing! This one guy was a cop and he slept one hour a night because he saw demons and his girlfriend wouldn't marry him...). I was woken up later by Carnegie discovering our showcase was an Interscope conspiracy and the headlining band (Carney) was already signed to Interscope! Like 48 hours before the showcase they were added to the site.
I woke up and hit the continental breakfast (wackest CB ever) and listened to Phoenix on my ipod. We ran around LA most of the day getting our props at costume stores (our glowing gloves are amazing). We had shady pizza and got in a documentary about that one Jewish dance everyone knows (??) where they lift you in the chair and Epidemic explained about how his life was back when he was kosher. TTL was closed, prob cuz WMC.
Soundcheck was several hours late as usual. The venue was located next to Hollywood's Museum of Death so we shyed away from leaving. Carney blocked off half the VIP with Reserved for Carney signs so we stole the remaining VIP booth and stuck a case of PBR in it with a Silver Medallion sign.
Sound and lighting was platinum, and there were dozens of models rolling around so we kicked it and went back to the room to assemble props and drink PBR before the show. We were on stage first, so it wasn't packed but it was a decent crowd. We sounded amazing, and the show went on well with the exception of me putting on my gloves too late in the intro. There was a catwalk in front of the stage and I went out there on Camera and Centerfold and lost tempo because the house music was delayed from monitors somehow and confused me, but everything else went perfect, girls yelled because you could see me change costumes behind the white screens etc. The film and photo crews were amazing, they hit every angle and really gave it the full treatment which was tight. We're a great act to film and photo because we do a lot, we have a lot of positioning and moves and various blocking that allows for lots of cool imagery opportunities, and they definitely took advantage... Can't wait to see the footage it looked absolutely stunning on the screens. We get it all Monday for internet broadcast at MyStudio.net!
The stage and catwalk were about 60 feet from the audience because of the fashion show setup so it was very impersonal, but we got so much props and pictures after the show, I felt comfortable about connecting to the audience. I like to pick people and sing to them during the show, it helps me, but this one that wasn't a real possibility.
After us was a band called Casxio and they we're a pretty terrible Maroon 5 knockoff (sorry guys) and they had nothing but silence in between songs and it was awkward and people left. If we'd had that second spot at their timeslot we would have killed it even harder, there were a good 400 more people there. The deejay after was also terrible (overdubbing the new BEP, which is a super banger, with "this is the song thats been burning up the charts!!!" and other super corny talk), but then Carney went on and they're not only nice kids but super talented. They do a festival blues, rock type of music and they're extremely good at it. It wasn't really the right setting, the crowd was more interested in stuff like us and LMFAO, we we're the only band that really fit the vibe of the show. The fashion show after was awesome, the models we're real models (none of this Scottsdale bullshit), the brands were hot, the music was all JUSTICE and Aeroplane and hard electro and I was thoroughly impressed. Classixx we're djing the art portion outside and they killed it pretty hard too, all indie, funky electro and remixes.
We got extremely faded, we found the one bartender who was in a band and he poured us a half bottle of grey goose in cups for 21 bucks (all the cash we had) as opposed to $10 beers (LA jesus). We ended up at some weird burger place that put chili on everything and walked back to the hotel. Nothing super exciting, but we have a bunch of meetings coming up. I'm very happy with the new show, we have it split into sections. We're gonna drop Camera (its such a banger, but its just not right for live) and add Studio 54 and that'll be good. I met Heat Rock, who produced Studio 54, at the show, we look forward to doing a new project with him and his production partner, their music is hot.
All in all, great first out of town show, can't wait to see the footage!
Side note about LA radio:
LA radio is killing it, I must have heard Kid Cudi literally every time we turned on the radio, tons of LMFAO, Lady Gaga, electro and baltimore breaks, and even Ya Boi's new single (which sounds like 90% like Silver Medallion). They're really really on point out there, I was impressed.
