A fun evening was planned for those of us who braved the freeways on a weeknight to help celebrate Largo's first anniversary at the Coronet Theater. Although it was a short evening, it was packed with music and comedy. At the center of the show was The Section Quartet, who have not played L.A. for some time. Since their last visit, Leah had a baby so they had to manage without her. Daphne moved to Viola and... I can't remember the name of the violinist who replaced her. The band used a single microphone to amplify their sound (instead of hooking all of the instruments up) which they haven't done in years. That, combined with the warm (I believe omni-directional) vocal microphone that acts as the house microphone, made for a softer sound than usual. That sound fit the evening's entertainment as Grant Lee Phillips, Sam Phillips, Rob Dickinson (from The Catherine Wheel) and Jon Brion shared the stage with the quartet. Highlights for me included Sam performing Tom Waits' "Green Grass" and I think it was Rob doing Peter Gabriel's "Mercy Street". In between the performances, we were entertained by two music related comedians. Gruber, who did a wonderful vocal pantomime (yes I know, it can't be a pantomime if it is vocal) about a giant being served at Starbucks which segued into Randy Newman's "Short People" and Addi who made a bass guitar out of balloons and then played a song for us (AMAZING). You can check Addi out here: http://www.youtube.com/balloonbass . The evening ended with Grant, Rob, Jon and much of the crowd singing "California Dreaming". Eric told me later that they'd like to do these shows on a semi-regular basis. I can't wait for the next one.
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