Through the hallway of shatterproof glass

Lately I have found myself going to see a lot of music. I was decidedly burnt out on going to shows at the end of my tenure in San Francisco, but despite all of my complaining (expensive drinks, annoying crowds and the inevitable sore feet) its something I quite enjoy.

I checked out The National at The Wiltern the other night. It was grand. I haven't listened to much of them, but they put on a good show. I didn't feel like taking any photos but you can see some here

The tickets were compliments of the lovely Heather Ryan to whom I am forever indebted. I also ran into some blasts from the past, which is always nice. And I must say that The Wiltern green room had a rather diverse offering of soda (Diet Dr. Pepper AND Country Time Lemonade in a can). I suppose such things are only exciting to me...

Anyway, I had also heard that Band of Horses was playing a private show at The Hollywood Forever Cemetery. I thought maybe it was not in the cards for me to attend, but I got a last minute text from Mr. Awesome, Dan Hadley saying he had been able to get me on the list! I had 20 minutes to get across LA during rush hour to make the show. I don't know how I did it, but I made it before the show started. And what a show it was!

WOW. It really was just one of the coolest things I have ever seen. The show was in the chapel mausoleum on the cemetery grounds. There were only about 100 people there and the band played acoustic. So it was just right. And Dan did an amazing job on the lights, which truly made it that much more rad. I don't really know who the other people were that were in attendance, but it seemed to be a mixture of fans, bored fashionistas and record label types who stood nervously in the back incessantly checking their iPhones.

I kept thinking that it was a pleasure to be there and not have to work. Or do anything, really except sit back with a glass of wine and listen. They played only for about an hour and in addition to many of their beloved songs they did a cover of Gram Parson's "A Song for You". Which was amazing. Its one of those songs that I have been randomly hearing everywhere. I have often lamented that the Parsons version reveals how trashed his voice was by the time he recorded that song. You can hear 1000 cigarettes and late night parties in his voice. But the Band of Horses version was flawless.

A very dear friend has pointed out that one of the ways to find happiness is to simply appreciate simple things. And this was one of those things. I was so thankful to Dan who went out of his way to get me into the show and I guess I was just glad I got to see it. I know I am super gushy. But it was one of the many examples of awesome that are out there for us to pay attention to. So yeah. Good couple of days.