LA Woman Photography

I attended the Concrete Blonde concert at the Troubadour on Wednesday, August 29, 2012.  I was thrilled to see one of my favorite bands in such an intimate venue.  The sold out crowd was treated to a very special evening.   The sound, set list selection and visuals all came together beautifully.

This is a band that cares about and respects their fans, evident by the well crafted set list, containing classic Concrete Blonde hits, rarities, covers and unexpected moments.  Like, when Bernadette Colomine came on stage as a guest vocalist to make Les Coeurs Jumeaux, from the Walking In London album, come to life!  Johnette commented that she didn’t think they’d ever played it live before.  Concrete Blonde was firing on all cylinders from James Mankey’s brilliant guitar playing to Gabriel Quezada’s thundering drums to Johnette’s powerful, goose-bump inducing vocals!  During the set, desert imagery of Joshua trees, stars and a full moon projected behind the band and complemented the music.

The audience had a large Virgo contingency who were treated to Happy Birthday, off of the Free album.  One of the birthday boys, Jason Bogart, joined the band to close out the evening with an especially rockin’ version of Still in Hollywood.  He is a talented artist who featured his art with Johnette’s at La Luz de Jesus earlier this year.  My blog post on that event is HERE.

Making their LA debut as the night’s openers, was Texas band, Menkena who set the mood with an atmospheric, shoegazey kind of good vibe.  I will definitely check them out again next time they are in town.  They also played with imagery projected behind them which added to the overall experience.
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