Cheap Trick - House of Blues - Feb 25, 2010

Cheap Trick
House of Blues
West Hollywood, CA
February 25, 2010

I had the honor of seeing the legendary Cheap Trick for my first time at the House of Blues on the world famous Sunset Strip last night. A nice intimate venue to see a band that I've been adoring since I was a little girl. Going into the show I was worried Cheap Trick would fall into my Motley Crue disappoint category... You see I went to Cruefest 2 this year and was massively underwhelmed by the lack of performance Motley Crue gave. However, Cheap Trick exceeded all expectations.

The beginning of their set threw out quite a few hits like "If You Want My Love" and "I Want You To Want Me" which cleared the hit-seekers out of the room early and left an audience full of die-hard fans. If you stuck around you got to hear tracks from their new album, The Latest, and other goodies such as "Heaven Tonight." Smiles couldn't be wiped from anyone's face at this point. And then Cheap Trick hit us with power play of "Surrender", "Dream Police" and "Auf Wiedersehen" to end the night (appropriately, of course).

The energy exuded onstage from all four original band members was uncanny; Rick Nielsen was full of stage jokes & banter between each song, Robin Zander's sport coat would've made Mrs. Jones (designer for Duran Duran, The Killers, etc.) proud, and they even had special guest Jason Faulkner playing guitar onstage with them. What a treat! Needless to say it was hard to tell it wasn't still 1978. Especially when Rick brought out his famed caricature double-neck guitar!

They still have quite a few tour dates ahead of them this year, visit http://www.cheaptrick.com to find out where you can see Cheap Trick next. Or if you're attending SXSW this year - come join me for another dose of the Trick. It'll be worth the crowd, guaranteed. ~ Chelsea Schwartz

The Pee Wee Herman Show

I woke up this morning - a day when most of America is attending Super Bowl parties and watching the game, the commercials, and the half-time - and I decided to do something different. Today was the last day of a four week run at Club Nokia for The Pee Wee Herman show. I hadn't yet seen the show and knew I'd have a great shot at rush tickets being that the Super Bowl was on. I was right. The drawing occurred at 3pm and my ticket was drawn first. Yes! I was on my way to see Pee Wee Herman in person.

This stage show was incredible. The entire set from Pee Wee's Playhouse was represented, all the characters and all the FUN *screams*. Oh yes, today's secret word was FUN *screams*. Updated jokes, even some poking fun at Paul Reuben's himself. We even got cartoons and educational films!

Lets step back into the 80s, I was a little girl sitting on the floor in the living room glued to Pee Wee's Playhouse. My favorite part? Jambi. Man, all I wanted was to have my own wish granted by Jambi. Mekka lekka hi, mekka hiney ho. I wanted to be the luckiest girl in all the world and share my luck with everyone.

Fast forward back to present day, here I am able to chant those magic words in front of Jambi himself. I started to think about what a childhood dream come true this was and then realized that Pee Wee was right from the beginning. How come? Because all my childhood wishes from back in the day have come true. To semi-quote Pee Wee, I am the luckiest girl in the world.

So to Pee Wee Herman & Paul Reubens I would like to say, THANK YOU. Thank you for the laughter, the faith, the luck, and an amazing Sunday afternoon.

Reviews In A Hurry

My world is a scrambled chaotic bliss lately of nothing but tons of music and not enough writing. And thus, a new column by me is springing from it. "Reviews In A Hurry", it's inspired by my quick scans through all the submissions I get sent in the mail. Without further ado, I give you my first impressions of my latest round of albums that have come across my desk:

Simian Mobile Disco - Temporary Pleasure: While the Bloody Beetroots new album, Romborama, is a little more over the top and in your face, Simian Mobile Disco's new album Temporary Pleasure is the perfect blend of dance beats, melody and chilled awesomeness. More importantly SMD's album doesn't make me want to strangle my co-workers (unlike the new Bloody Beetroots). Album Highlights: "Cruel Intentions" and "Audacity of Huge"

All Leather: It's pure nails on a chalkboard, all the way through. Whoa. No.

Sally Shapiro - My Guilty Pleasure: It's a quiet dance party, perfect for those who want to get into a little groove while drifting off to sleep? It's a solid record for those mellow nights at home when you're cuddled up with a good book. Uneventful otherwise.

The Blakes - Souvenir: Here's an artist whose name keeps popping up on my radar, but didn't know one person who'd actually heard the music to justify it's claims. The album reminds me a bit of High Voltage favorites Hymns mixed with The Beatles' harmonies and features tons of irresistible 3 minute indie-folk rock ditties. Album Highlights: "Basket", "Little Bit About You", and "Music Together"

Ginger Wildheart

Ginger Wildheart, what a talented individual. Now here's a guy who eats, sleeps and bleeds music.

I recently got the pleasure of watching two intimate solo performances from The Wildhearts frontman Ginger here in LA (July 16th @ Viper Room and July 17th @ El Rey). He put together a stellar band (Michael Butler - Jetboy, Scott Lipps, and Billy Morrison - Camp Freddy) with no notice and after only 3 days of rehearsals as a band killed it. It felt as though they had been playing together for years and all of them shared an excitement to be performing together which is both unique and refreshing these days.

Ginger pulled out a collection of material from his solo albums and various Wildhearts discs. The tunes translated live like they were recent radio hits and for the first time in a very long time I watched two separate Los Angeles audiences become extremely engaged and excited during a set. That, in itself, is a rare and missed quality to this Texan.

With the state of the music industry constantly shifting these days, it's very relieving to watch a band exude energy, ignite excitement and just plain out rock. It shows that no matter how many people insist on downloading albums free and no matter how much record labels aren't willing to take risks that at the end of the day music overcomes all and will survive.

Ginger - way to go. Hope you come back to LA soon.

I Can't Stop The Beat

I've got a couple of albums I can't stop spinning right now and felt the need to talk about them further on this space.

1. Cage The Elephant - Cage The Elephant: These San Diego "hipsters" are really leaving quite the impression everywhere they go. Their debut album has a good four singles (at least) on it and their live show doesn't disappoint. On top of that, the tunes stick in your head for days -- which is why I barely take a break from listening to this disc.
Key Tracks: "In One Ear", "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked", and "Back Against The Wall".



2. Band of Skulls - Baby Darling Dollface Honey: British rockers that will surely take America by storm if Shangri-La Music (Home to other artist sensations such as The Duke Spirit & Amazing Baby) & myself have anything to say about it. Their brand of blues-rock is simply irresistible. Think a bastard child of a nasty divorce by The White Stripes & The Raconteurs.
Key Tracks: The entire album!

- Chelsea Schwartz