Sunday night I went to see Goldfrapp live at the Orpheum Theater downtown, on tour for their new album Seventh Tree.

This theater is BEAUTIFUL. It’s so classic and ornate…apparently it’s just been renovated. Everything is lined with gold or adorned with stained glass. It’s a true art deco treasure. It’s filled with vintage peacock statues, chic red velvet chairs, plush seashell couches in the lobby, and the walls are covered in sculptural forms. Everywhere you look are thoughtfully glamorous details…carved faces and swirl designs in the railings, golden fleur-de-lis wallpaper, glowing blue corridors with stained glass exit signs, and mermaids in the chandeliers. The ceiling alone was pure eye candy!

And these were our seats…the best in the house! Couldn’t believe it! I could see EVERYTHING. I could see Allison Goldfrapp’s glittery face paint, and all her facial expressions, the details of everyone’s costumes, as well as the notes on the stage, everything backstage…and if I turned around, I could see the sea of faces…almost what it must have looked like from onstage. We were perched just over the edge of the stage, but jutting out far enough that nothing was cut off.

During the second song, A&E;, Allison actually looked up, raised her wine glass and toasted me! She looked straight at me…and that is when I first realized that she could hear my cheering and see me dancing, because I was so freaking close!


The concert was AMAZING! They sounded so good! They played all the songs off Seventh Tree, and a few from Supernature. The crowd was wild when she played Ooh La La and Number 1.

The scene was folksy mixed with carnival chic. The harps and violins added a unique lyrical magic, while Allison Goldfrapp danced around the stage bare foot in a fashionable clown dress, before a maypole topped with deer antlers.

It was such an awesome night!!!!!!!!!

Photos courtesy of http://www.laorpheum.com, http://www.goldfrapp.com

Coldplay opened their tour for Viva la Vida last night in LA and the show was awesome!! Chris Martin has a great concert persona—he’s a fiery ball of energy, and he dances like a total spaz…so much so that he was audibly out of breath during several of his songs. He predicted at the start of the show, “I can tell this is gonna be a good one,” and it unmistakably was…especially when he announced that the band was bored of being up on stage, and they all ran out deep into the audience and climbed the stairs way up into the crowd.

People went absolutely wild….and, unbelievably, here comes Coldplay, trekking up right next to our seats in such a HUGE theater—what are the chances?!!!!! They chose a spot right near me, and it was so close I could see the sweat on Chris Martin’s face as he sang “Yellow”!!! Completely amazing.

There were bulbous big screens hanging from the ceiling that showed optically tweaked live video, and glittery butterflies dropped from the ceiling during the last song, “Lovers in Japan” as scenes of Osaka–streets I used to walk though, right near where I lived (couldn’t believe it!!)–flashed behind the band. I was dancing like mad all night…I had really been wanting to see Coldplay live for such a long time and their funky energy was contagious.

I’m loving Viva la Vida as much as the previous albums. I was completely charmed by the romantically poetic lyrics, especially “42”, “Lost?”, “Lovers in Japan” and “Viva la Vida”. This album plunges into a more eclectic direction with compositionally daring instrumental sequences paired with interesting melodies that feel more artistically charged and risky. What a great night.

Coldplay Track List for July 14th, 2008 in Los Angeles:

Life in Technicolor / Violet Hill / Clocks / In My Place / Viva la Vida / 42 / Yes / The Scientist / Chinese Sleep Chant / God Put a Smile Upon Your Face / Square One / Speed of Sound / Trouble / Lost / Strawberry Swing / Yellow / Death Will Never Conquer / I’ll Fix You / Lovers in Japan > Reign of Love. Encore: Death and All His Friends

Sunday night was the Tori Amos American Doll Posse concert. It was AMAZING!!!!!!!! Tori was SPECTACULAR, as usual!
The show was at the new Nokia theater downtown. For the tour she has been opening as different ADP personalities….I was so curious as to who she would be Sunday….turned out to be Isabel, Pip, and of course Tori. She opened with “Yo George” and it was amazing from there forward. Her energy was overwhelming…and it changed each time she transformed into different characters….when she came out as Pip in black spandex the entire mood of the show shifted away from the mellow, cool, and politically-charged persona of Isabel, to Pip’s angry, aggressive, and daring rocker-girl persona.

Our seats were in the front and dead center, so that was fantastic! She actually played a lot of older music which was incredible because the last couple tours I’ve been to haven’t done too much of that. Her personality was also completely different–last time for the Beekeeper tour she was chatty, glamorous and feminine…this time she was strong, rockin’ out and intellectual. She just played solid sets…for 2.5 hours! It was absolutely incredible, not that I expect anything less from Tori Amos. I didn’t bring my camera, but I was able to grab some cell phone pictures off ToriAmos.com from the concert.



Out.