Saturday, August 16th. 1:30 pm. It felt a little weird being at a club so early, and after the sunshine on the street it was so dark inside the Echo we almost couldn’t find the bar. Our eyes finally adjusted, and we ordered drinks and waited for Autolux, who stepped out on the stage with their own personal lights (as always). They started their set and sounded tighter then I have heard them before. Touring has done this band good. They went through about 45 minutes of their songs, leaving everyone in awe of such a big sound from a three piece band. When it was over, everyone had to take a step back from a set that good.
After Autolux tore apart the crowd and their equipment was cleared, some homemade amps were brought out and a drum set was set up in the front of the stage. Shellac began their set with a song in which the bass played the beat and the drums played the lead, and Steve Albini talking about a last broadcast for about 15 minutes. They ripped through their set looking like men who would be serial killers if it weren’t for music. Halfway through the band had an impromptu Q&A session, with fans asking for Shellac songs and Big Black songs. (All I can say is they do need more cowbell in their set.) The crowd was about to explode when they said it was time for them to go “because they are getting old and fat,” then they killed everyone with one last song.
We left the Echo and went to this really good fresh Vietnamese restaurant in LA called Gingergrass. We ordered way too much food for all of us to eat, but we did. All I can say is that the Lemongrass Chicken was amazing. (My girlfriend highly recommends the bo sate, and the coconut lime bars with lychee sorbet for dessert.) We stumbled out of the restaurant way too full and were off to Irvine to see Coldplay.
The tail end of Rilo Kiley’s set sounded great from the parking lot. (If the traffic wasn’t so bad getting in, we could have seen them.) After the long walk up the hill we found our seats just in time for Coldplay. The lights went down and the band went at it. Chris Martin ran around the stage like a mad man and those guys played their hearts out. I could feel the enjoyment they felt for playing those songs all the way back in our seats. After playing hit after hit it the show was finally over. Three hours later we were out of the parking lot and on our way home for a much needed rest.
