Monday, July 24

Gnarls Barkley...what the !!!!!!!


So, Last night I went to a show at Avaland, I believe was the name of the place. One of my L.A. buddies who is great about doing thangs..ie...going to concerts....she is dedicated and I'm grateful, had an extra ticket. It's very hard in this line of work to make plans, yet we continue to try. So we wound up with two extra tickets. We sold two. It always feel so strange, seedy even, acting as a scalper, but we sold those bad boys. Whispering out the sides of our mouths "tickets, tickets anybody need a ticket." Scandalous. What a sense of accomplishment, seriously.

Gnarls Barkley is the group. Now I'm all.....Who? and What? But whatever I'll go,because I'll try anything once..except anything that requires ingestion through the nose or by needle....never say never they say....I'm sayin' never. Never!!!!!!!!! not willingly at least. But I was game for a Sunday night concert. So I went. And what I found out was, Gnarls Barkley consists of Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo(formerly of the hip-hop group, Goodie Mob). I am so pleased I am an individual who goes with the flow, because had I turned my nose up at the unfamiliar and refused to go, I would have missed this cool ass show. Author, Author to that singing and rapping man...Cee-Lo. I'm so pleased he is out doing thangs'. Touring and earning a living. Good for him. Because I don't know how well his solo album sold, but I sure as hell enjoy it.

The band, which changes with the tide, the only constant being Danger Mouse and Cee-lo entered the stage decked out in Emergency room gear. Doctors and Nurses and orderlies...Oh my!!!! There was a cellist and a few violinists, bass guitar player, background singers, all decked out Emergency room style. My friend informed me they come out in different costumes every show. An outline of a gun with a heart extended from it was the stage decor of choice for this Peace and Love promoting duo. As they entered the stage....a funky rendition of Dr. Feelgood played, how nice. I didn't know any of the songs, had no prior exposure, whatsoever,yet enjoyed it nonetheless. And music really does have the power to unite the masses, because that was the strangest yet most interesting mix of an L.A. crowd I've experienced to date. From corny frat boys to grunge kids to women with mohawks to scandalous women in halters and then back again. I love diversity but there is still a very apparent difference in seeing a concert in the east versus the west. Poor folks from Los Angeles really lack human interaction skills. It's sad and whack. Had the same concert been in New York, the pulse of the audience would have been bumpin'. There are some definite intimacy issues plaguing the masses here in Sunny Southern Cali. It's kinda gettin' on my nerves. Especially since I'm not coming to a solid enough understanding of how guarded and detached from human emotion all these HUMANS are. It's weird. But the concert was still quite entertaining. Short, as Gnarls Barkley, only has one album out, but good. I look forward to seeing this very eccentric duo perform again. Hopefully in an amphitheatre with a more loving group.

I just realized I didn't address the kind of music this is....Mmmmm let me see. I'd say it's some kind of strange fusion of soul, rock, electronica and plain out old fashion madness. And I love plain out old fashion madness, it's best for creating wonderful works of art.