Last night, I forced a work colleague at ballpoint to accompany me to see my Austin friend Kathy McCarty's house concert in Echo Park.
We had such a marvelous adventure—first, we took the metro to the bus, and of course the bus had a fine collection of weirdos. The bus took us to Echo (No) Park(ing), where we walked up a hill to a stranger's house, the venue for the show.
I'd never been to a house concert in Los Angeles, only at my friend Tracy's house in Jersey City, meaning I'd never been the stranger who attends. But we weren't strangers long, as Kathy was there with her West Coast gal-pal posse, all interesting and smart people.
No one seemed inclined to adhere to the start time, and for a while, I worried a bit about getting home, but I kept reminding myself it was Friday night and I had nothing important to do in the morning. I forgot all about this once the music started.
First up was the local duo of John Hawkes (yes, the actor but once of Austin band Meat Joy) and Rodney Eastman, performing clever but not glib songs. Then there was a puppet show (really), and finally, Kathy played a combination of her own songs, Glass Eye songs, and Daniel Johnston songs.
The night felt like it belonged to a different time—bands playing in a group house in Austin or Dayton in 1985, teenagers along for the night, a cat wandering through the middle of the performance.
Before moving here, I'd heard the thing to do in LA is to go to house concerts, but damned if I know how one hears about them if one isn't Facebook friends with one of the performers. I'd do it again in a flash if I were just a bit more with-it and a lot less working-not-so-with-it.
Here's one of the songs Kathy sang, which she also sang at the memorial for Daniel Johnston, where she was accompanied by Jacob Schulze.
We had such a marvelous adventure—first, we took the metro to the bus, and of course the bus had a fine collection of weirdos. The bus took us to Echo (No) Park(ing), where we walked up a hill to a stranger's house, the venue for the show.
I'd never been to a house concert in Los Angeles, only at my friend Tracy's house in Jersey City, meaning I'd never been the stranger who attends. But we weren't strangers long, as Kathy was there with her West Coast gal-pal posse, all interesting and smart people.
No one seemed inclined to adhere to the start time, and for a while, I worried a bit about getting home, but I kept reminding myself it was Friday night and I had nothing important to do in the morning. I forgot all about this once the music started.
First up was the local duo of John Hawkes (yes, the actor but once of Austin band Meat Joy) and Rodney Eastman, performing clever but not glib songs. Then there was a puppet show (really), and finally, Kathy played a combination of her own songs, Glass Eye songs, and Daniel Johnston songs.
The night felt like it belonged to a different time—bands playing in a group house in Austin or Dayton in 1985, teenagers along for the night, a cat wandering through the middle of the performance.
Before moving here, I'd heard the thing to do in LA is to go to house concerts, but damned if I know how one hears about them if one isn't Facebook friends with one of the performers. I'd do it again in a flash if I were just a bit more with-it and a lot less working-not-so-with-it.
Here's one of the songs Kathy sang, which she also sang at the memorial for Daniel Johnston, where she was accompanied by Jacob Schulze.
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