Joseph Arthur Troubadour November 9, 2006 – The Pet Shop Boys – The Wiltern – November 8, 2006

There are few moments indeed in life when truly exhilarating musical moments are exhibited on stage, after all of the concerts Mr. A and I have attended in the last couple of years, I can probably count less than six such performances – Thursday night at the Troubadour Joseph Arthur and the Lonely Astronauts came on to the stage and rifled through the first four songs of Nuclear Daydream with precision, tight licks and energy leading to a full-tilt electrical crescendo with Electrical Storm. My God! Joseph has put together a fine group of musicians behind him, who keep up with his bright smile and pulsing emotional lyrics – belting out a wild rendition of one of the best songs on Nuclear Daydream: Electrical Storm. It went on forever and I for one couldn’t see the end coming, I was so wrapped up in the beat and sound, watching the guitarists, the drummer, the percussionist and Joseph melt, intertwine and make a great sound and lyrical montage. You could see on Joseph’s face and the rest of the members of the band that they had reached that point of no return that moment when sound and lyric had reached a zenith, an emotional black hole that swelled while capturing this voice and their backbeats. Drums, guitars, voice all swallowed up in a measured roar and then it ended. As I stood there mesmerized by this song I wanted to cry. Song ends – Devil’s Broom comes up and starts us off down another road.

Well here we were once again at the Troubadour. We had such a great time at this venue the last time we were there, when we saw Patti Smithperform her Horses anniversary concert with Lenny Kaye, her daughter and Flea – what an incredible concert that was, four hundred fans who were waiting in line to get in – and the incredible rendition of Birdland was heart stopping and another one of those moments when the crowd, musicians and air was tangled up in a maelstrom of energy – much what I felt watching Joseph and group playing Electrical Storm. I was really mesmerized. Unlike the Patti concert – there wasn’t a line when we arrived. It took us 3 hours to get into LA for this concert and the night before when we saw the Pet Shop Boys at the Wiltern it only took us and hour and half to get in from Palm Springs, incredible traffic Thursday – bumper to bumper all the way from San Bernardino. More about the Pet Shop Boys below. Open act Annie Stela was better this time, I enjoyed her music and I had the vantage point of seeing her better from the side of the stage. She is an accomplished music writer and she really plays with a heartfelt stomp, her two band mates, bass and drum and an incredible backup to her songs, they really romp – on occasion I felt they overwhelmed the music and yet it was good to listen to. Ms. Stela did one song that I felt exceptional in her set, where she was accompanied by her drummer on percussion and the guitarist and no organ. Really enjoyed that song. Mr. A. snagged her set list, thought I’d share.

Unlike the night at the El Rey there is a smaller tighter group of people in the Troubadour. Joseph and crew seemed more relaxed, less hyperactive, but intent on putting out a great show. We once again had a great stage place, the stage wasn’t chest high more like knee high so the closeness of the group to us was less daunting. No set list to grab Mr. A grabbed the poster off the wall – thanks Mr. A and there were some songs played I didn’t recognize, and I am looking forward to the recording of this set at the Troubadour which is supposed to come in the mail soon. Joseph came out and played an encore set with two songs acoustic and then the Lonely’s came out to join him – lots of cheering and noise and off they went once again, only to come out one more time. Joseph was dressed in a red orange leisure suit , marked from front to back with his drawings, his acoustic guitar was covered with his paintings of black and blue, he also played a triangular shaped guitar and an electric sitar for one of his encore melodies. Joseph took to the stage wearing mirrored sunglasses for the first four songs taking them off for Electrical Storm. Joining him on the stage was an artist decked out in heavy neck jewelry, who during the set did drawings off to the left side of the stage, Joseph holding them up during different songs, I don’t believe any of them were particularly impressive and it was a small diversion when the artist would walk around the stage. While Joseph did this incredible piece of music during the encore that I had never heard before the artist sat in yoga position behind Joseph trying his best to look like he was trying to meditate in the wall of sound, the song is probably on Junkyard Hearts collection which we don’t have but will soon purchase – it was an incredible droning melody with Joseph making low droning sounds into the microphone and the Lonely Astronauts joining in. As I said they said they recorded the concert and a cd was forthcoming which we purchased at the end of the concert with Holding the Void another great collection of songs and the ep and The Theives Are Gone – man I really like this short grouping of songs – personal favorites off of these two – “Savior Of The Sun” and “Blue Jay and Honey Bee“.

Unfortunately we got into LA so late Thursday night we were not able to get over to the Virgin Store on Sunset to get Neil and Chris to sign our EP of West End Girls from 1984, which we would have loved to do, as we had such a great time at their concert at the Wiltern November 8, 2006. For all of the cars that were in the parking lot when we arrived we thought we would be in the back rows with our GA (general admission) tickets, but we found ourselves about a foot back from where we usually stand at the Wiltern, front rail to the right first tier, which is a great vantage point, we stood there when we saw Bowie February, 04, Rufus Wainwright and Ben Folds two nights in a row and the Pogues a few weeks earlier. The crowd was not as rough and ready as the Pogues audience but it did fill up quickly after we arrived. The set was minimal, a box with what looked like a shot of a dissected brain, music up and a couple of men came out – the crowd cheered thinking it was Neil and Chris, the two men faced the crowd posed, and another pair came out to another section of the stage and posed and finally the boys came out to a thunderous applause. The crew dressed like Ommpa-Lumpa TV technicians removed the brain images to reveal silhouette images of the boys and the Pet Shop Boys got down to business and did Psychological. This was the beginning of a great concert. Luckily we were within the ranks of a very adoring crowd – men and women who knew the words to most of the songs, and they played allot of their hits and quiet a number of songs from their newest CD Fundamental. Highlights of the nights included using the back staging of boxes sheathed in a very translucent material for staging – Rent was incredibly staged with Neil sitting behind the translucent screen while a dancer on the upper level to the right did some modeled stances, and the use of the boxes with translucent material was very effective during the medley of Minimal from Fundamental, Shopping for Actually, Dreaming of the Queen from Very (which if there was a dry eye in the house I would be surprised, I was carried over by such emotion from this song and the images being shot over the screen of the funeral procession for Diane and the music swelling and the dancers and Neil standing to the left of the stage in a sort of mourning stance, memories of those days, all of the friends we have lost over the years, my brother, my mothers who is very ill – I couldn’t stop the flow of the tears) and then that led into Heart from Actually – which revved up the engines again and took all those sad tears into happy oblivion. There was so much to love about this concert – there was the 20 minute intermission which was a bit strange – to get so ramped up and then have to stop in mid concert for a rest, but the boys came back out and did an incredible job on Numb from Fundamental with the beautiful Soviet imagery, snow and Neil and dancers dressed in winter garb, I’m with Stupid from Fundamental, Se la Vida from Bilingual, It’s a Sin from Actually, West End Girls – yes they did it – Where The Streets Have No Name (Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You) from Discography with an incredible back drop of cowboy dancers in gold lame and Neil face very stoically posted, The Sodom And Gomorrah Show from Fundamental and so much more I have lost track of everything we saw – it was a truly exciting show, but the best was saved for last – final encore – third – the boys did Go West from Very – what a great way to end the show – everybody joining in with the singing – Go West where the air is clean, waving their hands in the air in unison – it was a great concert. d