Anna Webber – Los Angeles Photographer

Blitzen Trapper plays at the El Rey Theater Anna Webber

The Oregon backwoods shepherded Blitzen Trapper to the El Rey Theater last week for a full set of rustic country mountain songs. They killed it every chord, key, smack and shake. Playing everything we all love about them and more, they  included a Bob Dylan cover and other songs that sound exactly – like Bob Dylan.

Singer Eric Earley’s softer “Lady on the Water” put you on a dark cloud covered lake in the mountains, seamlessly soft in their weathered hinterland style. “Furr” is a song Bob Dylan might have written, very Queen Jane Approximately inspired lyrics, harmonica and intonations.

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Rain machine @ the echo sept 25th

Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio debuted his anticipated new solo project Rain Machine at the Echo in LA Friday. The Echo is a scenester’s local well, and Rain Machine continued to chip the paint off it’s charcoal walls with Kyp Malone’s  steep hiccupping intonations and bristling world class coiffure. His voice is key to TV on the Radio’s sound; it got hard to differentiate between the two, and some of the songs flowed together consequentially.

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West Beach Music Festival ‘09 – Santa Barbara – Sept 18-20

The West Beach Music & Arts Festival Saturday is like no other large music festival of its kind – abutting the historic Stearns Wharf, adjacent to an even more historic Pacific ocean, and perpendicular to Santa Barbara’s main drag (lower State Street) the festival took place with a sandy, inebriated floor, and a bright and beautiful sky blue sky. The unfortunate part was that dogs were allowed in (and children), and the drunks were wondering why “If your dog can pee here, why can’t I!?”

The music lapped against the tide in a very burningman-esque dusty shakeup of sand, surfers, hippies and cloudcover as it was delivered from three separate stages (and one techno dance tent).

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The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s play live at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, California

Photos By Anna Webber

The Greek Theater – September 9, 2009

Dave Matthews was a little slow tonight. It was night one at the Greek theater, and whatever Dave Matthews usually melancholy self is like, this seemed to be a bit worse. There were times when it was easy to mistake whether or not he was actually sleeping, or if he was just – really tired.

His usual long drawn out folky folk songs lasted a regular 3 minutes, instead of the typical 10 – 15.

It was a good show. That’s all I have to say about that.