Recent Show Roundup

Has the indie scene been rather dry? Yeah, I thought so too.

There's a lot of derivative shows lately, where the bands are looking like other bands, sounding like other bands. Is that any reason why many of the recent signings aren't in Los Angeles?

Some more name acts like Keane, Seal and the ubiquitously barefoot Joss Stone all recently performed in Los Angeles to fantastic performances, teaching the up-and-comers how its done. Especially at the recent Keane performance where myspace artist Matt Kearney performed a wooden, sleepy set which was effective in sucking the air out of the room where Keane was happy to replace it.

At the House of Blues Foundation Room, local artist bELA came out of the woodwork with a scaled down band (to a two-some with her brother) and nailed a passionate, artistic and technical performance showing shades of a Bjork-grade, quite coherent level of talent and ecclectics which we've not seen in Los Angeles at all (except for the oddity that was The Spores from a few years back). She was followed by the also ubiquitous (but never barefoot) Christopher Hawley Rollers whose brand of loungy roots rock bar music is always welcome at what seems to be every club I seem to show up in. Seriously, this guy shows up everywhere!

We'll be checking out a few shows all through the summer to give a better idea as to who is hot and who is just not.

On the web:
bELA: www.myspace.com/belafanbase
Christopher Hawley Rollers: www.christopherhawley.net