When the call goes out that Great Glass Elevator is having a 'reunion' show, what choice do you have but to go? Well, I guess you could stay home and watch a re-run of Friends on the CW, which would be equally entertaining, but you wouldn't be able to pay premium prices for water-downed drinks.
At the end of the 55 Freeway, a few blocks west of Triangle Square, is a little 'dive bar' in Costa Mesa called Detroit Bar. At least, 'dive bar' was how I heard some of the South Orange County crowd describe it. There was no smoking, no bar fights, and no stray animals roaming the grounds. But hey, if it makes them feel more dangerous to say they were in a dive bar, more power to them.
In actuality, it was a little community bar with a relatively make-shift stage; but the sound was impressively well done. Originally, we had heard that GGE (yeah, that's right, I'm abbreviating them and there's not a damn thing you can do about it) was going on around ten that night. Fortunately, we found out before leaving that they weren't actually scheduled to go on 'til 11. Of course, once we got there, we noticed that the band just starting to set up at 11:15 was decidedly not GGE. Texts to Josh, Dave, and Ezra gave us the insight (from Ezra, thanks for checking your phone man) that the show would actually start sometime between 11:45 and midnight. Ahhh the band life.
Dave came out in greased back hair, reading glasses, and geek chic attire and quickly yelled at the audience to quiet down. It took a few additional awkward admonishments for the audience to go silent so Dave could start the show with an interesting vinyl selection; presumably from a 1950's National Geographic collection. Other notable attire selections of the band included a barefoot Ezra (at least we got him to wear pants), and Josh, who's attire started out relatively normal but slowly and disturbingly disappeared as the band played on.
The show was a pretty damn good with a wide selection of their music being played, including a track from their most recent album who's release show was, to my knowledge, the last time the band played together. It's been a while since I've heard them play together, and I found it just as entertaining.
Although last-call hadn't happened, the crowd pretty much dissipated after GGE went off stage, and a couple dozen people hung out afterward in the parking lot. There was also the equally entertaining after-concert show of the band dynamics as they interacted with each other. A stressed out Barrett trying to get his van loaded with Matt & Josh's stuff so he could take off to his next 'appointment,' a laughing Dave telling Barrett he needs to be more of an ass, me telling Barrett I could give him asshole lessons, and Layne (Josh's girlfriend) calling bullshit on that and accusing me of being a nice guy.
Rumors were already spreading that night of a possible future show at a relatively major OC venue, so there is hope that the world might get to see one last 'reunion' of GGE.
And who knows, maybe they'll go the way of Barbara Streisand and have a 'Fairwell Concert' every year or so.
Dave telling the crowd to shut the hell up. Ok, he was a bit nicer about it.
Matt: Guitar
Josh: Drums
Dave: Loudmouth...I mean lead singer.
Ezra: Bass
Barrett: Guitar/Keyboards
At the end of the 55 Freeway, a few blocks west of Triangle Square, is a little 'dive bar' in Costa Mesa called Detroit Bar. At least, 'dive bar' was how I heard some of the South Orange County crowd describe it. There was no smoking, no bar fights, and no stray animals roaming the grounds. But hey, if it makes them feel more dangerous to say they were in a dive bar, more power to them.
In actuality, it was a little community bar with a relatively make-shift stage; but the sound was impressively well done. Originally, we had heard that GGE (yeah, that's right, I'm abbreviating them and there's not a damn thing you can do about it) was going on around ten that night. Fortunately, we found out before leaving that they weren't actually scheduled to go on 'til 11. Of course, once we got there, we noticed that the band just starting to set up at 11:15 was decidedly not GGE. Texts to Josh, Dave, and Ezra gave us the insight (from Ezra, thanks for checking your phone man) that the show would actually start sometime between 11:45 and midnight. Ahhh the band life.
Dave came out in greased back hair, reading glasses, and geek chic attire and quickly yelled at the audience to quiet down. It took a few additional awkward admonishments for the audience to go silent so Dave could start the show with an interesting vinyl selection; presumably from a 1950's National Geographic collection. Other notable attire selections of the band included a barefoot Ezra (at least we got him to wear pants), and Josh, who's attire started out relatively normal but slowly and disturbingly disappeared as the band played on.
The show was a pretty damn good with a wide selection of their music being played, including a track from their most recent album who's release show was, to my knowledge, the last time the band played together. It's been a while since I've heard them play together, and I found it just as entertaining.
Although last-call hadn't happened, the crowd pretty much dissipated after GGE went off stage, and a couple dozen people hung out afterward in the parking lot. There was also the equally entertaining after-concert show of the band dynamics as they interacted with each other. A stressed out Barrett trying to get his van loaded with Matt & Josh's stuff so he could take off to his next 'appointment,' a laughing Dave telling Barrett he needs to be more of an ass, me telling Barrett I could give him asshole lessons, and Layne (Josh's girlfriend) calling bullshit on that and accusing me of being a nice guy.
Rumors were already spreading that night of a possible future show at a relatively major OC venue, so there is hope that the world might get to see one last 'reunion' of GGE.
And who knows, maybe they'll go the way of Barbara Streisand and have a 'Fairwell Concert' every year or so.
Dave telling the crowd to shut the hell up. Ok, he was a bit nicer about it.
Matt: Guitar
Josh: Drums
Dave: Loudmouth...I mean lead singer.
Ezra: Bass
Barrett: Guitar/Keyboards
Posts
1 comment:
It was a great show! Wished I would have been around and aware way back when.
Post a Comment