It is midnight and the crowd has multiplied since I got here at 10. The rumor seems to be true and yet I don’t believe my luck to be front row standing in front of Black Francis’s vintage amplifier, which he has just propped up with an empty glass corona bottle to get the perfect angle. The sound is everything I hoped for. And it is loud. To say I am enjoying the songs I’ve never heard before would be an understatement.
Up close he has a simple and quiet quality I didn’t expect from a true rock legend. There is an ease about him. A quiet contained focus that fuels the music. And yet the music is killer.
Say what you will about LA, but this kind of thing doesn’t happen in too many places in the world. I’m glad I got out and braved the cold weather.
Thanks to Kevin at buzzbands.la for the tip on the show. Photo by Carmine from a show earlier this year.
