Was lucky to hit a few fantastic live events over the past week and want to share some highlights / video / photos in a post.

Last Tuesday was my first visit to the venue formerly known as Spaceland, now called The Satellite, and for all practical purposes same as it ever was.

But it was like the British Invasion 3.0 all over again. The Vaccines, stopping in LA for a one-off after a quickie in NYC, rocked me every bit as much as I hoped. I felt transported to the early days of Franz Ferdinand or The Hives when they’d pop into Empty Bottle on a Tuesday night riding a bunch of buzz. Though I originally feared that Justin Young’s vocal approach was in the faux-Interpol vein, which fully annoys me in its unoriginality, it was apparent live that he wasn’t trying too hard to be pretty while leading a quartet that motored through their short catalog (debut LP What Did You Expect from The Vaccines is due out in late March) like a Ramones-lite or early Replacements (if they were tight and composed on stage).

I returned to The Satellite the following night to catch Typhoon — an eleven-member Portland-based band that sings, claps, and plays various instruments as a backdrop to the oft-epic compositions of Kyle Morton. If this band ever comes near your town on tour, do what you can to catch them. It’s always a wonder to see a large band pull it off on a small stage, given the inevitably muddled sound coming from their monitors.

My Saturday began in a mellow tone, catching up with one of my fave poets and hip-hoppers from my Chicago days, Idris Goodwin (good friends will remember the Eye Spy disc I often played in my car circa 2004). Turns out now he’s [literally] chillin’ in another of my old ZIPs, Iowa City. Picked up a copy of his new book and better yet got to hear him read some hits from it. Watch those below:

I made it home around 10 and was all set for an early night when I got the word that I was on the FYF list for the Peter, Bjorn, & John “secret show” which conveniently happened to be downtown. The trio sounded tight and the sound wasn’t too bad considering the makeshift setup in a walkup loftspace. I dug the feel of their new songs — reminiscent of late 70’s garage. Gimme Some is out in late March and the kids’ll dig it.

I streamed parts of the show live on my phone… so please excuse the sound if you wish to check out the video.

Out with January. And live music season has yet to truly begin. It’s gonna be a great year!

There were strange crack/rolling sounds from alternating sides of the building during the quake, which felt like a gentle swirling than anything else. The quake took place hundreds of miles away. Per Wikipedia:

The Ritz-Carlton/JW Marriott hotel building, a part of the LA Live development in Los Angeles, California, is the first building in Los Angeles that uses an advanced steel plate shear wall system to resist the lateral loads of strong earthquakes and winds.

20 minutes later they came on the loudspeaker to say they were investigating any possibile structural damage to the building.

I just took some photos of the steel beam wall setups and have posted them below — according to the bartender here, this building is built to withstand a 12.0 magnitude earthquake. I feel much safer now.

LAist is throwing a post-primary Super Tuesday bash at my fave bar, Seven Grand from 7-9, and I’ll remain planted there for the remainder of the night until I get my late-night birthday present, which (I hope) will be Sen. Barack Obama claiming a majority of the nearly 1700 delegates up for grabs (he was just endorsed by the LA Times).

We won’t necessarily be talking politics — it’s not really worth talking about. Super Tuesday is our chance to celebrate one of the rare opportunities we have to make a difference by practicing democracy. And the first 75 peeps to show up wearing an “I voted” sticker gets a drink on LAist and AnswerWithAction.

And there are much more exciting and interesting things to talk about anyway. Many of you may have already RSVP’d on the facebook or upcoming event page, but if you were on the fence or will be busy much of the night, perhaps knowing that there will be some birthday celebrating going on into the night (I’ll turn 33 on February 6th) will change your mind! Hope to see you Tuesday. Happy voting.

[Seven Grand Google Map]