Adele @ HOB, San Diego

Not as many people as I thought there would be. Bar seems to be in a very inconvenient place in there and I can't understand why they won't allow people to leave the bar / lounge room with drinks. They wouldn't even let me leave with a cup of ice. It was ridiculous. Sucked that I got stuck in the back because I'm so short. I saw the show pretty much in between these 2 tall people's shoulders. Sometimes I wish they would just set up an area near the front for short people and let all the taller people stand behind them. Not like we would be blocking anyone. :| Adele was fantastic live; she sounded as good as her CD. I was very impressed. And she was very cute on stage. Most likely she was still giddy from her Grammy wins. She was speaking so fast that I could hardly understand her.

Shabu Shabu Ya, Los Angeles

I was a bit scared of going here to having Shabu Shabu because it was a non-Asian area. Fortunately, the food was decently priced and didn't taste bad, but I felt like there should've been more of the non-beef stuff, but alas, that only occurs in Chinese hot pot. Service was as bad as I had read about on Yelp http://www.yelp.com/biz/shabu-shabu-ya-los-angeles. It took forever for the food to come out and the waitress didn't bring over water for the late arrivers. She also never brought out the edamame we ordered, but left it on the bill. The male Asian server was very nice though and even brought out an extra hot pot for a friend who was sharing with my sis. I did appreciate the indie soundtrack to our dining. So, if you're in that area and craving shabu shabu, no wait (which is a bit dismaying for a restaurant), and some good music, Shabu Shabu Ya would be the place to go to.

Tapes 'n Tapes, Wild Light @ El Rey

1st Band
We showed up late and this band barely came on stage. Unfortunately, we didn't arrive late enough because what we thought was the second opener was ONLY the first. They were just 2 kids: one on drums and the other on guitar. Kind of White Stripes-ish, but they sucked. I had to admire them for trying to bring punk back, but they were completely unoriginal and the lyrics were lacking. The only thing entertaining about their performance was them trying to quiet down the drunk girl at the front of the stage who was dancing erratically and yelling at them to take their shirts off.

Wild Light
was infinitely better, but maybe because the first band was so bad? No, these guys seemed really talented. There were actually 3 singers, who were all equally talented (although, I preferred the lanky guy's singing the most. Just seemed more unusual and indie), AND they could play several instruments. They switched off for each song. Some of the songs were catchy. I mostly liked the songs that the lanky guy sang.

Tapes 'n Tapes
It was kind of weird being there without knowing the music really really well. Admittedly I hadn't listened to their music enough to memorize the lyrics, only enough to recognize the songs. They were much better live than on CD. On CD, they had some catchy songs, but some of them sounded really similar after awhile. My fav song off their album Walk it Off is Hang Them All. That's pretty much the fastest song on their album. It was fantastic live and so were their other songs. They really know how to get an audience going and great guitar solos and songs just sounded a lot more bluesy and much faster live. On CD, they sound a bit mellow and sleepy. Great live though.

The Sounds @ Hollywood Palladium

I was excited to see the Palladium after renovation. The last time I had been there was to see No Motiv, Reggie and the Full Effect, and Alkaline Trio. The only thing I could remember about the Palladium was that the sound system was horrific and it pretty much ruined those bands for me. I haven't been able to listen to those bands since. I was praying the sound would be better. I don't understand how they don't notice how bad the sound system is there. It was apparent that they hadn't changed the sound too much. It wasn't as bad as I remembered (even though that was years ago), but that might have also been due to the fact that there had been a few drinks involved and I was too excited about seeing The Sounds. K said that they sounded rusty from not having toured in awhile. The venue looked nicer than it did before. They played a few new songs that were alright. I liked one out of the 3 or 4 new songs they played. Makes me a bit worried about what their new album is going to sound like. They played their most popular songs, which was great. The show was shorter than expected and I was disappointed that they didn't play an encore.

New songs:

Val Emmich, Alyssa Suede, Keaton Simons @ Hotel Cafe

I've been wanting to go back to Hotel Cafe again ever since the last time I was there to witness Grandaddy's last performance in LA.

Val Emmich
I arrived a bit late and missed his first song. I guess 7:30pm isn't a peak hour for the Metro. :\ The rest of his set was good though. He has a really good range and his voice was loud and clear even when he wasn't that close to the mic. He was very entertaining on stage and shared stories and he was appreciative of his fans who showed up to talk to him and take pictures. Here's his myspace.

Alyssa Suede
was pretty bad. She was a blond who took off her wig to reveal hair that wasn't any better than the bad wig. I had to admire the large amount of people they were able to fit onto the stage, but no matter how many instruments they had, it didn't improve their sound. The sound system was also a bit off, but so was her voice and some of the lyrics were really corny.

Keaton Simons
was too country for me. I wasn't really into it. A kind of liked it though. Not sure why she did.