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Los Angeles

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:51 pm
by Nick_A
I had the privilege of seeing Spiritualized at The Palace Theatre in L.A. in 1997, first time I saw them. Blown away frankly. Since then I have continued to make my pilgrimages, Hackney, Hammersmith, Shepherd's Bush, Festival Hall, Glastonbury 2004 one that is frozen in time. This March I return to L.A., and our paths cross again. They at The Troubadour, me currently outside, peering in through the grubby frosted glass. If anyone knows how I, and the same friend I saw them with in 1997, might slip inside the house, please, please, enlighten me. Obviously happy to pay, but the $400 (before fees!) seat geek prices seem, well, as wrong as can be. Rewards will be offered in showers of love and gratitude! Nick x

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 4:00 pm
by Spacemannn
yea I'm really hoping I can get in the show, even if night of I'm outside, looking pitiful and praying for "A Perfect Miracle" to happen/get a ticket..

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 8:38 pm
by spacemanrich
How come the show in L.A. is sold-out ? The show in S.F. is still availble.
How come it is $400.00 ? The show in S.F. is about $ 69.00.

Makes sense to come up north ?

https://concerts1.livenation.com/event/ ... feat5787v1

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 3:03 pm
by Spacemannn
it does but driving 12 hours solo isn't fun, so I hope someone sells me a ticket to the LA show for 60/70 which is face value..

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 3:41 pm
by Spacemannn
few more weeks, now I GOTTA find a ticket! hope everyone that wants to go gets to go!

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 8:50 am
by dselevan2
I need to get a ticket as well. Been holding off.
It’s worth it to see them there, just not sure if the price is right yet.

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 7:05 pm
by Spacemannn
yea looking slim but I really hope I can go to this show!!

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2019 4:02 pm
by Spacemannn
still no luck - hopefully this week I can find a ticket!

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 1:04 pm
by dselevan2
Who do we have to kill or get hooked on drugs to get into this show??! It’s like 350 after fees. Really inconvenient location to hope for tickets outside the venue. We need help ! We have good money and wears to trade just no supply of tickets. There are a few Nigerians with no Facebook friends who bought tickets for their families who can’t make it and that’s it!

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 2:34 pm
by Spacemannn
haha, yeah DEF don't ever buy from FB unless its in person, I know you wouldn't do that/smarter than that but yea whoever actually thinks these no friends profiles are real, then they deserve to give their money away to the scammers..
I managed to find a ticket but out of sheer luck, but not via FB, that is JUST scammers..
Same thing within the Modeselektor discussion on FB, just scammers..I'm searchin for a ticket to that too..

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 2:45 pm
by dselevan2
Yeah and who brings their whole family to spiritualized? I mean I’m sure it’s happened, I tried to bring my dog once.

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 7:21 pm
by toomilk
Ticketmaster just released more tickets a few minutes ago.

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 8:14 pm
by dselevan2
Dang a mere $374.

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:17 pm
by dselevan2
toomilk wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2019 7:21 pm Ticketmaster just released more tickets a few minutes ago.
How are we gonna get in?
I was thinking a huge bonfire of weed and some large industrial fans.

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2019 7:53 am
by dselevan2
Totally worth it. :mrgreen:
Thanks Spirit-ualized!

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2019 11:22 pm
by toomilk
Great show! If anyone follows me on Instagram, I got some great videos (@tunabearman).

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 12:01 am
by dselevan2
toomilk wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2019 11:22 pm Great show! If anyone follows me on Instagram, I got some great videos (@tunabearman).
Nice!

Wanted some good picture or video of the singers but the chair kept messing up my focus. It was so cool to see them up close.

My favorite parts were the intro, his voice sounded amazing at that point in the show, the weird intermission where they just left him on the stage and had to come back for him, and something else that I just forgot. Oh yeah, that weird office chair.

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 8:01 pm
by Nick_A
I don't know where social media etiquette stands on replying to your own post? But the story that unfolded should be told, and due thanks marked.

So, the night before Jason and his space nauts reach the Troubadour I'm looking for a gig to go to and end up last minute at The Ace Hotel to see Ry X. Walking to the gig along the dank sticky streets of downtown L.A. I look to my left and I see the ramshackle neon sign of The Palace Theatre. I'm transported back to Spiritualized (supported by Acetone) 1997. Me, my mate, his girlfriend at the time (now wife), a shimmering wall of guitar sound and strobes from the stage. Standing in a place I have not stood for 22 years, is a strange experience. I am 25, I am 47, I am everything in between. The Palace looks run down, possibly closed, and I think how the experiences I've had in my life since then, that I've fought to keep alive inside, are instead history.

I go to see Ry X. I don't know his music prior to the concert but it's a wonderful, tender affair. Thinking I'm still in Brentford, I get the bus home to where I'm staying in Silver Lake.

The next afternoon I'm over at The Troubadour at lunchtime. Ticketless, I'm going to hang around like a bad smell, and see what comes up as Spiritualized come into town. I haven't seen my friend for 9 months (I live in the U.K., he lives in San Diego). We meet at the venue, and head up to Chateau Marmot to live out a version of the L.A. life. It's so good to be next to him again. We've lived 8000 miles apart for as long as we last saw Spiritualized in L.A. together. Yet, our friendship is as strong now as it was then.

After beers and laughs, we head back down to the venue via the shops to see what's doing on the ticket front. The queue is forming, and conversations are had. Those with tickets are a lovely encouraging bunch. There are no spares but we get a lot of love and support.

My friend and I have been talking about this gig for months. I feel the anticipation, the determination, to get in and see the band. We head up and down the line, then take a little time out to walk through an anonymous door into an incredible windowless den of an Italian restaurant, the patrons hunched conspiratorially over their small tables, a low hum emanating from the ground. We have a couple of beers and relax for a while.

A further recce outside into the bright sunshine of the late afternoon brings a break through. We're hanging out on the sidewalk and strike up a conversation with a man with an official looking badge who's just come out of the Troubadour. We talk about our childhood in Coventry, just down the road from where Jason Pierce grew up in Rugby. My parents farmers, I think about my trips to Rugby livestock market as a kid. In the words of Coventry band The Enemy, "We live and die in these towns".

The guy listens to our story, interested, receptive. He says the venue is completely full, but he's been in our position, he understands. He mentions Bauhaus at the Troubadour from years gone by. He says stick around. We suck on a mint and can't think of any reason not to.

Half an hour later we're still outside the venue, he approaches and asks for a name. And then he's back, "you're on the guest list". Initially speechless, I find my voice and discover a 5 year old me, putting basic words into short shaky sentences, all in the wrong order. Remarkable.

We head back to the Italian in a kind of suspended state of disbelief, and chat to a woman from New York who hung out with David Bowie.

Half an hour later we're back at the Troubadour. We go to the guest list line, the woman looks down the list, finds out names, strikes them off, and gives us our tickets. We walk in, head towards the deep atmosphere of the front bar, and I suddenly believe and digest it, we're going to see Spiritualized at the Troubadour. I give my friend the deepest hug.

As they come on, it's a magical band, in a magical venue. JP careers into Come Together, Shine a Light, Stay with Me, Soul on Fire. They play, And Nothing Hurt, and through a three song encore end with, Oh Happy Day. It's Spiritualized, it's a moving affair. The songs, the sounds, the guitars, the arrow like focus of Jason Pierce, backed by three incredibly committed, bold and beautiful female singers, one of whom I eulogise to after about their part in the evening. As he walks off Jason stops centre stage by himself and arms above his head applauds the crowd. We applaud back.

Back in the front bar, my friend and I sit and soak it up. He's been the Troubadour a number of times before, it's my first time in the legendary venue I have so long wanted to see a concert at. Our man of the moment, our guardian helping hand, comes into the bar and we buy him a Guiness. A fair exchange he says. Who are we to disagree, but I can only say that if the Guinness brings him the pleasure the concert brought us, then he'll be flying free and easy all the way to Philadelphia. Thank you, to you, to Jason, to the band.

The Troubadour winds down but we're not done. We climb in a taxi and head off across the city. Every light turns to green, the drive as fast as light, dead straight and never ending. The city is beguiling, it asks for nothing, yet expects everything. We intend to leave no stone unturned.

We dance, we sit with strangers and chew it all over. The night flows on, and we call it a day. It's these benchmark experiences that define living. And, live music so often lies at the heart.

Nick x

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 2:29 pm
by ro
Beautiful, Nick_A
Thank you for that

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 10:17 pm
by purespace
Ditto what Ro said. I just read this out loud to my spouse and I choked up at the end. Brilliantly written account of what Spiritualized and the live music experience means to many of us - - music has been my lifelong refuge.

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 2:01 am
by spzretent
Beautifully written and showing what persistence surrounding your favorite band can do and just how much it means.
It was meant to be.

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 8:33 am
by momo_90
I'm so happy you got in, Nick! Thank you for beautiful story!

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 11:20 am
by BzaInSpace
To repeat other comments: beautifully written. In fact one of the best posts I've ever read on here.

Very glad you made the show! That must have been something else...

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2019 3:20 pm
by Nick_A
Thank you for your generous comments

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2019 3:56 pm
by Pat Garrett
Great post.

I absolutely love this arrangement of On the Sunshine. It's the new Electric Mainline in terms of feeling-close-to-levitation intensity.

Re: Los Angeles

Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2019 4:45 pm
by toomilk
Hey Nick, I was standing in line and saw you guys when you got your tickets. The looks on your faces were priceless!