Here's the picture: Hollywood proper, late evening cold night, lucky parking, line out the door and around the corner... rain. That's right, this night was so hot that people in LA were willing to wait in the rain to see Darren Le Gallo live paint. Well, maybe not that they knew it, but that's what was gonna happen. Evan's done a helluva thing with this night at Cinespace, and the Deity Group crew has been interested in how we'd eventually put our heads together over a situation such as this. And the answer is lovely. Four bands absolutely giving it up and one live painting show + many many people. We were told halfway through that we were at capacity and there were still people waiting to get in, and the line was as long as it had been when we arrived a couple hours earlier.
Let it be known that the links to the bands for their myspace pages don't capture their real energy live. They really killed it in person in my humble opinion, and the crowds for each performance seemed to be a rotating crop of scenesters and music lovers alike, all fully engaged and stoked on it all.
We Are The Fury was the first band up, not hesitating to belt out their angsty catchy hair metal shred. Hightlights : the song So Physical (with a standing ovation and participation for the chorus "let's Start a fire tonight!").
Andy Clockwise was such a fun moment in the night. Andy was so intense that I fully could picture we were in a smaller pub room and he was shaking his fist and ranting against a room full of large draughts spilling over huge glass mugs and drunken participation on highlight song: "Everybody's In A Band" (you're in a band, you're in a band, he's in a band, she's in a band, everybody's in a... you get the picture).
Picture Atlantic was a great treat. As the third band up, they took the mic immediately apologizing for being so different. Singer Nikolaus Bartunek then made short work of getting everyone's attention with his full range vocals and band timing that was nothing short of impressive. The sound was super accessible and catchy, with moments of sounding like a blend of Hot Hot Heat, The Kooks and something that reminded me of Sunny Day Real Estate and Travis. But that's just because I have a somewhat limited understanding of the full scope of music these days, ya know?
For most of the night, Darren, Chandler Wood and I just enjoyed making goofy drawrings while in all actuality Darren was constantly trying to work out something to focus on when he got to the live painting part of the night. It all happens in the moment, but it was great to watch him turn page after page of great sketches for paintings or future studies.
We were joined at one point by D's hometown (San Antionio, TX) friend John and his girl Aspertane (can't remember he name but she was super nice and had an interesting name starting with A that had an S somewhere right after it). They chose to draw farm related things, I know not why.
This is D with what he believes is his live painting final sketch.
This meant that next, they were going to make one of those classic turkey drawings out of Aspertane's hand. Of course there's no follow photo for that.
So this is what D's painting was shaping up to be about halfway through the set. Then, right at a critical moment in the nearly 10 minute jam, he just flips it over and scrubs out the whole thing. There was a wave of "Ohhhhhhhh!", as the crowd was totally connected to seeing this picture grow in front of everyone.
But as soon as the faces disappear, it becomes more clear that there's a method to the apparent madness.
A turn-of-the-century woman begins to appear in the areas left by the departure of the overturned canvas.
In the end, a completely new and unexpected result is born. Darren is totally energized by the experience and immediately begins plans for executing his next performance piece. Very well done, sir. Indeed.
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