Ron Sexsmith, take 2

I decided to head down to Hollywood this last Wednesday night to hear "Ron Sexsmith":http://www.ronsexsmith.com/ play at the Hotel Café quite spur of the moment. I had just gotten home from seeing a great movie, "After the wedding":http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/afterthewedding/trailer/, and checked my email only to find that a friend of mine had sent me a message saying that I should head down and meet him at the Sexsmith show. I looked at the clock, Ron would be going on in 15 minutes. “Should I go?”, I asked myself. This is where I have to interject that I had already seen Ron play before at the Troubadour a couple of months before and while it was a good show both my friend and I felt like it wasn’t a great show. Ron sounded tired and all the songs he played were melancholy ballads; which was a disappointment for us because as good as some of those ballads can be, Ron has some great rockin’ songs in his repertoire. After an hour and a half of standing in the middle of a crowd craning my neck to see the stage at the Troubadour I had lost my patience listening to Ron and his ballads but to my dismay, Ron wouldn’t get off the stage. He played not one but TWO encores that night. We finally threw in the towel in the middle of the last encore and left not able to take any more. I still liked Ron though and I felt like enough time had gone by, so I decided I try him again. I was running about 10 minutes late to the show and was worried that the crowd at the door meant that I might not get in. When I got to the doorman though, I was happy to find out that there was no problem getting in and to my startlement, I looked up to find none other than "Kiefer Sutherland":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiefer_Sutherland staring at me from the crowd hanging out in front of the entrance (you gotta love LA). I smiled, he smiled and I went inside thinking, he’s shorter than I thought but still damn cute. Ron was mid song when I got in and I immediately felt a more up beat vibe from him and the band. I weaved my way through the packed crowd to find my friend and enjoy the music, which I did, until I realized that about half the audience was talking over Ron. I have never understood the people that go to a concert only to talk through it. I mean, what’s the point? Go to a bar, stay at home and put on some music don’t ruin the show for everyone else. Is this just a problem in LA? Meanwhile, Ron is rocking, the band is on and even with the talky crowd they seem to be really enjoying themselves. A drunk blond next to me though, failed to see his appeal. She had one of the shrillest voices I’ve ever heard and loudly told her date, “This guy sucks and he’s not even attractive. I mean look at his pudgy face!” Apparently, in her book the musicians have to be attractive before they can be talented. Ha! Luckily, I think her date had had enough and escorted her out of the room. I felt the other people around me breathe a collective sigh of relief at her exit. There’s always one in the crowd, right? Forgive the crappy cell phone pic,I forgot my cam :(After that incident I was able to enjoy what was left of Ron’s amazing set. Towards the end he started taking requests from the crowd and I found that even his ballads seemed to be less melancholy that night. When the show ended the crowd broke up and I went to the bar to grab a drink. I wasn’t the only one thirsty and while waiting my turn at the bar a man came up to stand next to me. After a minute or so I look up to see that it’s Ron’s guitarist, Jason (the cute one on the right in the pic). He says hi and I say hi and tell him how great the show was. He says thanks and we start talking about bands he’s played with before (Ani DiFranco), Andrew Bird’s new record, various small record labels and how the band is all from Canada but that he now lives in Brooklyn. He buys me a drink and I make my exit telling him I have to get back to my friend but that it was great talking with him. I went in to catch the last performer of the evening, "Michael Miller":http://www.michaelmillercrusade.com/, who is a friend of my friend and who I’d seen play before. He’s good, but man it must have been hard following up Ron. I left mid way through his set to go home. On my walk to the car, remember this is Hollywood, I pass what looks to be some sort of make-up wearing vagrant talking to his friend, a fellow vagrant, or maybe they were hipsters, it’s so hard to tell these days, and as I pass them I hear the one say to the other, “Nice, Niice, Niiice, Niiiice! Man, I love when they jiggle!” Apparently, my breasts appeal is not lost on vagrants/hipsters. I just kept walking, best to end the night on a high note.