Friday night concert downtown

For a year that started out with us going to very few concerts, we sure are ending it with a bang.  Three Fridays in a row this month with concerts, three concerts again in the space of 8 or 9 days in December.  I sit here listening to some Samara Joy Christmas music knowing we have tickets to see her in the New Year as well as Dan Mangan.  Lots of shows to go see.  Yay!

Last Friday Van and I left Olive in the care of Conrad (and both of them were very very fine with that)

and headed into DTLA, first to Joyce, a restaurant I had been to before and liked.  Joyce was already in the holiday spirit what with Christmas decorations up, and their drinks menu

was themed to tie in with that.  I opted for the Sketches on Christmas and liked it. 

Van and I shared the food, and it came out fairly quickly.  The cornbread was great,

the watermelon salad also (and different than what we expected - that was fun to see set down on the table). 

I didn't photograph the shrimp and grits, and I did like then, but I think the real star was the fried Cornish game hen. 

Three pieces plus biscuits, it was a nice play on what you would get at a fast food chicken restaurant.  Rather than get dessert, I opted to go not-sweet and ordered the Mother of Pearl Martini. 

It was interesting, and a generous pour, but at a certain point it tipped over into too funky, and I didn't finish it.  And that was fine!  Just enough food and beverage, and with that dinner done, we headed through DTLA

and over to The Novo on foot.

I liked the venue.  Van had got us VIP seats, which meant a lounge upstairs and great seating at the front of the balcony.  It was odd to me, though, that they didn't monitor the experience well.  Anyone could come up to the lounge, no gatekeeping of that.  Moreover, the ushers didn't monitor seats and tickets, and so there were folks who were squatting in prime seats who had to leave as more people with the correct tickets came along.  Like us.  It was strange that that happened, but not a real bother otherwise.

Van and I stayed in the lounge through the opening act, Bay Ledges. 

There were screens set up, and we could watch it there.  We didn't know him or his music, and honestly, it was a little dismal.  One guy on stage singing along to his canned music - he was doing what he loved, and I admired that, but I wasn't into what I heard.  I gave it a listen the next morning on a walk, and no, it didn't grab me.

The main act was what we were there for, or Van certainly was.  Leisure, a collective from New Zealand who have put out a handful of albums.  I'm not sure how Van stumbled on them, but he seemed to know a bunch of the songs.  I messaged Dion and Minna in NZ after the show, and they had never heard of Leisure.  Anyway, I have to say that they were tight.  I mean, they were playing so well together, there were no lags, no fumbling around.  They had coordinated outfits, they swapped lead on the songs, and it all went together so well.  I was impressed by them as a band.

But...

The sound!  It's not a big venue.  Not tiny, but not big.  That sound was so so loud.  And I swear it got louder by the end.  I was plugging my ears with my fingers during the last song.  I could feel the bass hitting my chest.  It was too much.  And it meant that the singing got lost in the mix.  A lot of the singing - and singing duties were shared - was softer and higher than I would have guessed from five men, and ultimately, I could hear the singing but not understand a lot of it.  And that meant that a lot of the music started to sound the same to me.

How would I classify the group?  Retro-soul/funk/pop?  In recordings, they sound kind of chill-out and lounge-y, sort of dance-y.  In live performance?  They came across as 90s white funk and made me think of Jamiroquai very vaguely.  I didn't have a better point of comparison.  Anyway, as the set went on, I continued to admire the group, but I was enjoying myself a little less.  A shame.  I think that better sound would have gone a long way toward me having more fun.

The show over, Van and I had the walk back to where the car was parked, a thick fog settling over the city as we made our way there and then on to home. 

One concert for November done.  Bring on the next!  

Joyce

It's been quite a handful of weeks in terms of dining outside of Pasadena.  I sort of feel like I need a good spell of dining again at local favourites to make up for it!  San Laurel, Otium, Verse, Ladyhawk, and more.  Now let's add Joyce to the list.

This past Monday night was supposed to be an opportunity for us to get together with Denny.  We'd already postponed twice, and when it turned out that Tuesday was going to be an early morning heading to the airport, it looked like another postponement.  Instead, I invited Denny to join me alone in DTLA (not exactly midway between him in WeHo and me here in Pasadena, but equally a nuisance for each of us to get to) and found a promising-looking place on OpenTable:  Joyce Soul and Sea.

First off, it was great to see Denny again.  It's been too long.  We message fairly regularly, but it just goes to show that even though we live in the same metro area, it's not always easy to align schedules and make it to the same parts of the metro without hassle.  It was the same for us with some friends back in Chicago, so I'm used to it, but I regret it.  Ah well.  We made it to dinner, taking seats at the bar/kitchen counter.

I liked Joyce.  I would go back.  I would not take Conrad.  The music was loud, the room was loud, and even leaning in to listen to Denny, I still had some difficulties.  But I would take Van.  Or meet Denny or another friend there.

Drinks?  Great!  Nice bar there,

some good options.  I started with the Florida Highwaymen (a whiskey sour, essentially, and tasty),

then tried the Mother of Pearl Martini (fine, I still insist that a martini should be gin),

then closed with a Hanky Panky (bartender's suggestion, a good after dinner closer). 

Denny had three other cocktails of his own, and all of them hit the spot for him.  No wine for us - I didn't know the ones on the list, and cocktails were more my mood.

Desserts?  Awesome!  We ordered the beignets,

but the server punched in the blueberry cobbler. 

So we were gifted a dessert while they fixed that mix-up, and the server charged us only for the cobbler, the lower price.  I think I liked the beignets slightly more, but I'd happily have that cobbler again.

Oysters? 

Superb!  Very fresh, not too briny.  Neither Denny nor I added any lemon or hot sauces - purists, I guess.  Loved them!

The other items?  Fine!  I liked the pork belly most,

which is funny because I often avoid that on menus.  It's a fatty cut, and if not cooked well, it can be too much fat, too rich.  The few cubes we had were nicely cooked, meaty, but also well balanced with the glaze and the fresh herb.  I liked the duck confit,

but the jerk flavour was a little odd to me.  Not bad, and no unexpected, but something that I didn't immediately love.  The macaroni and cheese

was curiously not cheesy enough for what I was hoping.  I liked it, I ate my share, but I wanted it to be cheesier and saucier.

Service was friendly.  It was easy to get there - a short walk from the 7st St./Metro Center station on the A line.  That makes it a little more likely I'll return.  And for sure, I will get those oysters again!