Just when I feel like giving up on Los Angeles, this city manages to show off its very best. Last night, the Hotel Café was super packed with an excited, enthusiastic, and (dare I say?) happy crowd. This was a great change of pace, as several shows I’ve been to the last week have been pretty empty. We were all there to see Jen & Abby, a local indie-rock girl band. But instead of the sticking to same old indie sounds, they provided the audience with a sort of musical time machine. Jumping through genre and style, they got the place buzzing with even more energy.
As soon as they started playing, I knew it was going to be a fun show. Lead singer Abby Miller was phenomenal. She was our bubbly pixie-like host for the evening, constantly offering jokes and anecdotes for the audience’s pleasure. Instead of introducing a song she simply said, “This song is… Oh you’ll figure it out!” Jen Trani on guitar offered the steady musical grounding to Miller’s rich vocals. The songs bounced from jazzy numbers (the king that belong in a black and white Cary Grant movie) to the sort of 1990′s Grrrl rock that Seattle would be jealous of.
Formed in Los Angeles four years ago, Jen & Abby are apparently Hotel Café regulars. They have a pretty strong local following and I can see why. The band members were great at what they did. I was particularly impressed by Adrienne Woods on cello. I’m a huge sucker for cello, and she was not disappointing. My first favorite song of the night was a Gothic folk song about a father who loses his daughter and seeks revenge. It was dark and haunting and put the Hotel Café at a stand still (which is quite the accomplishment when you think about how many people in the audience were drinking). After this number, Miller looked at the audience mischievously and got ready for the last song.
It was time to really bring the house down. It was time for a 1970′s, badass, groove-tastic reinterpretation of Britney Spear’s Toxic. The song was so well done that I didn’t recognize it until half way through. I just stood there and thought, “Wait a minute? This is a Britney Spears song. But… But… it sounds good!” Britney should take more than a few lessons from Abby Miller’s example. People were dancing, clapping their hands, and not a single pair of booty shorts were in sight.
All in all: Great people, great music, great times. Jen & Abby provided an instant pick-me-up to my night without that nasty sugar-crash that Red Bull causes. Thanks LA, I needed that.
Rachel K.
www.loudvine.com
Tags: Abby, acoustic, Cafe, Hotel, Hotel Cafe, Jen & Abby, LA Music, Lazy Angels, Live Music, Loudvine, Music Buzz, Music Community
