By Greggory Moore The Museum of Latin American Art’s first-ever theatrical event was business as usual for Alive Theatre, who in their short existence have formed a habit of making non-traditional venues fit to their purposes, purposes that have ranged from the high literary to burlesque and camp. On March 29 it was José Rivera’s [...]
By Greggory Moore If you happened to check out both the Gazette and OC Weekly reviews of Alive Theatre’s 28 Plays Later, you’re probably very confused. As the Gazette has it, this is maybe the single greatest theatre experience ever, while the OC Weekly wants to warn you off of wasting precious minutes of your [...]
By Greggory Moore I had caught The Year Zero at Tour des Artistes. They were playing when I hit Linden. I was talking to some people and not really paying attention, but now and again I sort of tuned in and said, “That’s not bad.” So I made sure to catch them at {open} on [...]
By Greggory Moore 1. “These guys fucking rule,” gushed an attendee of the Leviathan Bros. as she left their record-release show at {open}. Then she stopped on her way out and retraced her path a couple of steps to emphasize her point to co-owner Sé Reed: “These guys fuck-ing rule!” And it certainly would be [...]
Live at {open} (2226 E. Fourth St.), June 23rd ’07 By Greggory Moore A confession: I am not the biggest fan of live music. That’s why I didn’t catch all of this show: three bands in one night is a bit much for me. And so I ambled in partway through opener Wayne Everett and [...]
By Greggory Moore I’ve already written two stories about oto for these pages (and one for the Gazettes), so scroll down for a fuller description (or just go to www.otosound.net or myspace.com/otosound to hear them for yourselves). On this night, it was Hiro (guitar), Boon (drums, guitar), and Tai (xylophone, melodica, percussion); with Rie currently [...]
By Greggory Moore The band oto (scroll down a couple of stories for background) is a quartet, but only three members—Hiro, Boon, and Tai—live in the U.S. However, fourth member Takeshi is visiting from Japan this month to record and get in a few shows; and this night at Portfolio (a favorite performance space for [...]
April 8th, 2007, 7–11 p.m. @ {open} (2226 E. Fourth St.) By Greggory Moore Perhaps simply powerless to resist the chance to ride “Resurrection” terminology, {open} held their soft opening April 8th, and apparently a lot of people in Long Beach felt that being there would be a good way to spend the end of [...]
By Greggory Moore Perhaps you’ve had occasion to be out somewhere with no intention of hearing live music — instead just wanting to read, work, indulge in coffee and conversation — and to have felt that pang of annoyance when you realized a band was about to play. If you’ve been lucky, at least a [...]
By Greggory Moore “All good things must come to an end.” That’s as true in the East Village as it is anywhere, as {open} will soon be moving about a mile east; and so, as advertised, this was the last show to take place in {open}’s “kitchen” space (a.k.a. the back room). Shea Gauer and [...]