Just coming back home from the second show I've seen at the "new" Palladium. The first was Franz Ferdinand and tonight I went to see Arctic Monkeys. I've seen both bands before, this is the second time seeing the Arctic Monkeys at this venue. I knew they had put in a new sound system with huge hanging arcs of speakers but tonight you could truly feel the sound. They must not have had it cranked fully up for Franz Ferdinand but tonight the show was sold out and the speakers were at full volume. It was amazing the sound just shook right through you even from a fair bit away and it was still nice and clean. No cracks or fuzzy speaker sounds here, I hope they always turn it up like that.
Sheffield was definitely in the house tonight. What first caught my ear from this band was they were young and had a varied sound on their album. Riot Van sucked me in just as well as Fake Tales of San Francisco. The follow up albums have not disappointed and they've amped up the guitar sound that crept into a few tracks on the first album. The set did come to a slight halt when they decided to slow it down for a few tracks but they made up for it by flipping the amps back up and assaulting the eager crowd with a wall of blistering guitar for the rest of the set which included a Nick Cave cover. Also they seem to be super big fans of strobe lights now which I really enjoyed, it was pretty much their only lighting effect and that combined with the guitar tidal wave may induce migraines or seizures. If you do suffer some sort of head injury, have a fit or any sort of long term damage from a show I say well done, you're very hardcore.
Franz Ferdinand was a slightly mellower set which wasn't as loud as the Arctic Monkeys but was still enjoyable. When their first album came out they said all they wanted was to make music that made girls want to dance. Now they make not just the girls but the boys dance too. I'm glad to have known about the band since their origins back at the Chateau parties. The crowd for Franz was about half the size of the show tonight but I really don't think I ever saw an ad for that show and only found out about it after driving by the venue a few weeks before the show so shame on you Live Nation for not telling Los Angeles about the wonderful Scots that came to play for us.
After both of these shows I must highly recommend seeing anything you can at the Palladium. There are tons of new restaurants open in the area and plenty of scooter parking to be found. Ok you may not need to know about the scooter parking but its still good to know. More people should get on two wheels, its amazing the things I see while riding around town. Tonight I saw a man on Melrose riding a Penny Farthing bike. This is the second one I've seen this year, the first was in Oakland by the airport. I'm sure all of this is still going on when I'm in the Echo but with the radio on I just don't care as much. It is harder to take photos of cool stuff on the fly though. I'll have to see about mounting my camera to the bike and video tape my ride one night, then you can also experience the most pot hole and irregularly paved streets in all of Los Angeles!
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