I’ve lived in L.A. long enough now that the sublime, the absurd, the glamorous, and the illusory are integrated and normalized elements of daily life. I’ve also lived outside of L.A. long enough to know it’s not normal. It’s L.A. Some days are more L.A. than others.

Yesterday, after a run through my palm-studded neighborhood in the 70° January morning sunshine, I drove just up the block to Universal Studios Stage 1 and was graciously escorted backstage onto the Tonight Show set. It was going to be a pretty L.A. kind of day.

So L.A.
Around 11am, I met up with drummer, Dan Konopka, of infectious pop-rockers, OK Go, as he was preparing to sound check for the 5 o’clock taping. While he was preoccupied helping coach and conduct (stomping his foot and gesticulating enthusiastically—in time, of course) the rent-a-choir through a song arrangement, I took in the Vegas meets alien-mothership façade of the new Conan O’Brien set. I also fired-off a few pics, which would have been fascinating and added compelling visual synergy to this recounting, but I’m pretty sure NBC Universal’s legal team outnumbers ours. And they probably also have actual law degrees. Take a moment, if you like, to visualize minds-eye images of Conan’s Einsenhower coffee mug/pencil holder, Max’s retro marine-pearl four-piece on strobe-lit riser, and a crew guy machine-buffing the stage floor to a high industrial sheen amidst busy gaffers, engineers, producers, and Dan stomping his foot. I’ve got it all.

Properly Windex-ed.

There was a guy Windexing the obligatory drum shield protecting sonic-purity from the rude and profane ddrum rental kit. Almost like wearing nothing at all. Once up and running, sound check lasted about 30 minutes. The audio crew—and everyone on these shows—knows what they’re doing. Things are efficient and move on a fixed schedule. By the final run-through, the band was sounding tight, balanced, and clean; camera shots were blocked and lights were choreographed. Dan locked with the sequence and owned the throne as if he’d played in this band for over a decade. He has.

Walnuts And Peanuts
Despite a Vic Firth endorsement and an upcoming tour’s–worth of of sticks…somewhere…Dan showed up with one pair; we headed over to Guitar Center on Ventura for some $8 spares, and then went for lunch. I had the raspberry walnut salad. Delightful. Dan had something with mashed potatoes. He seemed happy. We headed back to the studio by 3pm in preparation for showtime.

Yes, I used this one, Dan.

A little Greenroom action; watching Conan run-through and fine-tune the bits in leather jacket and baseball cap; running into Andy and Max; listening-in on the Tonight Show band rehearse in their off-set studio; and other super-L.A. moments ensued. By the time the show began taping, I was hanging behind-set, witnessing Conan and guests enter the stage; and crew and cue-card writers alternately working, checking Facebook, and mindlessly chewing on Red Vines, Blowpops, Cheez-Its, orange marshmallow Circus Peanuts, and other assorted delectables from a well-stocked shelf. They had done this a few times before. But for the odd giant gag-sized tissue box, a unicycle, gorilla cage hanging from the rigging high above, and the kid from Juno, it could have been anybody’s typical day at work.

The Show…
OK Go finally took the stage and got situated during the last “commercial break” in the taping. A stage assistant counted down: “20 seconds. 10…5…Have a good show.” The Tonight Show band winds down. Conan is overheard introducing, “…Please welcome, OK Go!” The curtain opens. Dan pumps his hi-hat foot to the click count-in, and five minutes later I can see him charming Andy Richter center-stage. I never asked him what that was all about. Dan used his confessed pre-show nerves for good. He rocked. He came off stage feeling pumped and satisfied and exhausted. Sometimes a show—indeed a day—like this leaves you feeling like you played a full set. And then mowed the lawn.

Just below Kathy Griffin...

…Is Over
The band and guests—that Juno kid and a comedian who did a whole thing on sheet thread-counts that was pretty good—were led to the dressing room hallway to sign the wall. A tradition, and some entertaining reading. Besides OK Go’s, I took a pic of one other guest’s wall-entry: Pee Wee Herman—who wrote, “Thanksgiving 2009 Hi! Gobble, gobble!!!”

Dan and the band were leaving for Europe the next day for a month of shows to promote their artful new album, Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky, being released this Tuesday, January 12. Nothing left to see here. Leaving the lot, it was back onto Lankershim Blvd. and onward to home, quickly re-integrating and normalizing along the way.

Also L.A.
Watching the DVR of the show the next day, I recognized one of things I like about living in this town: being behind the curtain is always more interesting than a front row seat. We know this empirically as musicians, but there is something more to it. Reality trumps fantasy; it is endlessly more satisfying and meaningful. I’d rather know there is some middle-aged dude with a pot-belly, warming his hands in front of a space heater, and eating orange Peanuts just behind the thin wooden structure of Conan’s union-built backdrop, than to see the thing on T.V. where prism-taped paneling looks like mother-of-pearl inlaid mahogany, blemishes are pancaked, and pre-show nerves are obscured with heroic camera angles. There is richer and more lasting meaning in a parent delicately and tenderly reaching under a sleeping child’s pillow, than the illusion of some freak, elfin-fairy with a wand. Just a thought. Goodnight, Everybody.

Dan Konopka recently moderated a poolside L.A. alt-rock drummers roundtable video for HollywoodDrum.com with the drummers of Silversun Pickups, Motion City Soundtrack, and She Wants Revenge. Watch for it here soon!

One of my favorite things to do on a free night in L.A. is check out live music. Right up there with cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels. This is the first of an on-going series of mini-reviews of shows around town that will be posted here in the news blog: Hittin’. We’ll still be doing occasional feature reviews, but I wanted a place to quickly upload some pics and unload some fresh impressions. There are worse things to purge on the morning after.

The Drummer
I admit to being late to the party concerning Nate Wood. It was only recently that I was exposed to his brilliant drumming on Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan’s stunning 2009 release, Red Hail. With performances like that and capacity crowds like the one at Seven Grand for his band Kneebody in downtown L.A. last night, it may be the party has only begun.

The Scene
The downtown scene is gaining its legs—and a soul. Though of L.A., Kneebody sounds like a New York band. The music is avant-garde, stone-cold hip, and snotty; seamlessly melding post bop and drum n bass. Seeing the show amidst the tension of urban decay and renaissance—in the mounted-deer-heads gone wild, swank whiskey-lodge setting of Seven Grand—made perfect sense. A Hollywood or Valley jazz club would not quite have synchronized the experience just so. The second floor club on W 7th St. elevated it.

The Band
If the elongated room, obtrusive pool tables, and human mass made the group challenging to see, the sound from the stage was unmistakable. Perhaps baffling at times, but unmistakable. These guys have been together awhile, and the precision, compositional density, and conceptual sophistication were testament. Kneebody speaks its own language—with native codes and syntax—that while often cryptic in structure, requires no interpreter to understand. You don’t necessarily need to speak fluent Mongolian to recognize that it is a fully developed, nuanced and emotive language. Pro players (out in force) and casual music-lovers alike surrendered to the modulating rhythms, whirling melodies, and obscured forms; translating complex to simple, strange to familiar, head-scratching to ass-shaking.

The Drummer. Again.
Wood played a lead role in the dialogue on stage. His alternately fluid and halting, always inventive and inspired timekeeping shaped the motion and direction of the whole. He managed frenetic ideas and energy with light, relaxed, and controlled touch. His mostly de-tuned Gretsch drums and dark, trashy cymbals complimented his earthy flow. On more breakbeat oriented grooves, he would mute a sizzle cymbal with a crash, place an 8″ splash on the snare, small crash on the floor, and a tam tam on the rack. His approach with this setup was fascinating—a drum n bass style that is a mix of dub, Stewart Copeland, and Elvin Jones. No doubt, Wood is a wildly endowed and original musician.

Wood is currently preparing a move from L.A. to N.Y.C. Still, I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing much more of him.

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