Aside from the musical pics taken from last weekends jaunt into the Holly-hood, I played vacation snapper…

You know it’s LA…even the thin layer of smog, isn’t a turn off… and the surrounding beaches – Venice and Santa Monica, so close, and so gorg…there is a reason why, all the beautiful people want to live there….it’s fun, it’s gorgeous, and it’s sunny!

On landing, headed up to Santa Monica…so pretty…it was so relaxed…and enjoyed a lunchtime raspberry margarita…….yum – and hey, I was on VACATION, lol…and raspberry anything is yummy! And you gotta love anyplace that features a perpetual ferris wheel! And sandy beaches………sigh…

Sigh, but back at home…summer is over………..but…HAWAII in January…happy birthday to ME!

Aside from the musical pics taken from last weekends jaunt into the Holly-hood, I played vacation snapper…

You know it’s LA…even the thin layer of smog, isn’t a turn off… and the surrounding beaches – Venice and Santa Monica, so close, and so gorg…there is a reason why, all the beautiful people want to live there….it’s fun, it’s gorgeous, and it’s sunny!

On landing, headed up to Santa Monica…so pretty…it was so relaxed…and enjoyed a lunchtime raspberry margarita…….yum – and hey, I was on VACATION, lol…and raspberry anything is yummy! And you gotta love anyplace that features a perpetual ferris wheel! And sandy beaches………sigh…

Sigh, but back at home…summer is over………..but…HAWAII in January…happy birthday to ME!

Anywho, I spent this last weekend down in LaLa-land, aka Los Angeles, specifically in West Hollywood, with a side of the beach and the hills surrounding during the day…

Decided to stay in that part of town, because had made my trip to correspond with a fun show! The Lovehammers, an established band out of Chicago, were going to have a west coast CD release party for their new CD – Heavy Crown, at the Key Club…sounded fun! So I ventured down to the land of the beautiful and boyant, to visit with my friends Vicki and Cheryl…met a bunch of fun people in addition, not to mention most of the Lovehammers at a meet and mingle listening party the next day at a tattoo parlor over in Hollywood proper…Marty is TALL…of course it may be because I was wearing flats…cute flats, but none the less…

He is also so sweet looking, polite and and just cute! While many remember him as the mad conductor on stage as the popular vote getter from the inaugural season of the Rockstar (INXS) series…and many fans of him for years as the lead of the Lovehammers, and the many added fans during his recent turn with the LA Guns…in person, he just comes across as a really nice, tall skinny, normal guy. Who is cute…not deathly hot – though I KNOW some may disagree…but sweet. I spent a lot of time watching him at the listening party, how he interacted with people, and his demeanor…I am a watcher after all—I think this is why I kind of love the photography…anyway, I was really captured by this. The few brief moments where my one friend and I said hi and introduced ourselves only underscored this.

I won’t forget Billy either, or should I say Bill? As all the LH were wandering and chatting amongst everyone, my friend Cheryl grabbed him and asked him to take a picture with us…and he seemed SO happy to…Very nice guy…I think they all are…Dino and Bobby not to be excluded…….it’s so weird how much alike they look…yet so different…Embarrassingly enough, I believe my friend told Bobby I thought he was the hottest LH…I mean he IS…but eeshers……lol…I think I encouraged her…needless to say, it was an open bar evening……………

All of that said…I came to LA as a mini break vacation…to hang out with friends, catch some good music, and have fun… But because the Key Club, happens to have an open camera policy, and I never leave home with out mine…I snapped off some shots between sips of Cosmos, come eventual diet Cokes this evening…from across the room…perhaps no earth shattering shots…but it reminded me why I love to shoot music…just for fun. It really doesn’t matter that they are gritty and a bit grainy…it was fun to hang out and not care overmuch…to me watching music, listening…I listen a lot with my eyes…visuals mean A LOT to me, and I KNEW the Lovehammers would not disappoint…after all Marty Casey is one of the most charismatic front guys out there…he really should be a super star…most guys on stage to NOT give all of that…they just don’t…I am not an uber fan…but I have seen enough various live acts and seen Marty enough to know he is the EXCEPTION not the rule when it comes to stage presence…very few have that raw, yet controlled power that demand your rapt attention. In some ways, it almost doesn’t matter what comes out of his mouth…though I have to say, what I heard last Friday was a much more refined sound than what I had heard from the Lovehammers, and/or Marty previously…perhaps it’s more mature music? Though it included many from their past CD’s…maybe it was the added second guitar and keyboards? There was more depth to the sound, and vocally, Marty’s voice just sounded smoother…not screechy/screamy in the least…or maybe it was just a better sound system? No idea…but it was a great show. My only complaint was that the lighting for their headlining set, was severely back lit, with few flashes of front spots…so it was really hard to expose from back of the house! lol…It’s all about me, isn’t it?!!??! kidding…

Anyways, here’s a few of the images from the evening…

flickr set – http://www.flickr.com/photos/emswazzu/sets/72157622346564093/detail/

For more on the Lovehammers – http://lovehammers.com/
For more on Marty – http://martycasey.com/

Next up a few shots from around the town, beach etc…Love LA!

xoxo
~Elisa

In the time since I last saw them live, in Baltimore, MD 2006…they have changed their style a bit, performance wise…a bit darker…Toby does not Kangarilla around as much… He looks to be lean, yet still well muscled, lol…well displayed by the wifebeater tank he is sporting through most of the images I have featured…

They have an Austrailian release out and available, “Nowhere left to Hide”

They have taken up current residence(read extended visit) in LA…and I was lucky enough to catch their closing set at the after show at the Lovehammers(blog on them next) west coast  CD release party…

I had planned on coming to LA visit with some friends and catch the Lovehammers. I was pleasantly surprised when a few days before I left, Juke Kartel announced they would also be performing…

The Key Club has fun lights, so even though I set up residence back by the bar, I decided to snap off some shots…They are colorful, if a bit grainy, but hey texture isn’t a horrible thing…it tells you what kind of night it was…

Good looking boys…check them out…

Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emswazzu/sets/72157622346760815/detail/

For more on Juke Kartel, http://www.myspace.com/jukekartel