“Somebody threw a Kuala at me…”

Those were the words of Jenny Lewis, lead singer of Rilo Kiley, when she was talking to the audience at the Warfield in San Francisco, last Thursday night. While talking between songs, somebody threw a little stuffed Kuala at her; after making her statement, she replied with the rhetorical question: What the fuck?

I drove up to San Francisco that evening to see Rilo Kiley and met up with my uncle Tim and his friend Dave. The opening bands were Grande Ole Party and Jonathan Rice.

After some intense traffic on Highway 101 and some excruciating confusion with the street structure of San Francisco, I found myself at the Warfield. As I walked in to find my seat and my uncle, I ran into my friend Anna there. By the way, you should check out the music zine she works for: treblezine. You can find out about some cool stuff in the indie music scene.

With some confusion and hysteria of trying to find my seat, I managed to settle into it and eventually Tim and Dave met up as well. The first band was Grande Ole Party. It’s rare to see a lead singer take on the drummer role. I mean, I’ve never seen Genesis or the Eagles in concert so I wouldn’t be able to measure Phil Collins’s or Don Henley’s magic with singing and drumming at the same time. However, for Grande Ole Party I was able to see that skill. The band was all right, overall. The singer seemed to be a fan of Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, to which her voice and singing style was very reminiscent of hers. Plus, I had trouble making the songs somewhat distinguishable. But then again I wasn’t familiar with their music.

The second performance was Jonathan Rice. It was himself and his backup band. What I got from this guy was that he was some egotistical LA hipster who grew up listening to Neil Young. I found it amusing when he talked to the crowd between songs. For certain songs, he would give an introduction like:

“Where I’m from, in LA, there are a lot of coyotes. They’re scary animals. Well, just imagine coyotes storming into the office of the governor. Think of the stuff that those coyotes can do to the governor. Well, this song is about that.”

So, of course, you think that the song would be a bit more metaphorical from that. However, once the chorus kicks in for the song, we all hear:

“There are coyotes in the governor’s office, doing things that you can only imagine about…”

Did you really need to give us that literal introduction about your song?

As his performance continued, I figured the guy must be a real prick, and really full of himself. I imagined him at some “cool” bar in LA talking to some attractive woman:

“I’m Jonathan motherfucking Rice. I’m a goddamn singer and I can play the guitar. Having sex with me is like making love to a pile of gold.”

The woman then replies with, “A pile of gold? I don’t see the pleasure in that. It’s a pile of rocks; who would want to have sex with a pile of rocks? Also, are you using gold as some concept of value? Because gold doesn’t have the same impact that it did, lets say, in the 1800s. I mean, if you were to say, ‘Having sex with me is like making love to a pile of great stock options’ then you would be a bit more appealing. I’d say you should get with the times.”

Then you would see a blank stare on Rice’s face.

“… I’m Jonathan motherfucking Rice. I can write you a song about the flowers along the side of the 405 Freeway. I’ll call it ‘The Flowers Along the 405 Freeway.’ The chorus will be ‘have you seen the flowers along the side of the 405 Freeway? They look like really pretty flowers, they look like you.’”

Suddenly Jonathan Rice realizes that the lady is no longer there.

“Well, I’m Jonathan motherfucking Rice.”

To further enhance his ego, his last song (called “We’re All in a Desert and We’re All Going to Die”) was accompanied by Ben Gibbard (the lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie and the mastermind behind the Postal Service… not the government mailing system), who provided backup vocals and tambourine sounds. Just as a side note, Ben Gibbard is really good friends with Jenny Lewis (who provided backup vocals for the Postal Service album).

Finally Rilo Kiley came on. They have a new album out entitled Under the Black Light. Hence why they are on tour. I thought it was interesting that they opened up with “It’s a Hit,” which is the first track off of their previous album More Adventurous. Overall, the performance was a strong combination of both of their latest albums.

Our seats were in the balcony area of the venue. Some of the balconies had everyone standing up; ours was one where there wasn’t much standing, mostly sitting. In the beginning of Rilo Kiley’s performance, many of the people in the front part of our balcony stood up. After the second song, it was mostly sitting for everyone. However, one prick decided to stand up randomly during the show, and that prick was the person who was sitting in front of me. I looked around and not a single soul in my balcony was standing. And, of course, the prick had to be tall. I didn’t want to stand up because the person behind me wouldn’t see and then that person would have to stand, and then a whole domino effect would take place. The prick didn’t have a pattern; he would stand for one song and then sit down for two or three, then stand again for the next. And he wasn’t even dancing. I wished him seven years of bad luck.

The reason this was such a big deal for me was that I wasn’t able to see Jenny Lewis. Besides the band being very talented, it’s a side bonus that the Jenny Lewis is… pretty. I’ll keep it simple; I don’t want to be an obnoxious heterosexual guy. So, here I am trying to see:
I end up seeing this:
The performance by Rilo Kiley was quite enjoyable. I enjoyed the mixture of the two most recent albums from them. They did a cover but I had no idea what the cover was. Jenny Lewis introduced the song with, “This is a cover song.” Then they went right into it. About three lines in, the crowd began cheering. I had no idea what they were cheering about.

Overall, a very satisfying night, even though getting to the place was a bit hectic and I got to be behind the one person who decided to stand in my section. I’d see them again. Fo sho.