By Anthony Bromberg
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
There’s something about a grown man distributing daisies,
prancing toward a stage as it fills with fog. Then in a final
burst, tossing the remains of the flowers at an unsuspecting
patrons’ table, stepping up to the microphone and talking
about all the love that can be felt in the room. What that
something is, exactly, is anybody’s guess, but Saturday night
at Largo that was Grant Lee Phillips’ grand entrance that
immediately put the audience at a laughing ease, and made the small
club feel like a dreamy musical home away from home.
Phillips, with his golden acrobatic voice, played an enchanting
set peppered with comedy and sonic wonderment. It was his
farewell-for-now show as he and Eric Gorfain, his friend and
violinist, who pops out from behind doors to join in on songs,
depart for a world tour celebrating the international release of
his album “Mobilize.”
The intimate venue, with its low light, packed tables, quiet
patrons and music artists just hanging out at their second home,
fit Phillips’ style. Though a couple of clearly inebriated
women decided it would be a good idea to talk through songs, Largo
was generally silent save laughter and cheering in between songs
and Phillips’ tangential diatribes. The fog machine provided
the only visual thrills of the night besides the mugs of the
performers. The stage filled with fog at the set’s opening.
Phillips then used it during his encore and it went off once
randomly during the night, which allowed Phillips to joke about
L.A.’s smog problem.
Musically, the night saw Phillips revisit old ground, and
playing stripped down versions of his more recent songs. Wearing no
hat and a messy hairdo only supplemented by his sweating, Phillips
played acoustic guitar, piano, banjo, and even a little harmonica
for good measure.
Phillips was joined onstage over the course of the night by a
random Irish drummer who made a point of declaring that he was in a
signed band, a comedian, and resident musical guru Jon Brion.
The collaborations allowed Phillips a freedom of performance and
gave him more material to riff off of. Phillips and Brion did a
supposedly improvisational version of the song from “Smokey
and the Bandit.” The improv featured the single verse of the
song changed only in which direction they were going, from East to
North. With Brion, Phillips had a musical partner who could
supplement his songs as well as his quick wit.
During the encore with Brion on piano, Phillips worked his way
through interestingly ““ grooving with the microphone ““
impassioned versions of “Ashes to Ashes” and T.
Rex’s “Cosmic Dancer.”
The rest of the songs Phillips played consisted predominately of
tracks from his Grant Lee Buffalo album “Mighty Joe
Moon,” including the radio hit “Mockingbirds,”
and other soul stirrers like “Lady Godiva and Me” and
“Sing Along.” He also managed to include songs from
“Mobilize,” which were still effective given the
acoustic treatment, especially the rollicking “Spring
Released.”
As Phillips smiled widely while rambling between songs, and
moved his head around the microphone to the feeling of the music
during the songs, he had the audience’s rapt and delighted
attention.
Being at the show and getting to see Phillips at Largo with Jon
Brion, brought up ideas of what Los Angeles must have been like in
the mid-60s when the music scene was flourishing and on any given
night a great show could be seen on the scene.