If you’re looking for the Great American Songbook, he
plays at Largo every Friday night. Jon Brion is the celebrated
producer/collaborator behind albums by Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann,
Elliott Smith and countless others, as well as the soundtracks for
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “I
Heart Huckabees.” Brion has held a Friday night residency at
the Fairfax club for years, but dinner reservations for his
performances are still booked solid for months in advance. He seems
to have gained some new fans from his recent involvement with the
controversial Fiona Apple album, “Extraordinary
Machine.” Brion produced the as-yet-unreleased CD, which has
been finished since mid-2003 and was leaked onto the Internet last
month. Fans have been campaigning relentlessly for its release,
starting FreeFiona.com and even staging a protest outside Sony
headquarters in January. Although Apple’s name was overheard
as Brion took the stage last Friday, as soon as the music started,
the spotlight was clearly on him.
Brion is quite possibly the ultimate one-man band. A virtuosic
musician, he used live tape loops to capture each individual
instrument’s part as he played it, layering drums, piano,
bass and rhythm guitar one at a time before stepping up to the
microphone to actually sing the song. Everything about
Brion’s performance was effortless, from his frenetic guitar
solos to his piano ballads to his astounding repertoire of cover
songs. The only snag was the out-of-tune harmonica he played on an
acoustic version of “Knock Yourself Out,” a song from
the “Huckabees” soundtrack. In one of many comedic
moments, Brion told the audience to drink until it was in tune.
The tousle-haired musician played two 90-minute sets, with most
of the crowd sticking around well into the evening to shout
requests. There was not a song named Brion couldn’t play,
even merging two at the same time when one audience member yelled
out, “Dude looks like a lady is a tramp!” He used the
middle of his song “Walking Through Walls” to segue
into a ’70s rock medley, and later followed up with a rapid
run-through of Devo’s “Whip It,” The
Beatles’ “And Your Bird Can Sing” and
Heart’s “Barracuda.” Showing off his versatility,
Brion began a 10-minute version of “Stairway to Heaven”
with Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.”
Brion is no one-trick pony, and the cover songs seemed to be
more of an exercise in fighting boredom than a front for lack of
original material. Though Brion has only one solo album to his
name, he interspersed his set with fan favorites like “Knock
Yourself Out” and new, unnamed songs. For all of
Brion’s technical ability, his lyrics are the real
heartbreakers. One particularly beautiful song abandoned the
full-band layering, featuring Brion alone at his piano singing
about finally giving up on an old lover; “you’re
someone else’s problem now,” he sang. Brion isn’t
Los Angeles’ problem, but he may be its best-kept secret. He
continues to provide possibly the most unpredictable, exciting rock
show in town, and for a mere $10 cover charge, he also supplies the
most elusive type of Friday night in Los Angeles: the bargain.
-David Greenwald