Westwood Unplugged

Music and Los Angeles go together like unfulfilled expectations
and Bruin basketball. A battle of the bands can break out anywhere
and anytime. The latest musical mêlée to hit the Westwood
area is an eight-week free-for-all called Acoustic Live. The
tournament commenced on Sept. 8 and runs every Sunday through Oct.
27. Fans of local music and scavengers of freebies can attend
Acoustic Live at the Westwood Brewing Company this Sunday at 6 p.m.
Acoustic Live, the brainchild of Scott Dudelson, Seth Schwartz and
Laurie Haines, pits six artists a week against each other in the
presence of five industry judges. This week’s performers
include the Painkillers, Lily’s Siren, Lustra, Scared of
Girls, Lo Mass Republic, and Clockwork. The weekly special guest
this Sunday will be EXIT, a band that has Dudelson and Schwartz
anxiously counting the days. “They’re an all-female U2
cover band,” Schwartz said. “It’s insane.
They’re going to be doing some originals this Sunday.”
Dissatisfied with the riotous atmosphere of other battles of the
bands,

Dudelson, Schwartz and Haines set out to create a more laid-back
environment to showcase some of the best bands in Los Angeles.
Electric guitars, amplifiers, effect pedals and drum kits are
dumped in favor of acoustic guitars and hand drums. This unplugged
format allows the material to shine through instead of spotlighting
aggressive on-stage antics. “Some battles of the bands are
really loud and obnoxious,” Schwartz said. “You
can’t hang out with your friends and enjoy the music because
it’s so loud. The level of talent wasn’t sought after
to begin with, so we decided to put on an event that sought good
entertainment. We had 230 submissions for this in a month. We only
picked 42.” As a UCLA alumnus, Dudelson is especially
thrilled about last week’s top performer, fellow Bruin Sara
Bareilles, a fifth-year communications student. “She’s
going to be in the finals,” Dudelson said. “Her voice
is just amazing.” Dudelson, a classics student who graduated
last year, is also connected to UCLA musicology professor Robert
Walser, who judges for some of the shows and plans to invite
artists to talk about the local music scene in one of his lectures.
“He was my professor in my senior year,” Dudelson said.
“We wanted to get the UCLA community involved, and he’s
the chair of the UCLA musicology department. He’s a
professional, a doctor of music.” For Dudelson, the
inspiration for Acoustic Live can be traced back to his days in
college. “During my senior year, I developed a huge love for
music, but I didn’t know what good

music to see or where to see them,” Dudelson said.
“I couldn’t afford to see Dave Matthews every weekend
at $50 a pop, so I wanted to see some good local bands.”
Enter Schwartz. The two met when Dudelson was covering one of the
bands featured on thelamusicscene.com, Schwartz’s pet
project. “I started the site actually as a challenge against
a band I was managing,” Schwartz said. “They said
there’s no local music scene, and I wanted to prove them
wrong. We’ve shown that there is a scene. There are 1,000
bands on the site. You can find over a hundred reviews on local
music, which is pretty much unheard of.” The lack of a job
and the desire to see live music every night of his life prompted
Dudelson to join Schwartz. “One of my goals in life is to be
surrounded by music, and working at a concert venue afforded me the
opportunity to see live music every night, see how acts are booked,
see how promotion is done, and see how to deal with the
press,” Dudelson said. Schwartz views Acoustic Live as a
win-win situation for both fans and artists. “We’re
trying to be educational about it and also expose local bands that
are not going to perform one day and be in Minnesota the
next,” Schwartz said.

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