Walking down La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood, you might not notice the alleyway entrance to Largo at the Coronet, a 280-seat theater where the likes of singer-songwriter Fiona Apple and comedian Sarah Silverman have performed.
But once you enter through the gate and into the European courtyard, your senses are overcome by the royal red walls, lightbulb-headed golden mannequins and a DJ playing funk music.
At its previous location on Fairfax Avenue, Largo was a small diner club that performers and audiences alike flocked to for an intimate concert experience. Resident musician Jon Brion, an ambidextrous one-man band, was a staple of the venue and gave performances there on Friday nights.
Third-year ethnomusicology student Wyatt Stone said he was a regular visitor during his high school years, because he was drawn to Brion’s style that was neither too simple nor too completely lost in technology.
Stone said that since owner and Belfast native Mark Flanagan moved Largo to a more central location at the Coronet Theatre, it has gotten more popular and lost some of the community intimacy it had before. Brion plays there only once a month now. But the larger performance space holds more equipment, such as two video projectors, and enhances acoustic instruments.
Stone has also been on the other side of the stage, too, performing songs alongside Rickie Lee Jones and Brion at the new Largo in 2009.
When fourth-year ethnomusicology student Satoru Yamamoto saw Brion, the power went out during the second song.
Not letting the power outage shut him down, Brion continued to play an all-request acoustic set on piano, guitar and vibraphone for the next hour, lit only by a flashlight in the middle of the stage.
Yamamoto said Brion also invited people from the audience to join him with about seven guitars and a tambourine. The tambourine player even got a solo. According to Yamamoto, Brion regularly encourages audience participation by enthusiastically shouting things like “Sing!” before playing choruses he knows the audience can sing along with. His set list is mostly determined by random yelled-out requests.
Yamamoto said he was drawn to Brion by his spontaneity and optimism in the face of unforeseen electronic failure; power outages are the true test of acoustic musicianship.
When the power came back on, Brion plugged in and played for another couple of hours, but Yamamoto said he was glad he got to experience the stripped down acoustic set that brought Brion and the audience back to the roots of his music.
When I saw Brion perform with Andrew Bird at the new Largo in 2008, I could already tell from the upright piano with Viking horns and the giant two-headed Janus Horn onstage that the concert was going to be a memorable experience. Largo’s stage is always littered with musical oddities and gems.
Largo’s policy of no talking during performances also enhances the audience’s experience, highlighting concerts as musical rather than social events as they can often turn into these days when people talk during shows.
But there is time for socializing when the musicians are not performing. Largo provides a friendly atmosphere in which musicians are accessible to us regular folk; after I saw Bird perform, I shook hands with him in the courtyard and told him I was a fan.
He smiled and took a sip from what looked like scotch on the rocks. Just another night at Largo.
If you love Largo, email Cosgrove at scosgrove@media.ucla.edu.