Visual art curator and Angeleno contributor Carol Cheh snagged the final dregs of Arthur Nights 2006 in LA on Sunday, Oct. 22. Here are her brief impressions of art and architecture:
Kyp Malone stands alone.
Courtesy of Arthur magazine online.
I arrived at the downtown Palace Theatre just in time to catch TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone, Fiery Furnaces, Comets on Fire, and as much of Ocrilim as I could stand (about five seconds).
Malone offered a soulful and utterly compelling a cappella performance. The Furnaces did their groovy, organ-based, ’70s-styled thing…and Comets on Fire lived up to their name (although the axes-of-the-gods jam sessions were really not my cup of tea – at least not on this night). All three delivered very good sets.
I think the star of the evening, however, was really the Palace, an old-fashioned Hollywood movie theatre built in 1911. Its ruinous grandeur and air of faded opulence, along with cool period features like a crank elevator and a deluxe powder area in the ladies room, delivered ambiance galore for this knighted gathering of the über-hip. The free ice cream rocked, too.