Room 5: the Best (okay the only) LA spot for me

Kacia- I'm posting! Wow! It's been so long, but I just needed something to especially motivate me, I suppose, to make me post. A lot of really cool things have happened, to be sure, but this just screamed for a post because we have lots and lots of pictures and videos to share.

For my birthday, I wanted to revisit Room 5 in LA (I went there last month-ish) to see several unsigned singer/songwriter artists I've been enjoying lately. Room 5 is this tiny, best-kept-secret kinda lounge that advertises as 21+ but isn't actually, so Mum took me, Kara, Kayley and Megan down to LA to enjoy the lovelyness of great music, food and company. The main draw was Greg Holden since we have and listen to several of his CDs, but we left as enthusiastic fans of several more artists that night. It was super-great.

Before we actually got there, though, we had some time to burn and went to a mall where we enjoyed make-up tutorials.


Then we finally went upstairs and secured what are now our favorite seats. We were at the very front. Notice that you can see the back and all sides of the room. That's how big (small) the place is. :)

Lots of chitchatting and super-good pasta was enjoyed before/after the opening artist as the room filled to the brim. Although the opening couple was very talented, we were glad to see the next artist. It's just was really difficult to enjoy 5-6 sings sung in Spanish.

Plus, then it was time for the introverted but friendly and talented British immigrant: Mr Holden.

He has a lot of hair. And suspenders. Which are apparently called braces in England, making it very difficult for him to buy here, since the shopkeeper was very confused about why he wasn't visiting a dentist, and he thought she was trying to sell him things to keep up girl's stockings.

We approved.


Then we enjoyed the definitely eccentric but definitely cute Katie Costello.


I also liked that she read us a journal entry she'd written the day before which simple consisted of a compliment to the man accompanying her on accordion.

Then was the biggest surprise/delight of the evening, Ian Axel.

If you saw this guy walking down the street, you wouldn't think "This man must be A GREAT MUSICIAN!" (of course, I dunno who you'd think that about, but still). Greg told the audience that the day before, Ian's forehead had gotten sunburt, and in the car on the way today he kept asking "Can we get some Aloe? Can we get some Aloe?"
However, we soon saw that this guy wasn't just going up there with hopes of being good. He was sharing some greatness with us. His performance style was surprising at first, to be sure. But then you got to see that it was just this amazing enthusiasm and energy he couldn't hardly contain and it was really great to watch live :
)

And then it was funny, because as soon as the song was over, he'd go back to this:

He was nervous, he doesn't stutter like that, just fyi. Here's 2 more, just because you may, like us, not have had enough of this guy.



Even if you don't watch any, WATCH THIS: (Notice that I bold-ed, itallic-ed and caps lock-ed) one of the best songs of the night. Ian's singing a great song with an equally enthusiastic Chad Vaccarino. Chad works with Ian, and this is the only one he came up for, but he shined.


But a great show you could see anywhere. Go to the Staples Center and you'll be very entertained by talent. Come to Room 5 and the talent isn't distant stars but actual PEOPLE who you get to actually TALK to. Without having to wait in line. Or get a backstage pass. Because there was no backstage, haha. So, of course we did.

We were asking questions about lyrics and conversing about honey, using music to inspire kids as a teacher and other random stuff, including that we had recently made a copycat video of Ian's bare-bones-cheap music video to the song "This is the New Year". I had seen it because Greg posted it, (he's in it, as is Katie), and thought it looked so fun we had to do our own. So we did. When I told Ian that his face lit up with delight and he said "Send it to us!" Now, I have this odd feeling you guys would like to see it too. So here:

First, the inspiration:


And now, our own version:



These guys were selling their stuff out of a suitcase with a little hand-drawn sign. Ian just wanted donations and signing up for his mailing list for his CD. Just to give you an idea of how 'struggling-artists'/'stars-in-the-making?' these people are (and therefore how much they'd LOVE you to get their stuff if you like it :D ).

Of course, all these good times, conversing and enthusiasm for their talent led to autographs and photos.

Mom was conversing at these moments so she didn't get a photo. :/

We got in the car to drive home and there was just ejaculations all around about how much fun and how cool the evening had been. I was especially happy for Meg, who wasn't familiar with even Greg, but left saying "I need all three of those CDs!!" Needless to say, we're coming back when they're next in town (New York city natives). I'd also just go there for kicks anytime one of you feels like it, so if you do let me know!