Third Thursday at Highland Grounds

Hollywood - September 16, 1999

[John's Local Band Pix] [Highland Grounds' Home Page]

Susan James

Ok, I admit it. I only really came to the show this night to see Chris Von Sneidern and Robbie Rist. Susan James was a very pleasant surprise. Another really good singer / songwriter (gee, there ain't none o' them in Los Angeles :-). I dont know if she usually plays with a band or what, but I'd really like to see her with a band backing her up, as a couple of her songs were just aching for harmony vocals. For her cover song, she did Sail On, Sailor by the Brian Wilson, and used Mike Randle as a music stand to hold up the lyrics. Very nice.

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Chris Von Sneidern and Robbie Rist overlapped their sets a bit. First Chris went up and played a couple of songs, then Robbie joined him on stage, and they did several songs (with a little bit of collaboration) and finally Chris left for Robbie's final song. It was a stellar set. Both artists totally shined. Of particular note were the numbers where Robbie joined Chris on lead guitar and some backup vocals. It only seemed to be planned in one case. The other two songs where he did this, it looked like Robbie was watching the chords for the first verse, comping along on the second verse, and then breaking into leads. Damn. I'm impressed. :-) Robbie's first two numbers were showstoppers. The first was called something like Momma, do you think I'm psycho? about a psychotic murderer. The second was The F Word, with the surprise ending (if ya ain't heard it before) "Let's just be f....". For his cover song, Robbie did a 3D Picnic song called Dirty Yellow House, which Carolyn Edwards wrote. Chris didn't have a cover song planned, so he started off trying to play Young Girls are Coming to the Canyon by The Mamas and The Papas, but he couldn't remember it, so he went into a blues jam thing where the lyrics expressed his impotency of not being able to play a cover song in a Hollywood coffee shop. This included a little bit of Dancing in the Street (but done as "Winter's here and the time is right for freezing in the street"). Of course, Robbie joined in, and it turned into a monumental jam.

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I only stayed for the first number and a half of this band. They sounded ok, but nothing to rivet me to my seat, and I wanted to get home early so I split. I was really rude, too. I got up right in the middle of a song & left. Sorry guys, maybe next time.

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While chatting on the patio between sets, I asked Mike Randle and Robbie Rist if I could do a posed shot of them, and they gave me this little gem. Are those rock-n-roll stars or what?

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