Hotel Cafe

Well, Andrew, Eric and I had a memorable night.

We decided to go to the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood to catch Tom Morello, utterly oblivious to the fact that KROQ 106.7 FM had been talking about the show to all of LA county all day long. And the venue holds about 250-300 bodies max. We arrived a few minutes before 8:00 (the alleged time that the doors were to open) and found a line that stretched most of the way around the block. Long story short: we were about 10-20 spots away from getting in. We spent 4 hours in an alley in Hollywood, which was way more fun than it sounds like because Tom's a cool guy and he came out three times to play a song for us and I got to shake his hand the last time (!!!).

And he also made a bunch of his friends come out to entertain us too so we got to hear "Take My Picture" from Rick Patrick (singer for Filter) and then Mike Einziger (lead guitarist for Incubus) came out and played a couple of times with different folks.

I think the highlight of the night was Ben Harper's alley mini-set of two songs with his Innocent Criminals on percussion. It was pretty sweet. Especially when he played "Burn One Down" and roughly 75% of my fellow alleyfolk burnt one down. At least that's what it smelled like out there. A little later I got to shake his hand after getting a picture of Andrew with him. Playing it cool, I said "Thanks for doing what you do," and he said "Thanks for listening." Luckily I was able to maintain control of my bodily functions since I was still stuck in the alley with no access to basic sanitation equipment, but I was pretty excited. He was really cool - he stayed around for about a half hour signing autographs and talking to his fans.

So anyway, I got some great pics with my phone but can't figure out how to email them to myself. I think I need a 12-year-old to show me how.

UPDATE:

Thanks to Andrew for scouring youtube to find some footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwvAtlKI66o

We're visible for about the first 20-30 seconds.