Vaud and the Villains - How Do You Spell E-C-L-E-C-T-I-C?

The last thing I had in mind when I left my apartment last Saturday was to receive some musical epiphany at LA’s MacArthur Park… yes, THAT MacArthur Park.  I really wanted to go see Alex Cuba at Levitt Pavilion in Pasadena but just couldn’t talk myself into riding the metro for an hour and a half just to see a show probably not even that long and then ride the darn thing home again.  And I really like Alex Cuba, but you know what they say: “Time is money.” 

I really needed some new reading glasses, though, and there’s a 99c store right there at the MacArthur Park, so I figured I’d go check out this act called Vaud and the Villains, that sounded at least halfway interesting, if nothing else. Usually I go for world music and then the musically heartfelt confessional types: Dylan, Joni, Townes, some blues (and the Africa they came from), a few other non-precious singer-songwriter types and even some non-literal seething pre-fuzion jazz wailers.  

Sometimes, though, I just want entertainment, but not smoke machines a la Beyond-say or Lady Gaga’s show-off shenanigans; and Ke$ha’s taken off most of her clothes by now, so I’m not sure there’s anything left to do there, either.  I just want to be lifted—and transported—out of the world of ordinary toil and trouble, and into a fantasy world where anything is possible, and which hopefully includes music. If that’s a world that stitches past and future into one seamless present, then so much the better.

Vaud and the Villains fill the bill.  Though nominally inspired by vaudeville, and by general agreement channeling the heyday of New Orleans, Vaud and the gang also evoke such disparate charms as those of a Baptist tent revival and the Pickle Family Circus.  And yes, they can play their instruments.  Though the femme fatales tend to hover around the front stage as eye candy and a reminder to not take anything too seriously, the music is always there solid and full, running through such numbers as “John Henry,” Marie LaVeaux,” and “Iko Iko.”  Apparently these guys are LA-based, but this is the first that I’ve heard of them.  They’ve got a big gig at one of the uphill amphis later this summer, though, the Ford I think.  Check ‘em out.

Best free gigs for this weekend are looking like Pachamama, Raskahuele, and Hijos del Sol at MacArthur Park on Saturday 6/29 at 8pm, or Orquesta Charangoa same place on Sunday 6/30 at 7pm, but fans of the electronic stuff might prefer Grand Performances Downtown at the Water Court at the same time with Pole, John Tejada, and Plaid.  Or all of the above; C U there.