On Tuesday night (8/14) I went to an acoustic show at the Wiltern LG: Aaron Lewis of Staind, with Lo-Pro opening. Powerful vocals happening all around, and I had a great time.
Lo-Pro opened the show. The lead singer has an amazing voice…especially on the first song of the set. Decent songwriting, too…The last song of the set was especially strong. Overall, I liked Lo-Pro a lot. (I’d give you song titles, but it was too dark in the venue to write down lyrics to look them up. If band or management will kindly zap me the L.A. set list, I’ll edit in the song titles. The Email address in the Contact Us section of MusicBizAdvice.com will reach me.)
Aaron Lewis was great, too. As much as I like Staind, it was refreshing to hear him sing stripped-down versions of the songs. As a singer he really is underrated, and sometimes the production on the CDs hides the excellence of his voice.
A few highlights of Aaron Lewis's set:
There was an awesome version of “Please” with a great vocal that had Aaron hitting that perfect spot in his voice.
“Let It Out” was great, too.
Lyrically the songs are especially strong. His writing is very brave, with lyrics that tear your heart out, and he sings them that way, too. “Something Like Me” was a real standout in that respect, as was “Zoe Jane”.
“Reply” was very touching as well. (Actually in my notes I wrote “AWESOME!!!” in huge letters.)
There were some funny moments, too…A dead-on impression of Neil Diamond singing “Love On the Rocks,” and a verse and chorus of Kermit the Frog’s “Rainbow Connection”…in Frog voice.
And, Aaron noodled around on Van Morrison’s “Moondance,” too...which actually suited the mellow side of his voice really well and was a nice surprise (for the audience, too—they got really into it).
Overall, a very cool show, in one of the most beautiful art deco theatres in the U.S. .
