The Echo: Grand Ole Echo

I last went to the Grand Ole Echo in mid-2019 or over two years ago. I decided it was time to head over again. I was intrigued by the fact that I'd interviewed 3 of the 5 bands on the bill: Balto, Kapali Løng and Emily Rose & The Rounders. 

Opening up the afternoon was Susy Sun and Smith Allen. A duo who put out some folk tunes. The set was a chill way to start off the indoor portion of the afternoon / evening event. The two took turns taking the lead. One moment that one really has to remember is towards the end when Smith Allen left the stage, allowing Susy Sun to play some of her own tunes without his backing. Then the sound guy stated that they only had time for one more song. Susy Sun went with it and played the final song. As she was finishing up, Smith Allen returned from the Green Room and was informed by the band that they were done. 

Susy Sun and Smith Allen

Coming up next was Balto who gave a performance that got the blood going. Their music has a 70s rock / country sound to it that had them holding court on the stage. They used the full stage to put on a memorable set. There was something always going on to catch the eye. Even if they were just stationary, there was movements made; be it via a smile or a tilt of the guitars or a body lean. It just made for a set that captured the imagination of the crowd.

Balto

Kapali Løng hails from Hawaii, but has lived in Los Angeles for 12 years or so. Even though he has lived in Los Angeles for twelve years, he still had the Hawaiian influence. His music has that Hawaiian country vibe. There were more than a few "hang loose" hand signs going up throughout the set. And he ended the set with, "Aloha."

Kapali Long

Closing it up was Emily Rose & The Rounders. I just love the sultry vocals and country tunes. The steel guitar added a distinct sound with those plucks. The steel guitarist also provided a highlight. For one song, he just couldn't get the song started off correctly. It took about four tries, but he finally got things going. At the end of the song, he got some humorist praise from the band.

Emily Rose & The Rounders

In between the indoor sets, CB Brand played short sets out on the patio. They actually changed outfits for the various short sets. They even went shirtless for the final one. The band is photogenic. The drummer was smoking throughout the set (not that I recommend smoking) and puffs of smoke made for unique moments. And the lead singer made some poses for the camera.

CB Brand

I have to mention this: it was freezing in The Echo. The program lasted about 4 hours. I also got there early and so perhaps spent 4 and a half hours mostly inside (some out on the patio). By the time I left, I couldn't feel my finger tips. It took a couple hours at home to finally get the tingling feeling to go away.

Bar Lubitsch: Halle Abadi, Haiden, Jake Hays, Luna Aura, Natalie Claro

What a night at Bar Lubitsch, hosted by WFNM. Luna Aura put on the set of the night -- personal opinion. Her set was full of volcanic energy that included body contortions, hair flings, guest performers and songs that were just a bit naughty. Her music matched up with the performance, a mix of dance beats and rock triumph. It was a performance to remember.

Lune Aura

Halle Abadi opened up the night with a cover of Hey Violet's "Guys My Age." She then went with her own songs that highlighted her wonderful vocals. She has pop sensibilities that include RnB influences. She also had a great stage performance. She uses her arms and fingers to further express the emotions of her songs. It had someone screaming out, "Why isn't she famous?" I think she could be a hit on American Idol.

Halle Abadi

Natalie Claro closed out the night with the required high energy to send everyone off for the night. She performed her set playing a guitar, but that didn't prevent her from taking on percussion duties. She twice jumped on the drum set. She just pounded away in a way that reminded me of how Eastern Conference Champions would just hit those drums. Not only did she jump on those drums, but she also used the stage as her trampoline. She had the amusing moment of the night where she called up her boyfriend to take a group shot using an iPhone. Problem, he couldn't figure out how to get the flash working. Hey, I have the same problem as I don't use Apple product and don't take photos with my Android phone anyways.

Natalie Claro

Jake Hays set was filled with jazzy pop vibes. His vocals were as sweet as honey. His vocals better have been as sweet as honey as he was consuming a lot of honey during the set. In a move I'm not sure I've seen before, he bought a bottle of honey and kept chugging from it -- three times. He also had a water bottle where he mixed the honey into the water. He joked to the audience, "If you're wondering, I'm not drinking urine. That's honey inside."  

Jake Hays

I put Haiden at the bottom here just because I previous caught him a couple weeks back at another WFNM night. So in this short period of the return of music, this was my second time catching a set of his. He mentioned last time that he was doing his debut set. So this would be, duh, his second time on stage. His swooning vocals were the same, but those first time jitters had disappeared. I've got to say, there was a much improved level of confidence in his stage performance. He's a fast learner. Can't wait to see where his skill levels go come two years from now.

Haiden

Zebulon: Walt McClements, Patrick Shiroishi and Barry Johnson

Walt McClements had a recent record release at Zebulon. He uses the accordion as his main musical instrument. He also used a trumpet for a couple songs. I've got to say I grew up not exactly liking the sound that came from the accordion. But after first coming across Sugar Rum Tantrum a few years back and now Walt McClements, I have a much greater appreciation for the accordion. The way he played it brought forth such intriguing sounds. His music had that quality where I pictured his music playing during a philosophically revealing moment in a motion picture. As for the trumpet, he played both the trumpet and accordion at the same time. For some reason, that feels rather like a complex exercise.

Walt McClements

Patrick Shiroishi opened up for Walt McClements. His cousin had died that day and so he dedicated his set to his cousin. The set started with him blowing very softly into his saxophone. It was like a gentle wind was sweeping through the venue. He also did something I've never seen done: he removed the mouthpiece and just blew directly into the barrel of the saxophone. The set, influenced by the loss of his cousin, had a feeling of sadness.

Patrick Shiroishi

Opening the night was Barry Johnson. I only got to catch two of his songs. I did want to catch his full set, but trying to figure out set times at the Zebulon is a bit difficult so I always show up at around 9:30 p.m. I just figured that was when the first set starts, but I was wrong. He must have started around 8:45 p.m. or so. Oh well. What I caught was some well sung tunes.

Barry Johnson

Los Angeles Music Scene: Live Nation reports Q2 2021 results

This might be my last look at Live Nation's financials. COVID-19 is spiking across the United States, but it doesn't appear like we'll be seeing a shut down of music venues anytime soon. Just because live music is back doesn't mean that all is well in the music industry. I think that can be seen by the fact that Live Nation ran a $20 all-in ticket promotion for nearly 1,000 shows. We also know that some planned 2021 tours have recently been postponed (Stevie Nicks and Lynyrd Skynrd are examples). Yet, at least for now, venues are open for those who want to tour and those who want to attend. Also, as can be read below, it appears that Live Nation sees itself as having a solid concert pipeline for the next few years (which means a solid revenue pipeline).

As with prior looks at their financial statements, my main interest is their cash flow situation. Here's the key quote from their August 3rd earnings call:

Looking at free cash and liquidity. As of June 30th, we had total cash of $4 billion, including $1.1 billion in ticketing client cash and $1.8 billion in net concert event related cash, leaving free cash of $1.1 billion. This was flat relative to our first quarter reported number.

Our free cash, along with $971 million of available debt capacity, gives us $2.1 billion in readily available liquidity up from $1.6 billion at the end of 2020, and steady with our Q1 ending liquidity. Benefiting our free cash position, the second quarter was $161 million in favorable timing, largely the result of classification of our event-related deferred revenue between short-term and long-term.

Our total free cash usage in the quarter was $163 million or $54 million per month, which included $115 million per month of operational burn up from $100 million per month in the first quarter, as furloughed employees returned to prepare for our reopening and we reinstated full pay for most employees, plus another $58 million per month of non-operational costs, including investment in capital expenditures, acquisitions and artists and ticket client advances to give us $173 million average per month in gross burn. In Q2, we had $119 million average per month cash contribution margin, double our Q1 average.

Now I'll admit that in my Q1 2021 review, I anticipated that cash would drop by $500 million. Instead, it dropped by only $163 million.

What drove my $337 milion miss in cash usage? First, their cash contribution margin increased by $180 million versus the first quarter. I didn't think this would happen as concerts in the United States (at least in California) didn't start up until July. Also, they had a $161 million favorable cash timing due to "event-related deferred revenue between short-term and long-term." I'm thinking this means that if events are only a short period off in the future, they can shift cash that is related to advance ticket sales into the free cash part of their cash flow statement.

Here are some other key comments that I picked up from the call:  

What does Live Nation have to say about consumer behavior? People are buying more food and beverage. We're selling more VIP packages, more upsells. So, in general, the pocket books are open.

What do they think about their calendar? And we're not -- we're very content with our 2022 lineup right now. We're talking mostly about what to add now into 2023 and 2024. So that idea that -- it's just one year of -- our bigness isn't really true. We've got three, four years here of strong demand that we're going to smooth out over the time, so everyone can get the right markets and the right Friday nights and the right dates.

Zebulon: Flaccid Mojo

I do believe that Zebulon is the last music venue in Los Angeles to open up. They finally opened up their doors on Wednesday, August 11th. And on Thursday, August 12th, it was the return of live music. I was hanging out at WFNM to catch some bands and then rushed out. It was a rush from West Hollywood to the edges of Frogtown. I wanted to at least capture one band that was playing Zebulon on this night.  

The band I caught was Flaccid Mojo, the final band of the night. The duo are members of Black Dice. (From what I can tell, Flaccid Mojo does not have an Instagram page so I can't link directly to them.) First off, the band had images shown on the screen behind them. As can be imagined by the band name, there were a lot of penis images. Anyways, the two members of the band used electronic synths to create the most hard punk sounds imaginable. It was electronic, scratchy, somewhat irritating like a finger nails down a chalk board, head slamming, wild music one can hear. Yes, it was disturbing and triumphant all at once. 

Zebulon was rather packed for the band. What a perfect way to re-open Zebulon, which to me is known for bringing in bands that are well known across Los Angeles and mixing in nights of experimental exploration. 

Bar Lubitsch: Zee Machine, Courtney Paige Nelson, YVR, Goodboy Noah, Joe Daccache

It was a diverse night of WFNM curated music at Bar Lubitsch on a recent Thursday night. Zee Machine started it off by putting on some dance moves for the crowd. His fashion sense was very snazzy with a jacket that stole the show with its black and white graphical designs. He was impressed with seeing five photographers show up for his set.

Zee Machine

Courtney Paige Nelson brought along a stuffed animal along to calm her nerves. She is a former contestant in America's Next Top Model (2016-2017) so she definitely knows what to do when it comes to lowering stress levels. Dealing with stress came in handy when the WFNM staff rushed on stage to deal with some equipment malfunction. Her set was her with a microphone and a friend on guitar. They played the set with backing tracks for some songs and going acoustic on others. I've gotten to see a lot of former American Idol alumni playing across Los Angeles and so it was rather cool to catch someone who was a contestant for America's Next Top Model.

Courtney Paige Nelson

YVR is a band I've seen a couple times before -- at WFNM events. This band is a husband and wife duo with the husband hitting the synths / guitar and the wife singing the music. I'll say this band stole the show on this particular night. The crowd responded with loud cheers throughout their pop set. They definitely showed a high level of confidence in their skills as tune makers.

YRV

Goodboy Noah really had a creative way at building his Instagram fanbase. He told everyone who wasn't following him to follow him. Out of those that followed, he told them he'd give away a t-shirt at random. I think he got around 10 new followers. This is something I've seen done at street fares where you show someone that you're following them and then you get a discount off your food or something like that. Got to give him props for doing some creative marketing while being featured by WFNM.

Goodboy Noah

Joe Daccache has crooner level vocals. His vocals soared like few others are able to do (and keeping it all in tune while doing it). He has lung power, as well, as he let his vocals just carry for the longest time. Okay, someone must have taken his vocal lessons seriously. No way someone just does that self-taught, right?

Joe Daccache

Little Joy: Lavalove, Easy Sleeper, and Cook

It was off to Little Joy to catch some bands. I'll be honest that the main reason I headed out to Little Joy on this particular night was to once again catch Lavalove (a band I first ran across a few weeks back). I wasn't alone as the venue filled up for their set. Lead singer, Teala Rose Coy, has some enchanting vocals that wonder around the music in the most interesting directions. As I mentioned previously, the music reminds me of a former Los Angeles band called Summer Twins. One thing I noticed was that lead guitarist, Jenny Quay, knows how to pose perfectly for a photo. I got a rather cool photo while she purposely set the pose and then gave me a look to see if I'd nod that I got the shot. I did indeed nod back. In the audience was the band Moonily, which recently opened up for The Paranoyds at The Echo. 

Lavalove

Cook started the night off with a solid jazz set. There was no singing, just a straight off musical set where improvisation took the lead. They were followed by Easy Sleeper who took a turn towards indie rock: both in fashion and sound.

Cook

Easy Sleeper