“At capacity,” said Carol Laumen of the Annenberg Foundation. It was her confident prediction for turnout at Saturday's third and final concert of the KCRW Live @ Who Shot Rock series, featuring the soulful Raphael Saadiq and Brit rock threesome, Band of Skulls. Created to complement Annenberg Space for Photography's current exhibition, Who Shot Rock and Roll, previous headliners Moby and Portugal. The Man set the precedent for Laumen's expectations.
Concert goers peruse the Space's new complementary outdoor exhibit before the show starts |
“We are breaking record attendance, record merchandise sales,” she said of the exhibit. And the Space's sometimes sleepy Thursday evening lecture series, Iris Nights, have also drawn at capacity crowds. The photographers show off more of their pictures that weren't included in the exhibit, which Laumen described as "icing on the cake."
Although we should feel lucky that the traveling 166-print exhibit runs until October 7th before heading abroad, it is unfortunate that the concerts were so few. This is the first time the Space has hosted concerts in conjunction with an exhibit, and it's hard to imagine a more fitting theme. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they come up with more excuses to merge music with art (maybe akin to the Getty's Saturdays off the 405).
Raphael Saadiq grooves on stage at the Century City plaza |
Indeed, the series even garnered attention from Rolling Stone, which hailed Saadiq's cover of Bob Dylan's "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat." (There's an entire section of the exhibit dedicated solely to Dylan).
"The folk-blues classic swung hard with a warm funk flavor, a fitting collision of styles for the occasion," wrote Steve Appleford on the Rolling Stone's website. The evening "also marked the release of Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan," a new album honoring Amnesty International's 50th Anniversary. More than 80 artists, including Saadiq and Band of Skulls, contributed to the Dylan cover album.
Band of Skulls vocalist/guitarist Russell Marsden belting it out via @LarylGarcia |
With all the praise by the media and the public, let's keep our fingers crossed that Annenberg and KCRW team up again. Century City needs more of this:
Band of Skulls absolutely melting my face.#kcrwpresents#whoshotrock@kcrwinstagr.am/p/N7vS5dnTN4/
— Jeremiah Garcia (@JeremiahGarcia) August 5, 2012
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