Photos and review by NOTES FROM VIVACE
LOS ANGELES – The ambient electronic sounds of The Album Leaf (moniker for Jimmy LaValle) hit all the right pleasure points during his one hour and twenty minute set at Zebulon. It was a rare Los Angeles appearance for the band that included Aaron Ray on drums.
The Album Leaf was concluding a two-city SoCal tour, which included his hometown of San Diego, before they head off for a brief tour in Japan during the first half of February. Though he has a limited tour schedule, he’s a prolific music composer. Over the last two years, he’s released three albums and composed the soundtracks for the movie “Man Finds Tape” and the television documentary series “A Town Called Victoria.”
Knowing it might be a while before they got to catch another live performance, his fans packed Zebulon from the stage to the door exits. The crowd’s response to the music changed throughout the night based on the emotional tone of the songs. As the set began, they chilled out.
Later in the set as the instrumental songs played like a spiritual meditation, the crowd was as observant as church mice. There were amusing interactions during those moments. One quickly understood who in the audience were the children who just couldn’t stay still during a moment of meditation and who were the parents that were frustrated. There were a number of friends who looked over with a smile and gave their friends the universally known hush sign. One person could be heard saying “Sorry sorry sorry” while the friend giggled.
Not all songs were solemn moments. When the band turned a singular note playing on the keyboard into an EDM-like beat, the crowd cheered as they danced away. Other songs were as if one was swimming through the ocean with the whales and somehow gaining the ability to hear their songs of communication.
The band’s music was mostly instrumental and not a word was spoken for nearly 30 minutes when LaValle finally broke his silence by saying, “Thank you.” The band then played “New Soul,” which was one of their few lyrical performances of the night. It is a song that highlights someone who finds that action is a necessity in life, “All this time, in my mind, gets me nowhere.”
As the set came to a conclusion, LaValle mentioned that the venue wanted the band to end their set at 10 p.m. (the venue was to switch over to DJ music at that time). With a sly smile, he mentioned that they were going to play two additional songs that would take them over the time limit. As the final notes of the 2010 song “Falling From The Sun” ended, he held up his arms to say farewell while his bandmate Ray gave the crowd a “V” sign.
Opening up the night was Shannon Lay who mentioned to the audience that joy is waiting out there to change things for the better. She has the music agility to fluidly sing up the scale and then descend with ease. It lends an extraordinary beauty to her old world folk tunes. A tender moment during the set was when she sang “A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow.” It was her tribute to the recent death of Catherine O’Hara who sang that song with Eugene Levy in the movie “A Mighty Wind.”
