London and Largo

Before I get to London, a bit about Los Angeles.

One of the significant elements of my tenure in Los Angeles, one of the things that makes this place feel like somewhere I grew up, has been Largo, the dinner club/performance venue that is home to Jon Brion (he of Kanye West and I Heart Huckabee’s fame) and an ever-rotating ensemble of performers. Over the past several years, I’ve had the unexpected pleasure of seeing Brion improvise with musicians such as Robyn Hitchcock, Beck, and Fiona Apple.

Largo is relocating and shutting down its original Fairfax space, and so Huili flew in from London a while back to attend one of the last shows at the original venue. It was a pretty decent show, with Benmont Tench (the pianist from Tom Petty’s band) and Fiona Apple both in attendance. Fiona Apple is usually a very timid and halting presence, repeatedly engaging in the false start and then retreating to the corners of the stage. One of the pleasures of hearing her sing, and she’s very good at it, is watching her move through her fear and confront the audience at center stage, where she is utterly transformed. That night, the audience was treated to covers of “Crazy” and “Ain’t No Sunshine”. I’m not a particularly big fan of hers, but hearing her cover Bill Withers was something else entirely.

One thing in particular about Largo remind me of London. First of all, Jon Brion often covers the Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset” at his shows, much to the chagrin of both Huili and GP. And Waterloo Station happens to be the closest station to Huili’s house in Surbiton. It’s a beautiful, timeless station, emblematic of its city in the way that Union Station is of Los Angeles.