Concert Review: Hotel Café at the Record Bar
The Hotel Café Tour featuring Dan Wilson, Ingrid Michaelson, Cary Brothers, Meiko and Jim Bianco
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Record Bar
Better than: The Rainforest Café, barely
Photos & Review By RICHARD GINTOWT
I’ve heard good things about the Hotel Café. Supposedly, it’s the anti-industry gem of Los Angeles, where up-and-coming singer/songwriters enjoy attentive audiences and the chance to jam with Ray LaMontagne, Jewel or John Mayer. Oops – did I just say “anti-industry”? Um, wait, hold on a sec…
For all of its promises to present “No cookie cutter corporate American Idols, just real music, written by real artists, surrounded by real friends, who actually have a story to tell,” this year’s Hotel Café Tour (the fourth of its kind) was a massive yawn. Even Dan Wilson – he of the amazing, underappreciated Trip Shakespeare and the quite tolerable Semisonic – couldn’t escape the trappings of a lineup that was every bit the “conveyor belt of sensitive singer-songwriters” that Ingrid Michaelson self-consciously joked about onstage. That’s not to say that any of the night’s five performers were totally devoid of talent, but as a collective entity they took on the personality of a Dawson’s Creek finale (showing my age here…) that was heavy on the drama and light on levity.
