I Love Maya Angelou

Last night John and I along with a few friends headed out to Largo, a cool little club in LA, for a dinner and comedy/music show. We were promised performances by Zach Galfianakis and friends, plus a special performance by Jon Brion (of I Heart Huckabees and Punch Drunk Love music fame) and "special friend." The rumor was that Brion would be performing with Fiona Apple, as preparation for her new CD which is FINALLY going to be released this fall. We were unsure if we would actually see Fiona, but as we were sitting waiting for our dinner, we caught a glimpse of a waify, long-haired girl in the kitchen who could only have been Fiona Apple. We were close enough to the kitchen door that we could spy on Fiona as she nervously awaited her appearance on stage!

The show was great, and featured appearances by Bryan Callen, Laura Kightlinger, Tom Sharp and Jen Cartman. The comedians were all hilarious (with a slight exception on Laura Kightlinger's part, as she seemed really unprepared and rambling.) We listened intently to Galifianakis' performance, knowing that any moment he would relinquish the stage to the "special friend!" Sure enough, she and Jon Brion appeared and played four great songs (Extraordinary Machine, which we had heard on a downloaded copy of the yet unreleased album, two songs we were unfamiliar with but which sounded really cool and folky, and Paper Bag, one of my favorite Fiona songs!)... It was kind of a strange vibe, as it almost seemed as though Jon Brion was a music teacher, and Fiona was the student and they were rehearsing for her big recital. She looked absolutely terrifed the whole time, but the crowd loved it and overall it was a GREAT show!