We Become Villainized

It was a hot, steamy night and wife and I were both dripping in sweat. No, forget dripping – we were drenched in sweat.

Despite the heat and humidity, we wouldn’t have been anywhere else in the world that night.  We were seeing Vaud and the Villains, a band hotter and steamier than the weather that night.

So who is Vaud and the Villains? They are a 19-piece 1930s New Orleans band and cabaret show. Think Americana noire meets Moulin Rouge. The band is the creation of actors Andy Comeau (aka Vaud), a saxophone player, and his wife Dawn Lewis (aka Peaches Mahoney), one of the group’s smoking hot dancers.

Inspired by the Bruce Springsteen Seeger Sessions album, the villains’ shows included songs that have long been in the public domain songs, such as “O Mary Don’t You Weep,” “John Henry,” and “St. James Infirmary.”

The band is loaded with great musicians – guitar players, banjo pickers, piano players, a dude playing spoons on a washboard, a violinist, and a horn section complete with a tuba player. I’ve haven’t been this thrilled about a band with a tuba player since seeing Freebo with Bonnie Riatt’s band back in the 80s. I don’t think I’ve ever been thrilled by a band with a washboard player before, but then again I don’t travel in those circles.

In addition to Peaches, a redhead, the dancers include Frankie Mineli, a brunette, and Shadie Sadie Sinclair, a blonde (real names unknown to me despite a Google search). At our show there was a fourth dancer, a shorthaired brunette whose name, but not her curves, escaped me. (update: I'm informed the dancer goes by the name Jinx)

Dawn Lewis as Peaches Mahoney.

Here’s a link to the band’s official video.

I hadn’t heard of these guys until just a couple of months ago. Then I couldn’t stop hearing about them – they kept turning up in my searches for date ideas. Their recent shows in Los Angeles included a free concert at MacArthur Park and being the headliners of a Great Gatsby-themed party at the Park Plaza hotel.

Who are these guys? I wanted to find out, but every time there was a chance to see them, some scheduling conflict came up or, if the date worked, my wallet would suffer a money drought.

Then came TwentyWonder, a fundraiser for the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles. Put this event on your radar screen for next summer. During the course of that evening – and this just a partial list — we saw a 3-D printer for the first time, made trippy laser art, held a rock that was created during the universe's adolescence, saw Ernie Kovac's Emmy and his art, saw some impressive art from people with Down's syndrome, and got a piece of Greenland — all before the roller derby, the lucha libre wrestling, and the acoustic set of power pop artist Matthew Sweet.

Then we saw the mind-meltingly great set from Vaud and the Villains, the night’s headliners.  We were hooked.

Soon after TwentyWonder, I looked their schedule up and saw they were doing a show at the Ford Amphitheater.

If Vaud and the Villains are my new musical find, the Ford is my new venue find. How a 90-plus-year-old venue and I, a Southern Californian for more than 40 years, never met is something of a mystery.

If you haven’t been to the Ford, think of it as a miniature Hollywood Bowl with about a fourth of the cost and hassle.

For openers, the Ford seats 1,200, a size that allows you to actually see and have a more intimate show with the performer than the 17,000-plus seat Hollywood Bowl.  Look, I love going to shows at the Hollywood Bowl, but there have been times when I have felt I was part of a herd going off to the stockyards.

The entrance to the Ford.

You won’t see major performers there like at the Bowl, but when a venue is savvy enough to bring Vaud and the Villains, you become curious as to what other great talent you’ve been missing.

I have seen discount tickets for most, if not all, shows at the Ford on Goldstar. Tickets were listed for $30 each, not including service charges, but we got two tickets from Goldstar for $41, including service charges.

When we go to the Bowl, we use their park-and-ride bus service, which costs $5 a person to get a seat on a large metro bus. For the Ford, they use smaller, dial-a-ride size buses. The cost? Nothing. Zip.

 Discounted tickets, free parking, and a free shuttle – you got to love it already. Our only other costs that night were for tacos - $16 for six. Total date cost: $57 for a show, parking, a shuttle, and dinner.

The Ford today.

Just like the Bowl, you can picnic at the Ford. Food and beverages, including alcohol, are allowed. There are some nice spots to set up a picnic, but we arrived too late to grab one. We had our tacos, along with the wine we brought, at our seats. We made a mental note to plan a picnic next time and arrive a bit earlier.

So what happens when you bring a smoking band into a great venue? You get about 1,000 people dancing in their seats and in the aisles. There were people at the show who clearly had no idea who Vaud and the Villains were. I overheard one conversation with a woman who brought a group of 60 people to see the show and none of them knew the band. I saw her and many in her party dancing the night away.

We were dancing too.

The Ford in the 1920s, shortly after being built.

A couple of quick notes: First, as of this writing, Vaud and the Villains were heading off for some East Coast shows. They frequently play clubs in Los Angeles and Long Beach. Check their site for show dates. 

Second, the Ford has shows scheduled through mid-October, including free shows under their  JAMS program. Some of these shows, okay, many of these shows, are a bit esoteric (accordion night, anyone?), but what's life without some new flavors from time to time?

Off to see Charles; a few quick hits

In a few days I’ll be writing about our date seeing performer, humorist, chef, author, and “retro daddy” Charles Phoenix. If you haven’t seen one of his slideshows or taken his downtown L.A. tour, you are truly missing out. Here's a link to Charles' jello Christmas tree video.
And here's the flying gingerbread house video.

In the meantime, I wanted to do a few quick hits on some date ideas for you. As summer winds down, so do a lot of the freebies.  I mentioned the free Shakespeare performances by the Independent Shakespeare Co. (at Griffith Park) and the Downtown Repertory Co. in past posts.  Both are winding down their seasons over the next few days. Catch them while you can.

On Aug. 30, Vaud & the Villains will be playing at the Ford Amphitheater. We saw these guys earlier this summer and they were mind-meltingly good.  They are a 19-piece New Orleans orchestra and cabaret show with three very hot dancers. They are Moulin Rouge meets American noir, as the Ford describes them. Discount tickets are available through Goldstar and there’s free parking and a free shuttle at the Universal City park-and-ride. Check their website for details.

Eat See Hear is wrapping up its season with a screening of Pulp Fiction on Aug. 31 and The Breakfast Club on Sept. 14, both at Los Angeles State Historic Park. Food trucks and live music are also part of the mix. Again, Goldstar has discount tickets.

On Sept. 7, from 2 to 4 p.m., the Los Angeles Central Library is holding a free presentation of prewar Los Angeles photos from Ansel Adams. Afterward, you can head to Grand Park for a screening of Jurassic Park.

That 20s Show

Now you take a woman who is red-headed,
if you got what she wants, she's gonna get it
cause nobody knows what a red head mama can do.
(Red head, everybody loves red head)
She's my heartbreaker, I'm gonna make her,
don't you take her, my heartbreaker,
I'm gonna make her mine!
- Nobody Knows What a Red Head Mama Can Do, 1924

My saucy redhead.

"Tonight, we're going to party like it's 1928," I said to my wife.

My wife had been working her butt off, taking care of work and family matters and I had been hustling to keep the home fires burning while she was away. We both desperately needed a night out. Armed with cash from some freelancing gigs, I decided we were going to skip the frugal date night and splurge.

We were going to the Cicada Club.

The Cicada Club is a 30s and 40s style nightclub that is held two or three times a month inside the Cicada restaurant of the Art Deco wonder the Oviatt Building.The Oviatt, completed in 1928, was the headquarters for one of the most prestigious and expensive haberdasheries in the city, Alexander & Oviatt, according to the L.A. Conservancy.

The building is topped with a tower with a three-sided clock Oviatt had shipped over from France. He also had over 30 tons of glass by designer Rene Lalique. Most of the glass as been lost or sold over the years, according to the conservancy, but a few original pieces remain in the panels at the top of the lobby columns. The building still retains the elegant art deco fixtures, stair rails, and molded plaster ceiling panels.

The entrance to the Cicada Club

The building is a jewel and the conservancy includes it in its Art Deco tours on Saturdays, which I highly recommended. But that's a cheap date for another time.

We had wanted to go to the Cicada Club for quite awhile, but the stars never seemed to align for us to do it. When I saw the club was doing a special 1920s themed event that included the premiere of a silent movie about silent movies, we had to jump on it.

We were about to approach the cashier to enter when a group of men cut in front of us. They argued over who was going to pay, with various guys waving big wads of cash around, each insisting they would pay. We're quite irked by this. They bought their tickets and moved on. After we got checked in, we found the same guys blocking the entrance arguing again about who was paying.

The Cicada Club has a dress code - coat and tie for the gentlemen, cocktail dresses, skirt or pant suit for the ladies. Patrons are encouraged to dress in vintage clothing or in evening attire. We opted for evening attire.

We finally navigated past the quarrelsome crowd and into the club. The tables had been pushed aside, and rows of chairs set up in front of the movie screen. The evening's guest of honor, the film's producer/director/writer/star, was called up to do an introduction - and it turns out he was one of the quarrelsome bunch. The movie's cast includes Jennifer Tilly (Clara Bow), Debi Mazar (Gloria Swanson), and Iona Skye (Virginia Rappe).

The director, Alex Monty Canawati, said he got the idea for the movie when he found a bag of film on the street in Hollywood -  two years before The Artist, also a silent movie about silent movies, came out. The movie is about all the scandals and heartbreaks of the stars of the films of the 20s. Not a bad little film. Tilly's Clara Bow segment was pretty funny as was a segment with Tippi Hedren playing a movie mogul's secretary trying to deal with wannabe stars. Some of the other segments were rather sad.  It was next heading for a screening at the Palm Springs Film Festival. It's worth your time if it comes around near you.

After the screening, we were ushered to the upstairs bar while the tables and stage were set up. Earlier my wife had gotten us drinks and the bartender thought the pomegranate martini I wanted was hers. I redeemed my Man Card by getting a Glenlivet scotch on the rocks while getting her gin and tonic.

Where Jon Hamm is sitting is where I was when I ordered the second round of drinks. Only I didn't have the lovely Elizabeth Moss next me. I had the girl and her male friend who was in drag. Both were quite glam, I have to admit.

At 6:30 p.m., we went down to our table. A dinner for two at a table at Cicada Club is going to set you back at least $100, without drinks or tip. For that price, I expect great food. We were not disappointed.

We both ordered the "Trocadero" tiger shrimp, which the club describes as shrimp stuffed with Lump Crab Wrapped in Kataifi (Angel Hair Pastry) with Trio Caviar Sauce.

For our entrees, I had the "Maxwell's Special" braised short ribs, which comes with vegetables and mashed potatoes, and Kim had the "Mr. Tin Pan Alley" portobello and asparagus ravioli. For dessert, Kim had the Cicada Club Chocolate Molten Cake (chocolate Streusel with vanilla ice cream) and I had the Angel's Flight Cheesecake.

Sometime during our meal, Kim turned to me and said "I'm so happy right now." After seeing work so hard the past few weeks, that moment meant everything to me.

Some of that 20s music you hear at Disneyland and California Adventure is by Dean Mora and his band.

 Then Dean Mora's California Poppies took the stage and people took to the dance floor. The band was awesome. They kept to 20s music and focused in on works that were either written in L.A. or recorded there. Here's the link to his webpage, which includes a video of the band playing at Cicada: http://www.morasmodern.com/

The band also played the Red Head Mamma song quoted above. I couldn't find a clip of them playing it, but here's a clip featuring the tune: Nobody Knows What A Red Head Mama Can Do

A couple of years back, Kim and I took ballroom dance lessons. At our peak, we managed a decent rumba, a fair waltz (which was our first dance at our wedding), and even a few basic steps of a tango. We have since, sadly, forgotten everything but a few rumba steps. But we were there to dance, damn it, the lack of skills wasn't going to stop us.

This couple had all the moves.

We faked our way through a few dances, trying to avoid being stumbling into the better dancers (which was everyone). We stopped  to catch our breath and admire the other dancers. We sucked, but we had a blast. There were dancers out there that were sensational. I mean forget the pros on Dancing With the Stars. These guys could knock them down, take their lunch money and not miss a step or break their rhythm. We loved watching them even if they did make us insanely jealous. If you know some swing steps and maybe a bit of the foxtrot, you're going to make a ball at Cicada.

If you want a snapshot look at what the atmosphere is like, here's an LA Weekly slideshow from that very night: http://www.laweekly.com/slideshow/lina-in-l-a-roaring-20s-babylon-at-cicada-club-40158083/

Also, check out the Cicada website here: http://www.cicadaclub.com/main.asp
Their site has all the info: show schedule, menu, a photo gallery, the works. It's a nicely done site.

Kim with Cicada's top man and host - Maxwell DeMille.

We are definitely coming back. There's a Halloween show with Mora's band that we are planning to go to. There's also a show in October with Johnny Crawford, Mark from the TV show "The Rifleman," and his orchestra that we would also like to go to (although I'm worried Kim might try to make him say "pa.")

So how much does this all run? Well, with dinner, drinks, valet parking, and the purchase of one of Mora's CDs, it took us somewhere north of $200. "But, Jim," you say, "this blog is supposed to be about cheap dates. What gives?" Well, I did say there would be an occasional splurge and this is one of them. I do have a few ideas on how you can cut your tab if you want to check Cicada out, but don't want to commit to a full sit-down dinner.

First, you can just get tickets for the show and dancing. That'll run you $20 or $25 apiece, depending on the show, but you can knock off $5 a ticket by buying in advance. Second, we chose to valet park, which is $7 without the tip (we might be cheap, but we do tip well). There's plenty of lots within a block or two of the Oviatt that would save you the tip.

The biggest way to cut the tab is to either not eat at the club or to eat at the upstairs bar. You could split, for example, an order of sliders and an order of fries, which would give you a decent meal at about $20, give or take a buck or two on the tip. The downside is that seating is first come, first serve upstairs. When you shuffle your feet to hit the dance floor, odds are good you'll lose your seat. Depending on how much you drink (cocktails run from $12 to $14), these tips could cut your tab to about half of what ours was.

Look, if you got the money, splurge. This was one of our all-time favorite L.A. experiences. If you have any love of dancing, of L.A.'s history and architecture and it's resurgent downtown, you'll love Cicada.

Quick Hits for the Weekend Ahead

I'll be writing soon about our latest date, a night of food and dancing 1920s style at the Cicada Club. But I wanted to post a few quick items of note for the weekend ahead. This is one of those jammed pack weekends of great events, many of them free or cheap.

I can highly recommended the third and final Chinatown Summer Nights this Saturday. Kim and I went last year and had a blast.

There will be live bands, DJs, gourmet food trucks, arts and crafts for the kids, cooking demonstrations, merchandise booths, dragon dancers, and art exhibits.


Last year, it was people watching heaven – hipsters, wannabe hipsters, middle-aged couples (we were the ones making out on the bench), and families, who were apparently mandated to buy those light up twirly things for their kids (Kim wanted one, but we couldn’t find one. Kids must have got them all). My favorite sight last year - the dad with the mohawk carrying his newborn in a baby snuggie.

Here's a slideshow from LA Weekly from a previous event: Chinatown Summer Nights slideshow

It's free. There's plenty of relatively cheap parking around Chinatown. Kim and I took the Gold Line last year, which has a stop about a block and a half away from the festivities. My advice is to go a little early and get a meal at Hop Louie. Last year we got a dinner for two that could have easily fed four or five people.

Going on both Saturday and Sunday is an event that I've been dying to go to, but missed last year and might end up missing it again this year. It's Echo Park Rising, a free music festival featuring a bunch of great local talent.

They do offer VIP passes for $20 that supposedly lets you into set aside viewing areas and allows for easier access to the bar. Here's the event website: http://echoparkrising.com/

As I said, I've never been to this. If you go, please me know how it went.

Other freebies this week include a screening of Troop Beverly Hills at Grand Park starting at sunset. Go early pack a picnic. Downtown Repertory Theater is staging Romeo and Juliet at the Pico House hotel across from Union Station on Saturday at 8 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. on Aug. 22-25 and again Aug. 29-31.It's free, but expect them to solicit donations.

Independent Shakespeare Co. is staging As You Like It on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 7 p.m. all three nights at the Old Zoo grounds at Griffith Park. These guys are awesome and definitely worth the trip. Again, go early and pack a picnic. And, again, expect them to solicit donations.

Troop Beverly Hills

Troop Beverly Hills