Two Rooms: Rrazz and Burritt

Happy Sunday evening, dear readers. I trust you had lovely weekends. As, for me, I did a bit of karaoke after work on Friday, had a voice lesson this afternoon and spent the last Saturday night of January 2011 in the pursuit of live music.

The evening began at the Rrazz Room where San Francisco chanteuse Paula West (pictured above) is in the second week of an eight week run. I have seen Paula West many times before and have written previously about her shows on this very space. However, I cannot say often enough how amazing she is. Her voice is beautiful, and her performances can charm even the most cynical music aficionado. This particular run is filled with numbers from Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Oscar Brown, Jr., and Bob Dylan, among others. With cocktails in hand, my friend Terry and I soaked up every luscious note. It was like being transported to a jazz club of the 1950's (excepting the Dylan tune and a few others, that is).

After Paula was done, I bid Terry farewell and scooted the few blocks from the Rrazz Room to the Burritt Room for more live music. I was going to the Burritt Room show somewhat blind, as I hadn't heard either band on the bill before. It sounded interesting, however, so I decided to check it out. Let me tell you, I am so glad I did because I have discovered another band to add to my list of new favorites: The Allah-Las.

The Allah-Las (featured in the photo to the left) are from Los Angeles and play psych-pop with an obvious 60's influence, and I now love them. Their sound is somewhat similar to The 88, another L.A. 60's-esque band that recently captured my heart. If you want to win me over, play really good pop music reminiscent of the 60's, and I'll pretty much be yours for life.

The headliner at the Burritt Room was Nick Waterhouse and the Tarots. They're from San Francisco and are pretty good, as well. They have kind of a 1950's/1960's soul sound and remind me of Ron Silva and the Monarchs, another San Francisco band. I left before Nick and his Tarots were done because it was very crowded, and...well, I'm old. However, all in all, the show was great.

An evening of standards and new gems. Music hopping worked out well for me this weekend and perhaps is an indication that 2011 will introduce me to even more new favorite bands.

(Note: photos in this post courtesy of Paula West's publicity portfolio and L.A. Record. Also, no, I have no idea why the Rrazz Room is spelled with two "r"s.)