But how do you articulate that you are a mediocre photographer with an OK camera? You just beg and tell them that your gig is on now and you really don't have time for this! That was my ticket into seeing a good chunk of Jenny and Johnny's brilliant set.
If you haven't got your ears on anything Jenny Lewis to date, you're really missing out. I highly suggest you start with something Rilo Kiley, maybe More Adventurous and then ease your way into her solo album Rabbit Fur Coat. It doesn't get much better than that.
Couples in music and in life, Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice are a duo not to be reckoned with. The first time I saw either of them play was the tour pushing Jenny's first solo effort Rabbit Fur Coat. It was an Opera House gig and I was in grade twelve - I felt cooler than cool just being at that show.
Johnathan Rice then opened for her.
I've sort of flopped off the Jenny Lewis hunt in the past few years, I think I was riding on my love for Rabbit Fur Coat for so long, I felt completely satisfied. I really do love the tune "Trying My Best To Love You"
I still feel completely satisfied with Rabbit Fur Coat, I really don't need anymore.
This show however was really lovely. I had no expectations walking into it and it had been so long since I had seen Jenny Lewis live, I really forgot just how fabulous she is. Her typical concert uniform is a classy bathing suit. She's in her mid-thirties and she can still pull this look off. God knows how.
Johnathan Rice is a few years younger than Jenny. When I first saw him, he was probably only twenty-three years old - just a year after his epic debut Trouble Is Real. Rice remains one of the very few celebrities I have gone up to speak to. After watching him play at the El Mocambo (completely spoiled) I approached him as the Redwalls were playing and tugged his arm, asking him why he didn't play any of his old material. Rice has a funny drawl to his voice, that I can't seem to really peg where his accent belongs. He very sincerely replied: "I just played what came to my head." Fair enough, I trotted home not quite satisfied.
After seeing him a handful of times, I get the strong feeling that Trouble Is Real wasn't really his album. Although music legend Mike Mogis produced it and Jenny Lewis grazed her lovely voice on it, it still wasn't his album. At the tender age of twenty-two, I feel as though he had a serious record label leash on.
If you listen to his work post-Trouble Is Real, you really hear a difference. It's a lot slower, less produced and simple. Rice definitely has the makeups of some serious country influence.
I think to really understand how Jenny and Johnny was birthed makes understanding them so much more clear. I can't help but ooze credit to these two brilliant people and they look so good doing it too!
Jenny and Johnny's debut album is called I'm Having Fun, I don't think it gets any cuter than that. Or sexier than this:
If I can leave a show and feel as though I've committed a song to heart, I can confidently say something was done right. It's pretty great to leave a gig with a song that you can't wait to listen to and love.
For me, this was the tune "Switchblade" for the chorus of the tune. The beautiful mix of voices and lines - "See you on the way up" and "See you on the way down." This is a very Johnathan Rice song with perfect background vocals compliments of Jenny Lewis.
It was also fun to hear Rice's tune "We're All Stuck Out In the Desert" in a very appropriate context. Here's an old, old video of this tune:
Although not at this years Coachella, Lewis played "Silver Lining" at the festival in 2009, I just thought I'd share this beaut:
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