Great Lake Swimmers

I was very much looking forward to the Great Lake Swimmers show. I had just recently discovered them via Jessie Baylin. She was doing some self promotion and said one of her fave music blogs just did a little piece on her, and it included a live music session with her that made me fall in love with her music. I checked the website out some more and then one day I came upon the sessions for Great Lake Swimmers I was immediately hooked! The songs from their session were so raw but smooth and beautiful but brutal I loved it! Upon adding them to the iLike application on FB I started watching for shows in my area but nothing was coming up. After a while and out of the blue an LA show sprang up and I was all too ready to gobble up a ticket. From raving on Twitter I connected with some of their other fans one of them being none other than Mrs. Feliciana Warren. We made plans to go and all that was left was the wait.

The day finally came but with it bad news Feli was still suffering from a long lasting cough and wouldn’t be able to make it, I’d have to fly solo. I never did a real concert alone so that gave me some anxiety (silly I know, I can be full of silly anxiety at times) but I knew Great Lake Swimmers would be worth it. The El Rey theater is right down the street from my day job (I pass it often when I walk to various places for lunch or on errands) so I move my car down the street and got a perfect spot right across Wilshire Blvd directly in front of the theater. I read in my car for an hour because no one is there yet (something I not accustomed to after KoL shows).

After a couple chapters I make my way inside and take in the beauty of the El Rey. The whole venue is general admission. The walls seemed to be covered in red velvety material that was draped in bunches that hung from the ceilings. There were three massive chandeliers coming down the center of the rectangular room and half chandelier sconces hung on the walls.




There was a row of chairs lined along each of the walls and nothing but open space between them. I look around for a while then grabbed a drink at the bar at the front of the house near the entrance. Before heading to a seat I stopped off at the merch table.



After picking up a GLS tshirt


I head to the floor to claim a spot. There are two small steps to get down to the main floor and I saw others taking advantage of this as a seat so I joined. There were people spread out sparsely throughout the venue I was happy people were sitting because I felt this band was much more of a lay in a grassy field under the summer sun type band not so much a stand packed in like sardines band. But seeing as how this was an indoor concert on an October night I had actually been wondering would people really be standing. I took my seat and waited.

There were two opening acts first Laura Gibson and two gentleman who called them selves the Laura Gibson’s. She did a fine job with her interesting voice and her band mate’s wide variety of instruments. The Wooden Birds went on next hailing from Austin, Texas. They were very entertaining and fun and they closed with one song I particularly liked.



Finally Great Lake Swimmers were up, they went right into their set list and their lead singers voice was just a beautiful and serene as on their albums. They were very thankful to the crowd and congratulatory to their openers. The room wasn’t packed so many people were still strewn about the floor and sitting on the steps (which I appreciated) a small group had gathered right at the edge of the stage but the crowd was pretty relaxed. GLS played song after song with perfection that made me not regret coming out that night. I was just a tad bummed they didn’t play Various Stages which is a little obsession of mine. The audience did get a good collection of their four studio albums.
With songs like Pulling on a line, Let’s Trade Skins, Palmistry, and one of the standouts of their catalog to me Your Rocky Spine.



The show ended just after midnight (way past my bedtime for a Monday night). I would implore you to check out the Great Lake Swimmers their beautiful melodies and harmonies along with intriguing lyrics are crushingly beautiful songs and with that I leave you with a clip from their Laudromatinee Sessions which is a must see.

Great Lake Swimmers - Various Stages from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

Also if you haven’t seen Jessie Baylin's, or Bon Iver’s sessions check those out too!