One Silver Astronaut

I had my first non-work night out on Friday night. Even though it involved work people, we went more as a social group than a work group...you're right, that doesn't count. Okay, still looking for my first social night out in LA.

Anyhoo, we started the evening at Meesob, an Ethiopian Restaurant with high marks. We re-named it, "We-sob" because of the poor service. Our table of 10 seemed to get zero respect...almost as if we weren't there. Every other table seemed to get great service, but not ours. We even tried to catch the attention of waiters, waitresses, bartenders and bus persons, asking for someone to take our drink, appetizer, and dinner orders. It took 1 1/2 hours to just get our first round of drinks and 6 Samosas for snacks. Once we had a waitress, we shouldn't have let her go. We got there at 7:30 pm, and needed to get out by 9 to make a debut show by the band, "One Silver Astronaut" playing down the street. I will let you guess what time we got out of there. Almost 10.

"One Silver Astronaut" is a local band that my friend's son plays in. My buddy, Milt's son Patrick happens to be in LA going to grad school, and he is such the music fiend. He ended up in this band and they are just starting to play live around town. The lead singer/guitar is Shane Mills, who has a sweet voice. Their drummer plays a complex beat that demonstrates his obvious talent. Paula, the female vocalist adds just the right amount of depth. They have a fiddler as well, which is different. Patrick plays a great bass. While their sound is not unique (rock/pop), their original songs have great messages, lots of emotion, and sound like you've heard them on the radio before, as if they have been around a while and have already been discovered. Unfortunately the crowd was a little small, but everyone seemed to enjoy them. The crowd was extra small this night because the 10 of us stuck in an Ethiopian time warp didn't make the show until the very last set of songs. We were all disappointed that we didn't make it in time, but what we did hear was amazing.

Do me a favor and go to iTunes and download a song or two...my favorite is "Work in Progress", followed by "Camouflage". Remember, you heard about them here first.

Chow!