Honeycut’s name might ring a bell if you’re a Morning Becomes Eclectic listener, but if you asked anyone who attended the show about Honeycut, they’d most likely refer to them as “The band whose keyboard playing was (expletive) awesome, and beats were (superlative) sick.” And they were. Thank RV Salters’ skill on the keyboard and Tony Sevener handling the beats. But don’t assume that’s all there is to them. As vocalist Bart Davenport mentioned during the set, “This isn’t no dance rock music, but good old soul music,” and the soul was in the vocals. Dance music or no, Honeycut had people moving. The set began with “The Day I Turned to Glass” and went on to play “Shadows” and “Tough Kid” and others from their debut CD but ended their set with a harmonica-laced cover of the Honey Drippers' “Impeach The President.”
The last time Lady Sovereign came to town she cut her set down to a couple of songs due to illness, and essentially this was a return to make nice with her fans. Sov took the stage in crutches, her arm in a sling, her wrist in a bandage and exaggerated lament—"Every f@#% time I come to LA something happens," then began her set with "Ch Ching." For the next song "Bla Bla," she dropped the crutches, tossed the sling and bandage. While being contrived, the blatant silliness translates as charming, making fun of the elephant in the room. Between songs she was affable and joked about being sick and all the flack she caught. During “Hoodie,” she paused midway into the song to mention "This is where [I] cried last time and walked off."
She came to make amends and played the part of good host; she offered the mic to the audience, had them chant out her signature lilting “S-O-V!,” shared a bottle of her Heineken by pouring it into peoples mouths, and even gave a little cheek kiss to a nervous front-stage fan. Her demeanor was personable and she offered asides to her songs mentioning “Oooo…This is my favorite song,” before performing “Tango.” She performed the expected crowd favorites “Random” and "Love Me or Hate Me," and even added a little something extra with a cover of the Sex Pistols’ "Pretty Vacant." During her encore, she told the crowd to get a mosh pit going and went into “Public Warning.” Her energy and flow were spot-on throughout, with all of the attendant cheek you would expect. Like the next-door neighbor’s little sister growing up, Lady Sovereign’s prone to bratty antics but too much fun to begrudge or dismiss.
