Jesca Hoop 4/09/09 - The Hotel Cafe, Hollywood, CA.

(Photos by Eric Meacham)

The second of four "farewell" April residency shows at The Hotel Cafe. As previously noted, Jesca Hoop is performing these shows as sort of a "goodbye" to Los Angeles before she moves to Manchester, England; and as a retrospective of her career of sorts.

The latter was well in evidence this night; as well as having Blake Mills accompany on guitar, Sasha Smith played piano on a couple of songs as well. I remember him playing shows with her a lot back in 2006/2007 (and part of 2005 as well), so it was a bit of a trip down memory lane so to speak.

The setlist was a bit of a varied one - some old, some new, and some newer. The aforementioned songs with Sasha Smith ("City Bird" and "Song For Ember") were a couple of never-released older tunes; the latter giving a nod to Jesca's ties to the city of Los Angeles. "Whispering Light" and "Murder Of Birds" are of a newer era, and according to Jesca may be on a future album. Oddly enough, only one song from Kismet was played ("Love and Love Again").

However, it's the more recent material that I found somewhat surprising. These songs (currently not sure of titles) almost suggest that Ms. Hoop may be heading for an "alternative rock" sort of sound - especially with "For/Four Dreams" (need to confirm title), which starts with "Come and bring your stereo". While these songs were played acoustically, you could definitely hear the rock edge peaking out.

As of press time, there is only one show left before she leaves the U.S., so if you're reading this - go.

As always, more Jesca Hoop shows can be found here.

To download, right click and save as.

1.)Whispering Light FLAC MP3
2.)My Boo FLAC MP3
3.)Murder Of Birds FLAC MP3
4.)Four Dreams FLAC MP3
5.)Song For Ember FLAC MP3
6.)City Bird FLAC MP3
7.)"New Song" FLAC MP3
8.)"New Song" FLAC MP3
9.)Love and Love Again FLAC MP3
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Jesca Hoop 4/01/09 - The Hotel Cafe, Hollywood, CA.

(Photo by Jeff Koga)

I was first introduced to (and basically first heard of) Jesca Hoop in early 2005, when The Ditty Bops opened for her at the now-shuttered Tangier's Restaurant. (which can be found here) I found it to be a good show, but I will admit it took me awhile to really "warm up" to her music (even though I continued to attend some of her shows)

I had not seen/recorded Jesca since July 2007 (when she opened for The Ditty Bops at The Fonda) Well, that's not technically true - I tried to see and record her at the Earth Day Festival in Topanga Canyon last year, but experienced battery failure. Anyway, when I heard Jesca was moving to Manchester, and that her four April residency shows at The Hotel Cafe may be her last in the U.S. for awhile, I knew I had to go.

For this show, Jesca was accompanied by Blake Mills on guitar (I know he's been performing with her for awhile, but this my first time seeing him with her) and Nicole Eva Emery on back-up vocals (also has been performing with her for some time, but again, I hadn't seen her with Jesca) I've seen Ms. Hoop in a variety of incarnations, from solo to full band to with just Sasha Smith on piano to with just The Ditty Bops on back-up vocals, and I've never been able to pick a favorite - they're all good in their own way.

This nights set focused a lot of Jesca's 2007 full-length debut album Kismet, with a couple of a newer songs "Murder Of Birds" and "My Boo," along with older, yet-unreleased "Whispering Light" For this entire residency, Ms. Hoop has promised to try to showcase "five years worth of material/performing in Los Angeles," so it will be interesting to see (as of press time) what the remaining shows bring.

For more Jesca Hoop live recordings, go here

To download, right-click and save-as.

1.)Murder Of Birds FLAC MP3
2.)My Boo FLAC MP3
3.)Intelligentactile 101 FLAC MP3
4.)Dreams In The Hollow FLAC MP3
5.)Summertime FLAC MP3
6.)Money FLAC MP3
7.)Enemy FLAC MP3
8.)Whispering Light FLAC MP3
9.)Seed Of Wonder FLAC MP3
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