The second night of Butch Walker’s month-long Wednesday night residency at Hollywood’s Hotel Café was quite a bit of a party. I’ve lived in LA for close to a year now, but I still get excited at celebrity sightings, and Butch’s collection of famous friends did not disappoint me in the slightest. In attendance that night were Jeremy Piven, Derrick Whibley (of Sum 41 and Avril Lavigne-marriage-drama fame), and not in the VIP section but in the crowd with the rest of us plebians, Alex Solowitz, best known for his portrayal of Mickey Parke in the faux MTV boy band 2ge+her. Damn, I love Los Angeles. 
Tonight, Butch would be treating the crowd to a live, stripped-down rendition of The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Lets-Go-Out-Tonites. He played the album straight through, no deviations aside from his usual shtick; references to the ‘97 hit “How Bizarre” by OMC, comparing his riffing and soloing to every Led Zeppelin song that ever existed, while consequently singing “baby, baby, baby, baby!” much like Robert Plant does on every other Led Zeppelin song. You know. The usual.
He did make up for missing a song the previous week, treating us to “#1 Summer Jam,” and resolving to not miss a single song from The Rise and Fall… Pausing for a minute in the musical revelry, he talks about the forgiveness that his hardcore fans give him for his wackiness, refers to himself as being compared to Jason Mraz with tattoos, and tells us how sometimes, he wants to be filthy, stinkin’ famous. And then things happen like the YouTube video of him recording his version of “You Belong With Me” from the previous week, and he gets torn the hell up, and he realizes that he likes his little bubble. And he loves his hardcore fans. It’s good to be loved.
Getting close to the end of the album, Butch pulls out his big political song, “Paid to Get Excited,” and flat out admits that he had no idea what he was thinking when he wrote the album. Or why he wrote a political song. After playing through the first two verses and choruses, he also admits, “I don’t even like this last song! So I’m gonna do something different,” and segues into Dramarama’s “Anything, Anything,” which is a KROQ favorite and absolute staple.
In my mind, that was the cover of the night. However, soon after, Walker busts into Pulp’s “Common People,” and I honestly think I was one of five people in the entire audience who knew the song. Still, as great a song as it is, I’m not sure if it was Butch’s best choice for a cover. Shatner did it better.
Finally, the highlight of the entire night was the unintentional encore. As he’s leaving the stage for the night, someone holds up a cake with a candle in it and the crowd begins singing “Happy Birthday,” as Walker’s 40th birthday was on the Saturday to follow. That just set him off in a rockin’ mood and he did not want to stop. Calling up Hotel Café regular, Jim Bianco, the boys jam a little bit more, treating the crowd to the title track off of Jim Bianco’s latest album, Sing. I will totally and completely admit to loudly singing the harmonies from the crowd on that one. Continuing on, the boys bust out into a cover of Prince’s “Kiss” with Ari Gold himself, Jeremy Piven, joining them on the drum set….sans cymbals and with woodwhacks instead of sticks.
I have yet to be disappointed by one of these shows these month. I know that everything says its sold out, but they’ve been selling a small number of tickets at the door. Come on down and join the fun, and GET THERE EARLY!!!!!
Butch Walker: website | myspace | Sycamore Meadows review | interview with | @ grog shop | @ hotel cafe: night 1
