Philip Fibiger

Last night I went to see Ari Hest at The Mint, mostly because my cousin Randy had been asked to check him out, and he was +1 on the guest list. It was a wonderful change of pace from the last show I’d seen, just one guy with an acoustic guitar. The club was really cool, a great red velvet curtain, dim chandeliers, and the floor was set with tables. It wasn’t tiny but it still felt intimate. The bar was pretty well stocked, but I felt it was a little more expensive that it should have been. Maybe I’m naive to the ways of drinking in LA, having mostly ordered beer, but $8.50 seems like too much for gin & tonic in an old-fashioned glass.

As for Ari, I could take him or leave him. He had a nice voice, but there was no real spark, nothing drew me to his music, and his guitar playing was fair at best. In general i’m not a fan of this male-soulful-singer-songwriter thing (I prefer my male singer-songwriters to have indie-rock roots and to mope ), and I felt like he was channelling Dave Matthews a little too much.