The best gig I ever saw was in Los Angeles, CA on February 10th, 2016 at The Palladium. It was an after-party of some sort… I was there as a guest of Father John Misty, whose bass player, Eli Thomson was producing my Silver Tears album in Los Angeles at the time.

My first clue that this wasn’t just going to be a regular Father John Misty gig was when Justin Bieber rode in the front door of the venue on a skateboard. It’s going to be hard to recall the incredible cast of characters I met that evening. I remember being in the green room at one point and a person was introduced to me by someone else I didn’t know as “The most successful cocaine dealer on the West Coast.” Terrifying.

But the gig itself was the best part. Mr. Tillman and band were spectacular as always. But then came Beck, The Sloths, The Allah-Las and my goodness, my favorite of the evening and one of my all-time favorites, THE Joan Jett. Joan was simply transcendent. She looked stunning and sounded incredible. Her songwriting is perfect to me. Her singing too. It was an evening of incredible music. Sure, I was having to borrow rolling papers from a lady who looked she was dressed as a clown to cross the desert on foot…and yes I was fending off top-level incessantly verbose cocaine dealers. But when there’s music in the air, does anything else really matter?

Aaron Lee Tasjon’s new album Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!  is out February 5.

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