Revenge of the Bookeaters LA Edition

Dave Eggers cross-country, fundraising jaunt came to LA's Royce Hall last Saturday. The very worthy beneficieries of this transcontinental indie jaunt are the local 826 literacy projects of each respective performance city. (The Village Voice has a great review of the recent New York benefit.) Andy Richter was the host in LA and he was one of the highlights of a somewhat underwhelming evening. His opening, self-depracating shtick was pretty funny as it poked fun at his seemingly waning career. The first musical performance of the evening was, by far, the best. The Mountain Goats (primarily John Darnielle with accompianist; in this case, Franklin Bruno on keys) played four or five songs, mostly from the new album. He closed with a rousing, obscure cover about an insane houseguest, originally recorded by Bruno's former band, Nothing Painted Blue. Up until a week or so ago, the Mountain Goats had slipped under my radar. (There goes my blogging cred...) But with all the buzz surrounding the release of Get Lonely a week ago, I sat up and paid attention. The piece that won me over was the amazing video for Woke Up New. Run, don't walk to You Tube to check it out. Dave Eggers followed with an entertaining pitch for the evening's cause , and then came Jenny Lewis. Jenny has an amazing voice, but dare I say it, she doesn't have the consistent songwriting skills to match. She writes some great ones, like Rise Up with Fists, which was the only highlight. And she writes some yawners. Too many yawners. But she sure can sing 'em. Sarah Vowell and Andy Richter came next with the indie rock concert version of public radio pledge drive banter, begging for money with Eggers giving out hugs to audience members in exchange for $20 bills. Intermission, yada yada yada, the witty and winsome Sarah Vowell reads with Richter, and then came the announcement: special guest reader Jake Gyllenhall didn't show. But instead... we get the very talented, kinda, sorta famous, third co-star from the American version of the Office. I don't know his name. He plays the "Tim" character. And he sucked. Next up, Aimee Mann played five songs, including her two classics from the Magnolia soundtrack, Save Me and Wise Up, so I was stoked. OK, one performer left according to the program, John Roderick of The Long Winters. I was surprised he was going on last, but it was an unconventional evening, so what the hell. Well, I was more surprised when Andy said that there would be one more special duet - John Darnielle and Jenny Lewis - to end the evening. No Long Winters. WTF?!?!? And my incredulity continued when I witnessed what was probably the biggest train wreck I've seen on stage in a long time: a clearly unrehearsed version of I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, with Darnielle shrieking so loudly at the end, Jenny Lewis' hair turned bright red. Well, redder than usual I think. Could Sarah Vowell, in her Incredibles' guise, please come back to save the day? No such luck. Evening over.