Love is All | Monster Island Basement | 10.15.2008

It's nice to live where I do sometimes. After watching the final Presidential debate, I decided to head over to art/performance space Monster Island (about three blocks from my apartment) to see if I might be able to get into the impromptu Love Is All show. Woods had just finished playing and Love is All were up next... perfect timing, and just the thing to relieve all the stress politics have inflicted on us lately.

I can't say Monster Island (my first time there) was packed but everyone that was there was crammed near the stage, pretty much in the faces of the band. It was such tight confines up front that Johan Lindwall whacked singer Josaphine in the face, accidentally, with his bass -- leaving a nice goose-egg above her left eye. "It's kind of cool I'm here bleeding onstage," laughed Josaphine who let an audience member dab her wound with a towel from time to time. 

Though the injury clearly smarted, she didn't let it affect the show which focused mostly on Love Is All's upcoming, great second album, A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night, which is due out November 11. The crowd, which included most of Crystal Stilts, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, caUSE co-MOTION, and My Teenage Stride, were pretty much beaming and dancing the throughout. Love is All tend to inspire that kind of reaction with people. They just make you happy.

MP3: Love is All - Last Choice (pre-order the new album)

Love is All will be back in the U.S. in a month for a West Coast tour with Vivian Girls,  which you'd be a fool to pass up. Here are the dates:

Nov 16 Part Time Punks Festival @ the Echoplex Los Angeles, California

Nov 17 The Casbah w/ Vivian Girls and Nodzzz San Diego, California

Nov 18 The Smell w/ Vivian Girls and Nodzzz Los Angeles, California

Nov 20 Bottom of the hill w/ Vivian Girls and Nodzzz San Francisco, California

Nov 22 Backspace w/ Vivian Girls and Nodzzz Portland, Oregon

Nov 23 Nectar Lounge w/ Vivian Girls and Nodzzz Seattle, Washington

Nov 24 BC Richards Vancouver, British Columbia

And here's the video for Love Is All's "Wishing Well":