Chris Price at The Federal Bar, 2-10-19 Concert Review

Chris Price performing "Roller Coaster"

One of the best ways to start my Sunday is with some live music and mimosas at The Federal Bar, even if it means standing in the drizzle for an hour or so. (I can’t honestly call it rain, though others in line did.) Today the Mimosa Music Series continued with a fantastic double bill – Chris Price and Permanent Green Light. People began lining up more than an hour before doors opened for this special show, braving what for Los Angeles is considered bad weather. The doors opened at 11, and within fifteen minutes the place was packed. Today is also the day of the Grammys, and at 11:30 a.m. concert series host Gary Calamar introduced Chris Price as an artist who will one day be at the Grammys, if that’s what he wants.

I had seen Chris Price perform at the Mimosa Music Series before, nearly a year ago. At that show, he had a full band. Today he performed solo, giving his extraordinary vocal and songwriting talents more of the focus. He played material from all three of his solo albums, plus some new tunes. He opened his set with “Man Down,” a song from his 2017 release Stop Talking. For this song he played keyboard, and then switched to guitar for “That’s Your Boyfriend,” a totally enjoyable song from his first album, Homesick. He followed that with “Roller Coaster,” from his 2018 album Dalmatian, and then “Algebra In The Sky,” seriously rocking the acoustic guitar. One of the highlights of the set for me was “Stop Talking.” It’s such a damn good song, and it was great to hear a solo acoustic rendition.

That was followed by another highlight, a new song titled “Running In Place,” for which Chris switched back to keyboard. It’s a seriously cool song, sort of in the same realm as early material from Randy Newman or Harry Nilsson. “I always run in place/When there’s so much to do.” Chris then showed off how his keyboard has been through a lot, and went into “The Angels Of Buena Vista,” from Dalmatian. He followed that with another new song, “Past Is Present,” which he played on guitar. “I wish it was all in the past/But the past is always present.” “Running In Place” and “Past Is Present” are an indication that Chris Price’s next album might be his best so far. I’m certainly looking forward to it.

“Spam” is a song about people who try to swindle folks out of their savings by promising large amounts of money if they’d only give them their bank account and social security numbers. How people fall for that, I’ll never understand, but it’s a good song. Chris broke a string while playing it, and so switched back to keyboard for the final song of his set, a beautiful cover of The Band’s “Whispering Pines.” It was a fairly short set, finishing at 12:04 p.m.

Set List

1. Man Down
2. That’s Your Boyfriend
3. Roller Coaster
4. Algebra In The Sky
5. Stop Talking
6. Running In Place
7. The Angels Of Buena Vista
8. Past Is Present
9. Spam
10. Whispering Pines

Here are a few photo from Chris Price’s set:

"Man Down"

"Man Down"

"That's Your Boyfriend"

"Roller Coaster"

"Running In Place"

The Federal Bar is located at 5303 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood, California.