Life imitated art on Labor Day when Cold Cave, Abe Vigoda, Vetiver, and the LA Vampires rocked – in a mid-80s pulsating English sort of way – the Henry Miller Memorial Library.

The Library grounds literally felt like a Cold Cave.  It was quite cold – ominous, spectral fog poured in off the ocean, such that Abe Vigoda’s front man cracked, “More fog machine, please” (sic) – and cave-like, as the Library sits in a canyon.

Actually, in retrospect, it wasn’t so bad.  More like a Damp Grotto.

Anyway, don’t just take our word for it.  Here’s a pics from our pal Dan Newell.

(Eerie.  Kinda reminds me of the “endless winter” I spent in Berlin back in ’82.  I shaved my eyebrows.)

Hey, here’s Abe Vigoda:

The show itself was fun, and to this van-dwelling, patchouli-lovin’ guy, I must say I was thoroughly enraptured by Vetiver.  They easily shape-shifted from catchy, almost Mersey-beat pop to technically-slinky guitar runs that ran like technicolor rivers through the tunes.  So much so, in fact, I turned to John the Sound Guy and say, “Man, they sound like the Dead, circa ’71.”  John agreed.  (John always agrees with me, though; I tend to give him a cookie when he’s doing a good job.  John’s agreement is Pavlovian.)

After their show, and six brews deep, I said to the Veitver drummer, “You guys sound like the Dead, circa ’71.”  He said, “Yeah, we get that sometimes.”

Speaking of which, how kind is Jerry in this?  (below)