The Derby is located on Los Feliz at the base of the hill that houses the Griffith Park Observatory and the Greek Theatre. It's a very cool room. Relatively unchanged since the late 40's. A Hollywood staple that saw a huge resurgence in popularity after part of the room was used in key shots in the movie "Swingers".

Touring Merchandise Manager, Deanna Swuz, known to many Orlando fans as the Blue Wigged Dancing Girl arrives this evening at LAX and is ushered by her husband Dave Swuz (director of the Sideways Silverjet Video) directly to the venue. She reports:

8:27 p.m.
After paying a Mexican to watch us valet park our own car in back of The Derby, Dave and I can faintly hear a band playing inside the building from the parking lot. Drums and guitars carry well in the cool, dry night air. I am unavoidably thrilled to be in California and on top of that, seeing Blue Meridian.

Up the steps to The Derby, I distinctly hear "So Sexy Avalon." I wave to Donovan from the lobby as he croons away on stage and he gives me one of those half-smiles. The cover charge is 8 bucks.  Each. The band sounds spectacular and it turns out that I've only missed a couple of songs.