Here’s a quick vid that a co-worker show from the Rilo Kiley concert over the weekend. It’s the end of the song “Breakn’ Up” off their new album “Under the Blacklight.” According to him, she’s pounding on a cowbell on stage which, as any fan of Christopher Walken will tell you, songs can never have too much cowbell. If anything, they need more.

On an intimate stage in a small bar close to Boston University, Patrick Park (a native of Colorado) stepped up with his acoustic guitar and looked out to the crowd.

“Hey everybody. I’m Patrick Park. Hehe, yea.”

At first glance, you don’t expect much from this guy with his frat-boy looks and face that resembles baseball player (and former local hero) Johnny Damon. But thanks to a morbid obsession with the now-defunct TV show “The OC,” I knew of Park and his acoustic-guitar sounding ways (which in turn has helped me convince women who are way out of my league that I was “sensitive” and “introspective”).

Why did I watch the OC? The season reason I watch 90210 reruns: it’s ridiculous.

And if not for The OC picking up two of Park’s songs (”Something Pretty” and “Life is a Song”), he would probably still be on that street corner singing to a group of homeless hippies and one sick dog.

Instead he’s here, playing dark lounges that make picture/video taking impossible. Here he is performing “Something Pretty.”

You have to be in the mood for Park. He’s perfect for coffee houses, rainy days and getting laid-back indie-rock chics who wear red glasses in bed (too specific?).

Here’s the strange thing about Park: he attracts the different sects of society, turning his concerts into impromptu UN-esque meetings. There was the father and his teenage son, the couple 20-something couples scattered in the middle, the hipster-punks in the back (not as angry as regular punks, not as wimpy as regular hipsters), older people who look like professors, and former OC fans who hide their dirty, shameful secret from the world (we can smell our own).

They were all fans. The applause was always strong and you got the sense that everyone knew the songs, which is especially appropriate since Park’s newest release is called Everyone’s in Everyone and seems to enjoy the theme that, well, we’re all connected by something (pain, confusion, love for acoustic-guitar-based songs).

Some will say his songs sound the same (he does add a harmonica on some) while others will say it’s a tragedy he isn’t more popular and played on the radio.

The truth, as it usually does, lies in the middle. Park is a great add to your music collection, provided you enjoy the quieter moments in life or cheesy teen dramas on television (word is the guy who made the OC is coming out with Gossip Girl which will be just as bad. Don’t worry. I’m steering clear).

I know. This video sucks and you can’t see his face. And, quite frankly, there were only 12 people at this show which was supposed to be the CD launch party for the album “Guilt by Association,” a collection of indie artists covering their favorite guilty pleasure songs (Farina covered Eddie Money’s “Two Tickets to Paradise”). So that sucked too. But I discovered a now-defunct band you may want to know about.

The song in the video is “Some Sinatra” and is from Farina’s past band called Secret Stars (Deathcab for Cutie covered their song “Wait”) and I’m embarrassed for not knowing of them before. Secret Stars was founded in 1993 and I really could have used this break-up song in high school.

Farina is working on a new band called Glorytellers, which should come out with an album next year.

This video shows only one half of the Judith Owen experience. The other half consists of exaggerated gestures, poking fun at her own music, and telling long-winded stories about how her emotional scars, all with a British accent and precise comic timing and enthusiastic sarcasm.

“Ok everybody, let’s get down…let’s have a bad time together,” says Owen before she launches into one of her “sad” songs.

It’s hard to believe she can be that funny, especially when Owen comes across as a Tori Amos who sings more about feelings than about societal and political issues.

But it’s true. Owen’s show last night (Aug. 22 in Cambridge, MA) was less of a concert and more of a VH1 Storyteller show, only with more laughs and vulgarity. It was half a concert, half a stand-up comedy routine.

Check out this video where Owen digresses and talks about her husband (the Simpsons and Spinal Tap’s Harry Shearer) and a strange circus.

Or this video where she dances between the line of seriousness and hilarity when she talks about having compassion for others and how she only makes music for the attention.

Why does she do it? “So I’m filled with the meaninglessness of applause. Yes! Louder people! LOUDER!”

Demanding more accolades from your audience can be seen as desperate move, but in terms of Owen, its simply tomfoolery.

In her over two-hour set (complete with an encore that included a cover of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”), Owen played every single song off her “Happy This Way” album, and made sure to explain whatever emotion or hilarious story was involved in writing it.

For the song “Love Has Two Faces,” Owen described it as a “true love song” and told a story about her husband.

“What they don’t tell you, is that when you love someone that deeply, you can also hate them just as deep. Harry and I were in the kitchen, virtually in a stab-off. He’s upset because he thinks I moved his Bose handbook or something. The thing is, you don’t hate people you don’t care deeply about…unless that person is the president.”

To this, the crowd erupted into laughter and, once more, I’m reminded why the live music can be so fulfilling, surprising and inspiring. Had I not been there, I would have missed Owen’s cover of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” which, as you can imagine, should be experienced by all female “Rocky” fans out there.

Owen’s next, and only, show is on Aug. 24 at Sellersville Theater in Sellersville, PA.

Slick Rick tells Boston to “Lick my Balls” during the 2007 Peace Festival 

Old school was in the house at the Peace Festival with local Boston hip-hop groups like Omega Red and 3 Foot Stripes spitting rhymes in the middle of Civic Hall Plaza this past weekend with headliners De La Soul and Slick Rick. Yes, the guy who was arrested for attempted murder was at the peace festival.

But all that’s behind “The Ruler” and the only fighting he instigated at the festival was between the new school and the old school. Rick had the DJ play the best of the new school, which translated to dropping DJUnk’s “Walk it out” (really? that’s the best? No wonder no one’s buying hip-hop anymore). This was met immediately by a symphony of boos and a thumbs down from everyone. If this were Roman times, DJ Unk would have been beheaded and his carcass left for the poor to munch on.

De La warmed up the crowd with “Me Myself and I,” “Ghetto Thang,” and “Potholes in my Lawn.” Then the DJ warmed the crowd up even more by playing cuts from old-school classics. He had the entire crowd spitting every lyric to Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend.” It was amazing. Yea, you had to be there.

Rick came out to a screaming crowd and dropped classics like “”La Di Da Di,” “Teenage Love,” and “Children’s Story.” He also threw out the advice that “Marriage is good y’all! Remember, it takes two to make a thing go right! Not three! Two! PEACE!”

Slick Rick taught me about hip-hop when I was a kid. Now, years later, he’s teaching me about life…and the fact that you’re never too old to wear an obscene amount of gold around your neck. Much love.

I like women who play guitars who are revered by lesbians even though I’m not a lesbian. Stop judging me.

Brandi Carlile, the one who made this video for Grey’s Anatomy fans, gave a free concert today (Thursday, July 12) in Copley Square Park in Boston. It was part of the WBOS (the indie rock/lite rock station) Free Summer Concerts. The weather was unseasonably perfect for this time of year and the crowd was a healthy mixture of the young, old and handicapped. Some were so young that Carlile had to censor her “trucker mouth” (She failed. After performing “Turpentine” with audience participation, she explained “You guys sang your asses off!” She immediately put her hand over her mouth and apologized. Somewhere, off in the distance, a mother wailed for her young daughter’s tainted ears.)

Carlile is slowly climbing the ladder and, with the help of another successful album, will reach the coveted plateau where people like the Indigo Girls and Melissa Etheridge reside. Truth be told, I enjoy her music. It feels good on a balmy night with a glass of whiskey in my hands.

This was my second time seeing her live this year (I am not a fanatic) and both shows were equal in quality. She played “Late Morning Lullaby,” “Have you ever” and “The Story” off her new album, which were fine (as was evidenced by the multitude of men and women shifting their weight from side to side in what I can only assume is “dancing” in the indie rock world). But the exciting thing about seeing Carlile live is the songs she chooses to cover. This time we got Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” and Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues.” I would pay top dollar to hear this woman waill Cash tunes all night.

At one point Carlile and the band encountered technical difficulties, forcing stagehands to run around the stage. Because every second is precious during a free concert (just like every sperm is sacred during free sex), Carlile erupted into an inpromptu a cappella song where she clapped and yodeled. Yes, yodeled.

She also played “What Can I Say,” another familiar song for Grey’s Anatomy fans (by the way, I don’t watch Grey’s and only know all these references because of my girlfriend. I will go on record and take a lie detector test to prove it). The free concert in the park ended with Carlile coming back on stage for an encore (which felt odd since she only played for like 45 minutes) and came out with a Red Sox hat on and saying “I only have one sports obsession and that’s the Boston Red Sox.”

I know. I kinda feel like the city is making her say that too.

Ari Hest is as tall as a small tree (6-foot-3) and an admitted Yankees fan. Besides his appreciation to the Evil Empire, he’s still a favorite around Boston for his non-threatening, rainy day music and his frat-boy looks. Bostonians don’t like to be threatened by anything, especially small lit up signs scattered around buildings and bridges.

Last Friday he played The Middle East - Downstairs to an adoring crowd of college students, loose women and a handful of middle-aged parents. The show opened with sets by Julian Velard and The Damnwells, which were both greeted with intoxicated indifference (though a few superfans in the front could be heard with their lonely wails of “Eeyyyyeeaah!”).

Julian has crazy hair, plays the piano and looks like he was constantly beat-up as a teenager.

The Damnwells is another entry in the long list of rock-pop bands. They weren’t bad, just not particularly memorable. Falangi McFancy, my girl and partner in crime, commented that she may have heard their songs on the radio. After listening for a couple of seconds, she returned to mocking the drunken whore who was trying to bring home the guy who wore a bathing suit with a long-sleeve dress shirt…to a concert. The only time I want to be caught wearing that is when I’m dead or surrounded by supermodels covered in whip cream.

Hest didn’t disappoint (he doesn’t threaten, remember?) and played at least half the songs off his new album “The Break-In,” along with older ones like “Anne Marie,” “Monsters,” and “A Fond Farewell.”He also played his cover of Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire,” which got a lot of cheers since Boston is a big town for cover songs and The Boss.

The highlight of the night came when Hest sang “I’ve Got You,” the song that closes his new album. A female fan named “Alana” was invited on stage to sing with him (he said he originally wanted this song to be a duet with Norah Jones, but since she still responds with a “Hest? Who is that clown?” he sings alone).

Alana didn’t have the voice or the ass of NJ, but she carried the song well, with the perfect amount of innocence, wide-eyed wonder and fear.

To check our what friendly, rainy-day music sounds like, check out Ari Hest’s Myspace page. Or just go to your local coffee shop and find the guy with the guitar who looks like he’s about to cry.