For their 100th show, LA rockers Vanaprasta performed a benefit concert for Haiti on Jan. 15 with fellow buzz acts John Carpenter, John Isaac Watters and Mariah McManus. Guitarist Cameron Dmytryk recaps the special night, a welcome entrance to 2011.

This show was a no brainer.

Not only our first show of 2K11, but also our 100th show. I’m a weirdo about that s**t. Steve and I calculated where we were at right after CMJ, and on top of all that, a benefit to rebuild Haiti orphanages a year after that terrible disaster.  

Not to mention it being held at the rising Bootleg Theater, a venue we had only played once before in 2009 and has since become a staple on the Silver Lake/Echo Park music scene.

So as soon as the new year struck and the whole band was back in beautiful Los Angeles, we hit the rehearsal room hard, with new ideas, constant yelling the phrase 2K11 ain’t ready!

We put a series of our half thought-out future tracks into action and by the 15th, we had three solid, comfort-altered tunes ready for reaction.

The first of three was a traditional Vanaprasta rock banger entitled “Choke.” The difference here being the driving nature of the song completely relying on piano and not guitar (until the pulsing, exploding loud climax).  

The second was “Self Indulgent Feeling,” which was most definitely the one we were most curious about as far as audience reaction. It’s a pop song in its purest form, written mostly by our drummer Smiley as a beat.  

The song came together once it had lyrics almost immediately, putting a smile on all our faces and giving us an itch to share it with the world asap.

Not traditional Vanaprasta in any sense (Collin solely on piano and me on acoustic guitar), the song is a journey through our lives both in the sense of the lyrics and our unwillingness to settle on one particular genre.

The third in our new song melting pot was a smooth, restrained dreamer entitled “Don’t Go Home,” a song that finally found its place after trying it several different ways stylistically.

The song builds slowly and never completely loses its s**t, just expands and contracts til Steven is left singing alone.

The songs were received quite well generally and were combined with a full set of older tunes (”Something Better,” “Color Of Sin”) and our more modern favs (”Minnesota,” “Some Kinda Legend”) it felt natural and somewhat romantic aside our new jams.

The crowd was great, filled with new faces and familiar faces that we hadn’t had a chance to connect with since the new year—not to mention f**kin’ John Carpenter played after us and totally killed it!

It was a welcome entrance into 2011—a year with a lot of expectations on our end, a year we plan on delivering while never forgetting to enjoy the process.

Cameron