Verdugo Hills High School teacher and Glendale resident debuted songs from new album at The Rose last weekend.
By Brandon HENSLEY

Under warm lights flashing blue and red, there weren’t any noticeable slip-ups – no fingers sliding off the strings or drums sticks flying out of hands. Rather, it was as clean a show as one could expect from a group of musicians debuting new material – and in a sweltering environment, no less.

But on Sunday night, Jere Mendselsohn wasn’t done drying off. Backstage and down the hall inside Pasadena’s The Rose, the guitarist and vocalist sat down inside a former meat locker, now adorned with band posters, long couches and no air conditioning, to talk about the performance.

“It’s kind of like your wedding day. It just sort of happens, and then it’s over,” he said, constantly wiping his brow, forehead and entire face. “You wait for people to show you photos, and you go, ‘Oh, is that what happened?’”

It was the first show – which was the opener for Micky Dolenz of The Monkees – that Mendelsohn has played since recording his new album, Old Sins, Long Shadows.

For two years, Mendelsohn, a Glendale-area resident, has worked as an English teacher at Verdugo Hills High School by day and a grinding musician by night. The album was released in April, showcasing Mendelsohn’s love for classic songwriting. It’s good ol’ rock ’n’ roll meets power-pop. The lyrics touch on themes of loving complicated people and recalling lost days when everything good seemed like it would last forever.

While the album is layered and full of instrumentation, Mendelsohn was only part of a trio – drummer Ed Eblen and bassist Joe Iaquinto rounded out the three. Mendelsohn didn’t have time to change guitars for every song, so he stuck with his Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, cranking out smooth rhythm and playing several solos to show off his chops.

His style, as noted by other fans and publications, evokes the likes of Rockpile and Roy Orbison, but Mendelsohn wouldn’t have sounded out of place in the 1990s, when singer-songwriters and bands attained radio play by pulling inspiration from past generations. (Fastball, anyone?)

“Thank God for guitar. If it wasn’t for that, I’d still be with my stamp collection,” Mendelson recalled. “I was that kid.”

While music is his passion, teaching pays the bills, and Mendelsohn admitted that his love of playing has helped his work in the classroom.

“If you want to be an interesting teacher, be an interesting person,” he said.

Mendelsohn describes himself as sarcastic and a bit of a hard-ass. He makes his students work, even if it means more grading for him during the night or early morning. He implores his kids to put down the smartphones and tune into his lessons. The world is a complex place, he’ll tell them, and you have to be ready for it.

Musically speaking, Mendelsohn is ready for anything that comes next. This weekend he’ll be in Venice, and that show will include keyboardist Darice Bailey, who played on the album. After that, the future is uncertain, and when fall arrives, he’ll be back in the classroom.

But for now, he’ll soak in the feeling of performing for an audience that was happy to hear him. It’s worth soaking in sweat in a backstage meat locker in any case.

“I’m thrilled to death that I got to be onstage with friends who are great players who can hear what I’m doing, and for people who aren’t staring at their phones the whole time,” he said.

  Brandon Hensley