Music: Yardley @ Hard Rock Cafe, Citywalk

Friday, August 06, 2004, at 07:05AM

By Eric Richardson

When my mom was here I made a one line mention of going over to the Hard Rock Cafe in the Beverly Center to see Yardley, the ever-evolving band put together by Lee Beth Kilgore. Last night Hard Rock was again the scene, but this time it was the other LA Hard Rock, the one in City Walk. Kathy and her sister had been up in SF for a few days, but they made it back into LA just in time to meet me there for the show.

I've expressed before how much I hate Citywalk. The expensive parking... The crowds... The knockoff versions of authentic LA establishments... But whatever, sometimes you do things you don't want to and what I did want to do was go see music. I took the Red Line, too, which meant I got to avoid the outrageous parking charge.

Yardley was debuting a new drummer for this show. He auditioned Saturday, learned his stuff, and played the show yesterday (Wednesday). He did his job well, and everything sounded great. The Hard Rock's really not a venue designed for music, but they did have nice equipment, and that helps immensely. Lee Beth is really hoping that this will be the line-up they can finally say "this is Yardley," and if it is I think it's a good one.

I was noticing yesterday that Lee Beth is very straight to business running a show. Very little talking, just straight to the music and little breaking between songs. She can fit a lot of songs into a little set that way, so I guess that's good.

All in all, a fun show.