Tuesday, October 4, 2011
The Spin The Lemonheads (Attempt to) Perform It's a Shame About Ray at Mercy Lounge, 10/3/11
Posted by The Spin on Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 12:33 PM
We caught the tail end of New York Rivals, but from what we heard, it didn’t sadden us much. We’ve heard indie rock before. It was openers The Shining Twins that actually stole our hearts. With a standing drummer whose mounted kick drum towered a good several inches over her petite frame, they already looked twee as fuck. High-tempo shrieks full of angsty, quirky rants about slutty girls and stupid boys won us over instantly.
But the star of this spectacle was obviously Evan Dando, who’d been seen pacing anxiously aroumd the venue all evening. While we were all anticipating a dose of those silky pipes, he’d apparently blown them out on tour already. So, as a warm up, he started with a solo set, jogging through a string of hits and covers such as “The Outdoor Type,” Noise Addict’s “I Wish I was Him” and even Big Star’s “I’m in Love With a Girl.” One tune typically led directly into the other with little or no pause, except in the instances when his amp needed tweaking. There’d be much more of this to come.
Dando spoke to the crowd in short, rapid, unintelligible bursts, but we gathered this time that he was bringing out the band to get this show on the road. After all, we did come to hear It’s a Shame About Ray in its entirety — and we would ... eventually. “Rockin’ Stroll” and “Confetti” kicked off just as the album does, and sounded pretty damn good, though Dando couldn’t quite hit the high notes and the solos were more than a little half-assed. Fuck it. He’s a badass. He’s our childhood hero. You are forgiven, oh elder statesman of alterna-rock. Trudge on, brother. Hell, we’ve got a killer buzz ourselves.
But, trudge he not. He excused the band again, mumbling something about song keys and he couldn’t do this or that with the band playing with him. Our guess is the band’s amplitude was too much for his pipes to compete with. He went back to solo guitar and after several attempts in several keys, played “It’s a Shame About Ray” and a few others on and off the record with no particular gumption or enthusiasm, killing what few moments of momentum he’d collected by playing the inept perfectionist and spending an inordinate amount of stage time creating and solving technical difficulties with his guitar, getting the tone just right for each and every song, but making neither heads nor tales of his equipment without the aid of his guitar tech.
Dando brought the band out a second time. After pretty much nailing Ray staples like “Kitchen” and “Bit Part,” he detoured through Come on Feel's “Style” and a cover of G.G. Allin’s “Layin’ up With Linda,” leading us to believe this rocky start was headed for a smooth finish.
It wasn’t. Yet again, Dando dismissed the band, who, unbeknownst to us and eventually to our dismay, would not return. After more amp twiddling, Dando started more than a few songs in one or more wrong keys before giving up and starting a new one. He played “Big Gay Heart” by request and then a cover of The Misfits’ “Skulls” — a song you know is being played for squares when a sing-along fails to ensue. And just when we were thinking a little momentum was in the works, he brings out the special guest.
Dando returned to his guitar a little longer. He called out to the crowd — which was thinning more with each song — for any tracks from Ray he might have missed, and fumbled through the rest of them while we imagined how much better they’d sound with bass and drums. Finally, he unhooked his guitar, mumbled “Thank you all! Sorry!” and exited the stage, leaving an obvious mix of emotions in the crowd. At one point earlier in the set, some woman from the back screamed out “Bogus!” Dando’s reply summed up the evening pretty well, “This is the opposite, baby. It ain’t pretty, but it’s definitely real.”
Comments (31)
Showing 1-31 of 31
from his humble punk roots to his slacker-voiced claim to fame, Evan Dando didn't make his name a name by seeming to give a shit about much. his troubles are well documented and never has anyone claimed as of late or otherwise that he's gotten his shit together in any shape, form, or fashion. if you were disappointed by Evan Dando's performance or behavior last night, i'm pretty sure there's a club (or several clubs) you can join or at least like on Facebook.
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That sounds EXACTLY like I thought it would go. The dude likes his drugs, eh?
And that is CRAZY that Chris Doherty was there! WTF?! 16 year old me would have been thrilled!
You would think that if an artist opts for the "play a classic album because I have no creativity left in the tank" model, he would at least rehearse a show that features that entire album. I'm so glad I didn't waste my money on this overrated garbage.
Thank you for your amazingly accurate portrayal of last night's show. It was incredibly sad to watch. Now please someone post the videos on YouTube!
Hearing "Hospital" and "Style" was great but I paid to see its a shame about Ray in its entirety with a band . That didnt happen. I dont think the backing band knew all the songs. Did they play Hanna & Gabi?
he started Hanna & Gabi a couple times in a few different keys, but never made it past the first line.
that's the difference between you and me, Evan. i would never lie about being the outdoor type.
Really? The Shining Twins? Stole your heart? I guess if you're into noisy, out of tune, shitty songs performed by un-showered, shoe-gazing, crack bug scratchin' corpses then your heart must be a dark and empty pit. An absolute waste of time and humanity! Fuck em!!
@chark i gotta thing for adorable drummers, bassist chicks that could probably kick my ass, and anything jangly, snotty, loud, and fast.
You...liked The Shining Twins? Moving on...
My favorite part of the show was when Evan apologized and offered to buy everyone in the audience a drink and then 10 minutes later mumbled something about needing to borrow $10 for food.
I loved every minute.
The show was pretty brutal, but for some reason I hung on, like he would bring the band back out and pull a "just kidding" and rock the rest of the album. Nope. I thought the songs as a three piece were killer, though few and far between. Very odd show. I loved it and hated it at the same time.
Great article though, you really nailed it. The "bogus" incident was a fine way to end the review. That seemed eerily telling of the night, even when it happened.
Someone HAS to post a video on YouTube. There are clips from the prior two shows and they seem pretty tame. Sounds like those who attended will now be able to claim their own "everyone has an Evan Dando story". Whatever else, the man is a genious.
There where good moments...But the show broke my heart. The Shining Twins were primal and hot....Like The Shaggs,but with better meter. Not hearing Hannah and Gabbi hurt.
Really? The Shining Twins? They needed to get off the blow, they were so tweeked it was a wonder they could stand still through their so called show. Every one of their songs sounded exactly the same with no variance in melody and words were shrieked instead of sang. Dando really did need some not tea with lemon and honey. It would have helped his throat. But to be standing in that close proximity to such song writing greatness, I could totally over look anything else that went down. Well except for that random guy who got up on stage with him who was even more lame than the Twins. I could have done without that.
@Kentucky Fan. look up. there's something flying over your head. The Lemonheads started as a punk band. Dando played Misfits and GG Allin covers during his set. Shining Twins shared in this element. and that random guy was a founding member of one of the baddest ass hardcore punk bands of the 80s.
get your learn on so your ignorance and/or lack of appreciation for entire genres of music don't ruin any more shows for you.
Hey Seth, don't think I need any schooling about what I think is great music or not, I paid and drove miles to see Dando and my favorite of his CD's. I voiced my opinion on the show as well as you have obviously many times already on this thread. Dando's voice could have been better, but it was still great to be there and get to see him in person. Would still go see him again live. So I'm not a punk ohhh well I'll live if it means forgetting parts of the show that was so called punk music.
Did I dream this or did Evan play a few lines of Juliana Hatfield's "My Darling"?
I thought the show was a bummer, but that's always a rock & roll risk. Still, it's painful to watch someone struggle on stage, regardless of how much money we paid. I started to feel like we were shooting his feet, telling him to dance.
Hope he can get it together to finish the tour. In the meantime we can continue with our decades-old Evan Dando rescue fantasies.
as prefaced, this wasn't slated to be included in this week's coverage. So a photog wasn't sent to shoot it. it was decided via text in the midst of this trainwreck that this was too good/bad to not Spin. so the impromptu photos are all that's available.
I took this shitty thirty second video (and a bunch more, but posting videos on Youtube takes FOREVER so unless someone offers me $ I'm not going to bother posting them.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyBaJbALB5s
I saw the Lemonheads in the early 90's at Exit/In.......Dando was a dick when i met him, and they sucked ass. At least they're consistent.
I don't get it. Eveything nowadays just suck. I mean, all of you, people, expect a really meticulous and perfect performance. Come on, man! When a band do a meticulous and perfect perfomance it is just one more concert for them. Just one more regular concert for the list of concerts they did. It will be completely forgotten in a couple of days. What about a Lemonheads concert like that one? I bet it'll never be forgotten. Shame on you, people. Concerts to take risks are not allowed anymore. That's why rock and roll sucks nowadays. It's sad. A rock and roll concert is all about being shocking, intimidating and frigthen. Do you like to some robots playing?! Shame on you!
I saw them in Northampton and it was the first concert I ever thought of asking my money back for. If you had told me that New York Rivals was gonna be the best act I saw that night, especially after seeing them open, I would've laughed. Unfortunately, that was totally the case. The Shining Twins need to go back to the scuzzy apartment they came from and practice more before getting on a stage, but preferably never again. Painfully derivative, like a couple of girls playing 4th-rate Descendent's songs. The schtick is 30 years old and unimproved. Please ladies - the 7 tequila shots will not improve your performance!
And I didn't want a meticulous, orderly "Ray" set from the Lemonheads - I just wanted something coherent. People were at least partially under the impression that technical issues were half to blame for the poor show, but Dando just didn't want it. Technical issues have been cited as being a problem at every show on the tour so far. The common denominator was Evan though. It was painful for him and us. Not how I prefer to spend a saturday night.
Well, Evan plays like this since 20 years ago. You should know! It's all about some classics, some weird performance, some rock and roll, some craziness. Some people forget it's all about having fun, specially for the musicians. If a band come up on stage and play 90% of covers they would be killed. But, well, the Replacements did that more than 20 years ago.
This review almost kept me from attending the Akron show. But I'm glad I went. The show went off without a hitch. They tore through the album (sans Mrs. Robinson) and then when into a ton of other songs. Some full band, some just with Evan. Great show. I don't think there's a backstage at the venue, so when they were done he just took off his guitar without saying a word and ran out the front door. It was funny.
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