Tag Archives: Lemonheads

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Your Live Music Bets for the Weekend of December 20 through the 22nd

Jessica Dobson of Deep Sea Diver. (Photo: Tony Kay)

If you live in downtown Seattle and were hoping for Snowpocalypse 2013 this morning, my condolences as you kick the wimpy, simpering layer of faintly snow-dusted slush off your footwear this morning.

The upside: Getting around shouldn’t be too difficult (depending on where you live, natch), and you’ll be happy to know that an exceptionally-stacked three days of live music awaits. Seriously. You can’t throw a snowball without it landing on a venue hosting a terrific line-up this weekend.

Tonight (Friday, December 20):

Deep Sea Diver, Bryan John Appleby @ Neumos. 21+. $12 Advance/$14 Day of Show. Show at 8 p.m.

Jessica Dobson plays one hell of a guitar–just ask Beck, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, or The Shins (all of whom have benefitted from her versatile axework as a touring session player). But for my money, Dobson shines brightest playing and singing with drummer/husband Peter Mansen in their band, Deep Sea Diver. DSD’s great 2012 debut History Speaks is all over the map in the best way: Stomping 60’s guitar pop and stuttering post-punk rub shoulders with piano balladry, sometimes in the space of a single song. It’s all unified wonderfully by the interplay between Dobson’s mournful wail of a voice, her pinging/chiming guitars, and Mansen’s inventive and melodic rhythms. Expect a few holiday tunes like the loverly original, “It’s Christmas Time (and I’m Still Alive),” too.

My Goodness, XVIII Eyes, Duke Evers Band @ The Crocodile. 21+. $15 at the door. Show at 8 p.m.

It’s been too long since two-headed Seattle rock monster My Goodness has put out new material, a void they’re rumored to be filling next year. In the meantime, the band’s pulverizing live show tonight (with bassist Mike Klay making it a trio) should more than scratch your primal rock itch. And if you don’t get there early enough to hear goth-math-rock quartet XVIII Eyes (formerly Eighteen Individual Eyes) weave their dark and narcotic magic, it’s resolutely your loss.

Xmas Maximus,  Cathy Sorbo, The Candy Cane Dancers @ Darrell’s Tavern. 21+. $8 at the door. Show at 9 p.m.

Darrell’s in Shoreline has been quietly booking great live shows in the north end for quite a few years, and tonight they bust out what should be the weekend’s most fun live Christmas show. The merry rock and roll elves in Xmas Maximus include local musicians like Gavin Guss, Barbara Trentalange, and members of Jessamine and SUNN O))), all bashing out playful versions of holiday classics (love their spastic punk version of “Sleigh Ride”). Plus you get salty-tongued Seattle comic Cathy Sorbo, and burlesque from The Candy Cane Dancers, all for less than it usually costs to park downtown for two hours on a weekday.

X, The Blasters, The Bad Things @ El Corazon. 21+. $25 Advance, $30 Day of Show. Doors at 7 p.m, show at 8 p.m.

See Saturday, dude.

Saturday, December 21:

11th Annual Benefit for MUSICARES with Eldridge Gravy and the Court Supreme, Aaron Daniel, The Chasers, Jeff Fielder, Robb Benson, and Kim Virant @ The Tractor Tavern. 21+. $10 Advance. Show at 9pm. 

Firstly, there’s no way you can fault the cause. It’s a fundraiser for MUSICARES, an organization that aids struggling musicians who can’t afford medical and dental insurance on their own. Secondly, this tribute show’s dedicated to an entire classic rock album–Pink Floyd’s The Wall–and the evening will showcase some ace local acts that don’t sound very much like Floyd in the first place. Hearing velour soul steamrollers Eldridge Gravy and the Court Supreme, West Seattle stoner-metal demons The Chasers, and a tassel of other great Northwest artists reinterpret Roger Waters’ paean to rock decadence should be pretty amazing.

The Physics, Tangerine, DJ Nick Beeba, guests @ The Crocodile. All Ages. $10 Advance. Show at 9 p.m.

South Seattle hip-hop crew The Physics can always be counted on to deliver a serious party live, and the release of their new full-length, Digital Wildlife, provides a great excuse for ‘em to do so. The record retains Thig’s and Monk’s easy wordplay, with just enough new wrinkles to keep things interesting: There’s as much singing there is rapping, and some pinches of electronic music even work their way into the band’s signature style. Right now, the Prince-in-a-robot’s-body groove of new track “Fix Me” is floating my boat in a major way, but it’s the organic nature of their shows (usually accompanied by a soulful and muscular live band) that make them one of this town’s best hip-hop collectives onstage.

X, The Blasters, Girl Trouble @ El Corazon. 21+. $25 Advance, $30 Day of Show. Doors at 7 p.m, show at 8 p.m.

X caught epic shit in the 1970’s and early ’80’s from some of their peers in the fertile LA punk scene for actually writing, you know, real songs (show-offs!) and employing Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek (a f@#king hippie!) to produce their early albums. Fortunately for the world, though, X were (and are) amazing on their own terms, influencing a couple of generations of punks, indie rockers, and roots-rock/Americana musicians in a major way. John Doe‘s and Exene Cervenka‘s vocals remain ragged yet gloriously right, and the band’s full original line-up can still kick up a shitstorm when they need to. Roots-rock legends The Blasters co-headline, and (repeat after me), get there early: Two great Northwest bands–goth-cabaret rapscallions The Bad Things and durable Tacoma garage-rock vets Girl Trouble–open up Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Sunday, December 22:

Evan Dando, Chris Brokaw, McDougall @ The Sunset Tavern. 21+. $15 advance. Doors at 8 p.m.

Evan Dando, mercurial singer-songwriter and frontman for beloved ’90s alt-rock band The Lemonheads, has always been a slacker troubadour at heart, capturing little moments of silliness, romance, and melancholy in a way that definitely presages today’s breed of singer/songwriters. He’s also a funny and engaging solo performer prone to sneaking in choice covers alongside his originals. Preceding Dando is another veteran of the Clinton-era underground rock scene, Codeine/Come guitarist/singer Chris Brokaw, and Americana musician McDougall.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

The Lemonheads @ The Triple Door [Photo Gallery]

Last night Evan Dando and The Lemonheads played to a packed house at The Triple Door. I say “Evan Dando and The Lemonheads” because the show featured just as many songs with Evan acoustic and alone on stage as it did with the rest of his band.

The set was billed as 1992 album It’s A Shame About Ray in its entirety, but after five or six songs by himself, I was wondering when that would occur. I didn’t have to worry though, because just then the rest of the band came out and launched into the album we all wanted to hear. It was an amazing performance by The Lemonheads, sounding just as good as they did nineteen years ago.

They didn’t play the hidden-track fan favorite cover of “Mrs. Robinson”–apparently Paul Simon hated Evan’s version, while Art Garfunkel liked it. But half an hour later, once the album was done, the band left Evan all by himself for another handful of solo acoustic songs. I don’t know that you could call it an encore, considering Evan never really left the stage, as the band joined him one last time for a set featuring “Into Your Arms,” which, for me, was the highlight of the night.

All in all, a great show. Evan’s voice sounded just as good as it always has and his songs will always remind me of a simpler time. The 1990s.

I also shot a video of “Alison’s Starting To Happen,” one of my all-time favorite Lemonheads songs:

Openers were The Shining Twins from New York and Street Chant from New Zealand.

Lots of photos from the show follow.

Continue reading The Lemonheads @ The Triple Door [Photo Gallery] →

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Going on a Rockin’ Stroll Down Memory Lane with The Lemonheads

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The author's cherished Evan Dando autograph, scrawled onto a picture of Danny Bonaduce. Long story.

The first–and last–time I saw The Lemonheads was nearly twenty years ago. Singer/guitarist Evan Dando (who, for all intents and purposes, is the Lemonheads) headlined a KNDD-sponsored acoustic night at the Seattle Art Museum, and my good buddy Dan Troy snuck me into the VIP-only gig at the last minute. The night culminated in me meeting Dando, and bumming a chewed-up number 2 pencil from Dave Grohl so that the Lemonheads frontman could autograph a picture of Danny Bonaduce tucked away in my wallet (long story). When he scrawled his John Hancock over the erstwhile Danny Partridge’s image, Dando–bemused smile on his face–proclaimed me “weird.” Coming from a man who once wrote a tender acoustic ballad about his old stove, it was a hell of a compliment.

Those memories–and a lot more–rushed into my head when I heard that The Lemonheads were playing a set at the Triple Door tomorrow night. I was in my twenties when the band became alt-rock superstars, and their most fondly-remembered record, It’s a Shame About Ray, was the soundtrack of my life for almost the entirety of 1992. I listened to Ray again for the first time in years a month ago, and was struck by how fresh it sounds: If today’s crop of earnest folkies grew a sense of humor, learned how to rock occasionally, and eased up on the self-conscious Americana touches, they’d sound like this.

Calling the album The Lemonheads’ masterpiece would be more than a bit presumptuous, and a notion that self-confessed slacker Dando would likely laugh off. The term implies ambition and carefully-crafted sonic architecture, and It’s a Shame About Ray feels like the antithesis of that lofty label. Less than thirty minutes long (unless you count the cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” slapped onto later editions of the CD after its initial pressing), it’s a deceptively breezy set of mostly acoustic-anchored pop songs that capture–almost by accident, and with surprising depth–what it’s like to be young, flushed in love, and struggling to figure out the world.

Dando’s gift, which came to full flower on It’s a Shame About Ray, was filtering the little details of that time through a poet’s eye. Ambivalence about commitment almost goes undetected amidst the chiming, happy power-pop hook of “Confetti,” while a few songs later he gives fully into the giddy joy of infatuation with the exhilarating “Alison’s Starting to Happen.” “My Drug Buddy” relates the story of a guy and a girl scoring drugs at a phone booth with warm nuance, over a bed of Booker T-style organ. And Dando captures the sights and sounds of a routine journey home with crystal clarity on “The Turnpike Down.” All along, there’s something totally unforced about the songs: They don’t feel tossed-off, so much as pretense-free–offhand slices of life set to effortlessly catchy melodies.

After Ray, The Lemonheads scored some modest success with their follow-up, Come On Feel The Lemonheads, then lost their major-label home amidst the obligatory combination of substance abuse problems and diminishing creative returns. Dando’s sporadically resurfaced over the last fifteen years with solo records and a rejiggered Lemonheads lineup, and the band bounced back two years ago with an inspired covers record produced by the Butthole Surfers’ Gibby Haynes, Varshons. But the centerpiece of the band’s Triple Door gig tomorrow night will be a performance of It’s a Shame About Ray in its entirety. Hearing Evan Dando sing those songs live after twenty years promises to be a moving experience, for him as well as the rest of us.