Kind-of inspired by those Facebook posts about "10 books / albums / *delete as necessary that made me", I'm going to be posting about the best gigs I ever saw.
Why? Because reasons. But mostly as a reminder of something which none of us will be doing for some while.
Lemonheads, Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham, May 23 1990
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| The Lemonheads in 1992. Photograph: Ebet Roberts/Redferns |
The Lemonheads (or as my gig ticket had it, The Lemon Heads) had recently trimmed down from a fractious five-piece line up to the classic power trio which would go on to record Lovey. At this gig they played stuff that would show up on that album, along with loads of songs from Lick (in my - unreliable - memory they started their set with Mallo Cup).
They played so long that after a handful of encores Evan Dando said they didn't have any more songs. But the audience wouldn't let them off the stage (the room was so small that they had to push through the front rows to get on and off the stage).
Eventually Evan Dando said (and please remember that I'm paraphrasing based on my aged fading memory so I may have totally misremembered / embellished it all), "I wrote this song today, and after this we've got nothing". He then played a solo version of Ride With Me, still one of my favourite Lemonheads songs.
Like I mentioned earlier, if I ever had to say what was the best gig I ever saw, this was it. It was just a great example of the "simple" pleasure of great songs played well, and the unmistakeable heft of classic power trio. Plus the feeling when you're at a gig where everyone is loving it, and you're all there before a band goes supernova.
"I was there", indeed.
FUN FACT: Lemonheads are also responsible for the worst gig I ever saw. This was in Sheffield on the Car Button Cloth tour with Murph from Dinosaur Jr on drums. This was (I *think*) 1996-7 and Evan was deep into his crack years. Not pretty.
He encored by turning his back on the audience and feeding his guitar back for what seemed like 15 minutes.
Challenging. And more than a little sad.
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I saw the Lemonheads at Glastonbury in the middle of the afternoon on the Other Stage. They were on either just before, or just after, Verve (before the addition of the definite article) and Dodgy. Maybe in the middle, now I think about it. I think "It's a Shame About Ray" was out, but they refused to play Mrs. Robinson and played a jaw-droppingly good cover of "Luka" instead. They were excellent. In the top 3 bands I saw that weekend (when I also saw Suede (pre-debut release), The Velvet Bloody Underground, The Kinks, Van Morrison, Orbital and various others..... Not ahead of the game, like you, obviously! Stay well, chief!
ReplyDeletewas i ahead of the game or am i just incredibly old? that cover of "Luka" is on the 'Lick' album and was (I think) the first song of theirs which I heard - on John Peel, obviously.
Deletehope you're doing well, too!
surprisingly well, actually. It's amazing how easily my life has collapsed into lockdown without too much damage. Whisper it quietly, but I don't mind it. I'm missing going out to dinner with friends, but we're working hard at staying in touch with skype drinks and zoom quizzes and things. Podcasts are booming, so I hope podcast editing is too!
DeleteOh, this was 1993 btw.
ReplyDelete