Lemonheads,The Abyss, Houston, TX, June 16, 1997
Opening Act - Ugly Beauty and 57 Farm Dogs The Lemonheads are a band from the Boston area that has been playing in some form forthe past several years, since the mid to late 80s. Although the personnel of the group haschanged, the one common element throughout has been the lead singer, Evan Dando. Evan isan unusual person, with a rare talent for writing pleasant pop songs that are insightfuland varied in their influences. He has an unusual stage presence, appearing to be reallymessed up most of the time and acting generally baked, which usually leads to a few funnylines and a lot of confusion. For example, at this show, he repeatedly bumped into themicrophone and said "Ow". Throughout the show they annoyed the crowd by makingscreaching noises by touching each other with the amp cables. Okay, maybe this doesn't seem pleasant to you, but I really do dig a lot of theirsongs. They played most of my favorites including "Into Your Arms", "It's aShame about Ray", "Outdoor Type", "If I Could Talk I'd Tell You".During the Evan portion of the evening in which he came out by himself, he treated us to acouple of favorites including "Allison's Starting to Happen" and"Rudderless". Additionally, he treated us to Metallica's "Nothing ElseMatters" and several Beavis lookalikes in the building held up their lighters intribute. It was actually a great rendition. With a weird twist (as if things weren't weirdenough), the band left the stage and asked one of the opening bands, 57 Farm Dogs, toappear for another number, except that Evan introduced them as "a band fromIndonesia". They sang a song called "A Real Live Alternative Girl" and fromwhat I could make it there was one line that said something to the effect of "TheLemonheads invited her", so I guess Evan wanted to return the homage. It was extremely hot and stuffing in The Abyss, the lack of air conditioning in Houstonin June has that effect. I doubt I'll go back for any shows there this summer. I missedthe 57 Farm Dogs regular set, but I did catch the entire Ugly Beauty set. They are a fivepiece with a female lead singer, who did have an excellent guitar style, but I would saythey lacked anything particularly exciting or original in their material. On That Note, I'm outta here...... C |
