Rounding out the stellar weekend was a long-time favorite of mine, The Lemonheads. The Lemonheads were really popular in the early ’90s, and are responsible for some of my favorite songs of all time. The band is really Evan Dando and anyone he decides to play with, but he’s the master of the indie-pop hook. You may remember last year about this time, I took off to NYC for one night to see him play with Juliana Hatfield, which was a great and memorable show. I’ll see Evan any time I can, and this night he was on. He seemed happy and focused, doing a few solo acoustic songs before launching into the main purpose of the evening, playing their seminal record It’s a Shame About Ray, front to back. He did this a couple years ago at SXSW, but that was a rushed set. This time, he played the album, and then lots from other records. He’s a talented guy, and I’m just glad I still get to see him perform.
This Dando/Kweller weekend is reminiscent of a show I went to long ago, circa early 2001. I was visiting NYC, and they were playing a couple days at Village Underground. I had time to squeeze in an afternoon show, just before heading out to the airport. It was great, a dingy NYC club and some talented dudes. Ben Lee also played, Claire Danes (who Lee was dating at the time) was in the crowd. Happy to have caught Kweller so early in his career.
