by Talia Page
The Lemonheads, fronted by Evan Dando, played an impressive 2-hour set last night at The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. Dando’s simple narrative style has made him, arguably, one of the greatest indie-rock story teller of the 90s. The music of the Lemonheads evokes a free-spirited, teenage angst-meets-twenty-something-slacker-meets unrequited lover vibe that is so hard to put into words but sooo easy to get into!
The goal last night was to play every song in sequence from The Lemonheads’ 1992 album “It’s a Shame About Ray”, but to the delight of the audience, the show became much, much more. Dando started the evening solo with a quick acoustic set which included “The Outdoor Type” and “It’s About Time”. Shortly thereafter, he was joined onstage by the rest of the band including drummer Bill Stevenson, but sadly did not include the sweet harmonies of original "Ray" backup vocalist Juliana Hatfield. Quick as lightning, the band broke into a speedy run-through of the “It’s a Shame About Ray” tracklist, faster than it would take the tape deck in your 1993 Toyota Camry to spin Side A. Hardly pausing between songs but admitting that this was a “practice” session in preparation for their upcoming 8-week US tour, Dando did take the opportunity to side-coach the band and work out some kinks in timing and tuning.
Although appearing surprisingly sober and in good spirits, the notoriously stoned front man did not refuse shots of tequila handed up to him from the excited crowd. After the "Ray" tracklist was complete, Dando tag-teamed between electric/ acoustic and solo/ full band jams pulling together what would be a career-spanning set-list. Two hours later, it felt like Evan Dando had played virtually every song he had ever written (or at least every Lemonheads song I had ever heard).
The Lemonheads play tonight in Clifton Park, NY before heading to Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, prior to their official US tour.