Tortilla Chips and Milk Concert Review: The Lemonheads, Boston 12.16.06

I usually make an annual winter visit to Boston, but I chose this past weekend specifically to catch the final show of Evan Dando and the Lemonheads 2006 tour in Dando's hometown. Now you've heard me mention this before, but it bears repeating. I have been a devoted fan of Evan Dando's work ever since I heard the Lemonheads cover Suzanne Vega's "Luka" while I was a senior in high school. Sure, he's been both miscast and lived up to his dopey, pretty boy image over the last 15 years but his songwriting has always been genuine, and his voice sincere. He writes songs that I wish I had written. There are cooler, hipper, more talented bands out there, but his music, more than anyone else I've ever heard, speaks to me on a personal level.

So, I went to the Avalon excited, but bracing myself for a possible disaster. A few years ago I stood through a solo set in San Francisco highlighted by Dando fucking up playing chords into his pedals and asking someone in the crowd to hold a flashlight for him on stage while he sang the lyrics for a new song. There was also the show in LA which rocked, but seemed to have lasted a little over an hour, while he mumbled constantly about celebrities in the audience. Juliana Hatfield was in the band so I felt doubly ripped off. Still, I can say I loved both of those shows. I am that forgiving a fan.

I think that sentiment was shared by the rest of the crowd as well. As soon as he came out my sister and her friend talked about how they didn't like Dando's bangs. Sigh. The show didn't really have a raucous start. They played "Black Gown" which is off the Lemonheads' self-titled album released this past September. I'm guessing a good portion of the crowd was like me. They knew the album had been released but hadn't really gotten around to listening to it yet. It picked up a little with "Down About it" but the bassist struggled with the background vocals owned in memory by Juliana. Despite a less than enthusiastic crowd response at the beginning, they went rapidly from song to song a pace they would keep all night. Then after about five or songs in, they did a kick-ass trifecta of songs from the album "It's a Shame About Ray" - "Turnpike Down" "Bit Part" and "It's a Shame About Ray" which for me said "Remember this motherfuckers! This is why you're all here, right now" From that point the place just loosened up and turned into this huge party for an old friend. After that switch flip, Dando just kept on plucking from the catalogue. Songs like "Hospital", "My Drug Buddy", "It's About Time" and "Great Big No" made me head-bob and sing along. I probably had a nostalgia laced cheesy ass grin, but I wasn't the only one.

Halfway through the set, Dando gave the band a breather while he performed a mini-acoustic set. This was as enjoyable a sequence as any I've seen at any concert I've been to. EVER. He started off with "Being Around" and then followed it up with "Frying Pan" from the Sweet Relief album. This was the first time I had heard the song performed live and it was just a fantastic experience. Among the other songs he performed were, "Favorite T", "Into Your Arms". "I Wish I Was Him" and his cover of the Misfit's "Skulls".

The band came back for the hoe stretch, but for me it didn't matter. Everything was gravy. He surprised the crowd with "Mrs. Robinson" but gave the honor of singing it to two guys in the crowd. The melancholy "Hana and Gabi" made me feel like I was wearing my torn big ass flannel shirt walking in the rain to get smokes. There was a rockin' version of "Style" (RIP Rick James) a rollicking "If I Could Talk", a hootenanny-ish "Big Gay Heart" and surprise pre-Ray closer of "Hate your Friends"

All in all it was 30+ songs in front of over 1200 people, many of whom would have been sore from moshing to most of the set 15 years ago. Remember, we moshed to everything back then, even the fucking Spin Doctors, that's how the early nineties rolled, yo!. Me, I left with an impression that the memories of back then were better than they actually were and the hope that maybe we could do the last 15 years all over again sometime down the road.

Bonus, Here's a clip of the Mrs. Robinson performance from the show.