Guy I'd Go Gay For: Evan Dando

Tonight I did something I've been wanting to do since I was, I dunno, five maybe. The Lemonheads, the soundtrack to my growing up and the reason my soul still lives in the 1990s, were at the Trocadero tonight. So naturally, I was there. It was a gradual build-up, beginning in eighth grade when I saw head-Lemon Evan Dando solo, which was brilliant. Two years later, I saw former Lemonhead Juliana Hatfield opening for X. I told her how much I loved their harmonies. Anyway, they were in town tonight and blahblahblah like you know, I was there.

It could easily have been a bad night. Actually, on arrival, there was a mix of different things going on. There was the positive: I had won two tickets and they were playing Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga over the PA; then, the negative: they fucking made a really dumbshit move and flipped the Troc upside down so the bottom floor was 21+ and the balcony was all-ages. I felt really cheated. Where were Sean Agnew and Ian Mackaye? What about punk rock? Whatever, I bitched it out of my system and sucked it up. It would be the first show I had to watch from that forsaken balcony since my first Guided by Voices show at age 11.

We made the best of it. The performance was great. Dando, Karl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson took the stage really nonchalantly. Evan mumbled some typically Dando-esque nonsense into the mic about the placement of his guitar pedals and I laughed. When they were finally able to pull it together and play, they emitted noise for a good two minutes before beginning "Hospital". I was gleeful. "Hospital" was unexpected, it was a really great gift, it contains lyrics about green leaves (in the midst of winter, some much needed springtime imagery)! So the set continued in this fashion with all of my old fucking favorites that I really actually love ("Great Big No," "Drug Buddy," "Tenderfoot," just ask me for a best-of mix, you will maybe get the idea,) and some new ones from last year's s/t and much needed reemergence that went over really well live.

It felt like I was seeing this rising new band, one with an olympic sized swimming pool's worth of potential and that was going to save something. Technically, they were a new band (Alvarez and Stevenson backed Evan on s/t and this was their first tour together,) but only in one sense. So it kind of sucks that the original Lemonheads had a vat of potential and quickly squandered it away on crack cocaine and rough breakups. I feel kind of torn about their fanfare-less comeback, but mostly...I'm elated. The Lemonheads are back and excellent, it's just too bad people won't be coming out in droves to see a still-gorgeous Evan Dando croon happiness. He really is still fucking gorgeous, I'm not even going to try to hold back. Just look at him.



So begins my break. A fitting start, actually. I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow, but what follows won't be pretty. Christmas at the Country Butcher! We're really fucking busy. Whatever though, break is going to be good...right?