Eugene Chadbourne last night at LanaLou's, by Erika Lax
Awesome night at LanaLou's last night. People really liked Red Herring, which I was very happy to see, and they did really cool versions of a bunch of their best songs, starting with a little Stephen Nikleva workout with Kenan on drums, a few duets between Enrico and Tania (including "The Monkey Song," a favourite of mine), and a set with the full band (minus the bassist, but Id Guinness filled his parts on keyboards). It ended on a stunning version of "Julia," one of the songs that Tania really knocks out of the park. (The link is to the official video, I shot no vid of them last night).
Eugene, starting at 10, was pretty intense! He began with an instrumental I did not recognize, but his set included Tim Buckley's "I Must Have Been Blind," Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak," the Circle Jerks' "World Up My Ass" and then a few songs on the banjo, including an amazing "Old Piano" (which I didn't record, but there's a similar (buyable!) version online, audio only). Did I really hear "Paranoid" adapted for banjo last night?
Sometimes it's like waking up from a dream.
He took a moment in choosing the last song, so I requested "Let's Go Back in Time," and he took me up on the idea, picking up his guitar again. He began by talking about touring Eastern Bloc countries back when - that's the context of his opening remarks.
Red Herring resumed after 11, but Erika and I had to duck out to drive Eugene back to his room shortly after their third or fourth song, which was "If You Work For Me." Erika has had some work stress of late so she really enjoyed hearing that song. If you haven't seen Red Herring before, I believe some variant on the band will be performing on Monday at the Princeton as part of the Red Herring Collective's residency there. Try their Latin-infused story-song, "Consuela," for a taste of what to expect, but they're actually pretty eclectic, and you never can quite tell what the residency will spawn.
I sent Enrico this link to an EJ Gold thing, set to music, which is fish rap (I almost wrote "fish wrap") reminded me of.
Meanwhile, if you missed Eugene last night, he is playing a gig at Central City Taphouse tonight... after which he'll be gone for another couple of years, probably! Will live music even be a thing in 2025? About the show: it's Eugene solo, on guitar and banjo; there is no cover, but you gotta, like, be eating or drinking, eh? 8-10pm is the planned set time, incorporating a break. Right across the parking lot from Surrey Central Station - not hard to find at all!
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