12 October 2022: The 1865, Southampton
Well, here we are for the finale of the UK leg of the It's A Shame About Ray 30th anniversary tour. A celebration of one of the greatest indie records of the early 90s, along with one of the finest tunesmiths - the laid back, iconic Evan Dando.
So, what would await us, given Evan Dando's notorious erratic live performance record?
Alex Lipinski:
First up, a bonus support act not advertised.
Alex Lipinski is perhaps most noted for a project (Phoney's & The Freaks) he has worked on with Bonehead, formerly of Oasis. He has built up some admiration amongst other artists (he was personally invited to this tour by Evan Dando - he will be supporting Marc Almond next month) and the radio world (Gary Crowley and Tom Robinson have apparently both been championing him).
But tonight he was offering a nice dose of his own brand of Americana, mixed with a hint of rockabilly. Playing with his brother Adam, plus an additional player in an all-guitar line-up, Lipinksi has a good an powerful voice and ear for a tune - definitely one for further investigation.
Bass Drum of Death:
Another three piece, fronted by the Barrett brothers, this time from Oxford, Mississippi and this time most definitely with a drummer, but interestingly no bassist.
Described as garage punk, they careened
along nicely - a lot of 1-2-3-4, chugging Ramones style work, fused with a little discordance, offering perhaps a hint of Sonic Youth. The first two-thirds of the set went along like that, nice and effervescent, if unspectacular - before ramping up into three very good songs to end with, culminating with Crawling After You(?)
The Lemonheads:
So, what did we get from Mr Dando tonight?
When he walked on for his opening solo acoustic set, resplendent in large orange parka, singing along to Miss Otis Regrets, we thought hey-hey, he's in an entertaining mood tonight.
Sadly, that was where it peaked. What unfolded from that point, was nothing short of a metaphorical car crash!
By the end of the first song, it was clear that his voice was shot through - no, not shot, positively blown to smithereens. Then, by two songs in, there was an issue with his acoustic guitar, forcing him to switch to electric. Now, the thing about solo acoustic playing, is that the acoustic guitar gives some depth to fill out the sound a bit - whereas playing electric, flattens the sound out somewhat. On top of that, he was mostly playing songs not familiar to the crowd, so there was much chatting going on while he played.
Into Your Arms was butchered at this early point, before he briefly rallied the crowd with The Outdoor Type. He was just about holding his voice together on the slower, country numbers, by dropping his voice down into Johnny Cash territory. But he'd already pretty much lost the crowd by the mid-point of this first set - in fact people were leaving well before its conclusion.
There was much muttering between songs, but little direct communication with the audience. He was getting frustrated with the tuning on his guitar, with his voice and presumably, with the lack of reaction from the crowd. The entrance of his two bandmates for set two - a run through of the Ray album - offered a chance for salvation.
Musically, they were on it, even Dando. The songs had the same muscle and punch as before, but as soon as his mouth opened, the cool, lilting voice we are used to on record was replaced by this parched, caterwauling. There was one brief respite, I think on The Turnpike Down, where the quieter song meant he wasn't straining and it didn't sound quite so awful. But as soon as the album was done, the other two upped and left, with barely a glance over their shoulder.
Dando was left alone again. He gamely (stupidly?) battled on with a few more numbers. The crowd had thinned by an alarming amount by now. Then, events took a sharp turn even further round the bend and downhill. Dando placed himself behind the vacated drumkit and proceeded to sing Lyin' Eyes by The Eagles, whilst drumming along in a slightly out of rhythm manner. Dando got up, I'm not sure if he had actually finished the song in the end. He walked off stage to a faint ripple of applause. The lights stayed down - morbid curiosity compelled us to wait and see if there would be an encore. Five minutes came and went, then the house lights came up and it was clear there wasn't. Less than one hour and twenty minutes after he had shambled onto stage, it was all over....
What had we witnessed? The man next to me encapsulated it best - "that is the saddest gig I have ever been to" he said to me as we got ready to leave.
We all knew that when we bought a ticket, there is an element of lottery - Dando has seemingly produced concerts that are either phenomenal or dire, with no middle ground, for decades. The feedback from this tour was a mixed bag, but having never seen him before, we had hoped for the best and not realised how bad the worst could be!
That Dando has some issues, seems obvious. I saw many people on social media last night questioning how the people around him have not got him help, when he is clearly not in a good place. Well, maybe they have tried and given up? The word is, the tour started with four Lemonheads, but one of them stopped showing up somewhere along the way - certainly last night, his remaining companions looked desperate to get off stage asap.
It was a disappointing night, that much is certain. But mostly I am left with a feeling of sadness, that such a great singer and songwriter could end up like this. I hope he bounces back in some way.