The Lemonheads

Seeing The Lemonheads live will take you back to a place in time where ripped, faded jeans were in style and music about youthful angst and the slacker’s boredom filled the airwaves of the college radio station.
Although some of The Lemonheads’ songs might harp on the topic of teenage boredom, they are far from boring live. The band rolls through their setlist at a rapid pace, playing through hit after hit. This intense speed of performance allows them to cram in all our favorite tunes into the setlist.
Main songwriter and lead singer, Evan Dando, still performs his classic grungey, alternative rock music we love so much with the same amount of vigor he always has. The band’s performance is usually simple and straight forward, using very little theatrics, but their strong-suit is their catchy songwriting, and any additive substance of theatrics would take away from their raw, sincere performance. The music always has an energetic feel with Dando’s ever changing chord progressions and blaring guitar solos. The setlist spans across their whole career, but after having celebrated their 20th anniversary of the critically acclaimed album, It’s a Shame About Ray, they have been recently including a larger selection from this hit record.
The band’s short and sweet style of performing is what makes them so great. They have a direct way of performing their music and they don’t need superfluous instrumentation or theatrics to get their energy across. You can expect to have a great time rocking out to classics such as “My Drug Buddy” or you might even here the unique, fast-paced rendition of “Mrs. Robinson”.

The Lemonheads last night, St. Andrews Hall, Detroit. Really, this is Evan Dando's band and Evan Dando's voice is as smooth a tenor as there is, has not lost a bit of its evocative, (with a touch of melancholy), power...always with that hint of country and Graham Parsons sitting on his shoulder. This touring band is skilled, a 27 song assault that had no small talk to bridge what was effectively one song melting into the other in a stream of consciousness set. "It's a Shame About Ray" was the centerpiece album sampled, but this is a guy, Evan, and a band that has made covers of other material as strong as their own, Suzanne Vega's 'Luka' and the punked up version of Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson", which was not played. When others describe the Lemonheads, you hear words like, punk-rock, power rock, alternative rock, power pop and "college radio darlings". What they do is distill feelings, and not explain them to you. When I read about who Evan Dando 'spiritually' hangs out with; Juliana Hatfield, Oasis, Yo La Tengo, Lucinda Williams, Graham Parsons, The Dandy Warhols, and that several years ago, (for Detroit fans), he sang lead vocals on an MC5 tour, you realize this is a complex guy who sings in a voice that runs up and down your spine. He hit a road bump in the 90's with drugs, but there was no evidence of that last night. What was evident, as the audience filled in as harmony on the third encore song, "Into Your Arms", The Lemonheads are a compelling show, with perfect execution of songs, and the heart of Evan Dando is shrouded outside of giving you what you came for.....

Here are my thoughts on the show:
- We’ve been to the Underground a number of times now. I’m not convinced their sound system is the best, but there were no noticeable issues. It still sounds a little off to me though.

-The band is what you can come to expect of one that’s main draw is music it originally released over two decades ago. I assume everyone else is there like me, to hear music they loved in their youth, with no expectations that it be performed to the level that it once was. All in all it was pretty good.

-Anytime you see a show where the average age of the concert goers ticks up close to 40 or more (I’m 44), it really becomes a crap shoot as to what you might get. Crowd behavior wasn’t too bad at this show, but there were still a few people who obviously don’t get out of the house much in this way. For whatever reason, one guy was absolutely obsessed with a walk way where they ask you not to stand. He was really bothered by this. Also, there always seems to be that one couple who get really drunk and then try to reclaim their youth by dancing around quite wildly into everyone else’s space. There’s one at every show.

Oh lucky me, Lemonheads shows last year three.

Early - Polished and wholesome affair
Mid - Functional shindig, thanks Nick Saloman
Late - Total mess, as expected. Soothing. Felt sorry for most of the audience, Mikey and Farley.

It's easy to enjoy the music of someone that has their ups and downs when the downs don't make the album, but harder when they're in your face and you've paid good money for a ticket. If you're going to a show then recognize it's a bit of a gamble, and take comfort that you're not the type to go and see an endlessly reliable act.

That third show was f-ing awful though.

Show was good, lots of different songs from different albums. Concert cut short though when a crowd member threw a T-shirt up on stage (didnt hit anyone). Evan stomped off 7 songs short of a full set. Disapointing anti-climax ending which kinda made the whole show suck. Whole band was in good form though. Very upbeat. Felt like a Lemonheads concert and not Evans backing band. But as always with him, the shows are very unpredictable. Which is great when he is in a good mood. Last time he played Copenhagen we got a 3 hour set. An element of risk is always to be expected.

I thought this was quite a small venue for a big-ish band, but then I guess their appeal may be "more selective" than a few years back.
The Limelight was packed out and the band shuffled on in their lo-fi way, starting off with Hospital and a "best of" set, Rudderless, Into your arms, It's a shame about Ray etc.; also a couple of Evan's solo tracks.
Great singalong to Frank Mills in the middle of it too.
They did Teenage Kicks with big smiles on the faces before the encore.
They seemed to enjoy themselves and so did we!

Shameful
This was the second time in two years that I have tried to see Evan/Lemonheads.
Both times the show was cancelled.
This time I drove 4 hours to see the show and it is cancelled due to "food poisoning" 1 hour after Tommy Stinson finished his warm up "set". What a joke.
People were throwing beers at the stage after they announced that the show was cancelled. Aura is an amazing venue, I was impressed the facility. Too bad the artists were a no show.

Great is not the word, that has to be used her. To meet The Lemonheads after all these years ( I am a big fan from 1987) was like a time travelling and...I think it was like the same for Evan Dando too. I love him, his music, his poetry, his talent, and his honesty to be always the man, that he really is and not just a rockstar. I hope...that somehow will be possible to see Lemonheads at least one more time live. Thank you, Evan! Love you!

* 1 af 5 * Vanvittig dårlig og uengageret performance. Der må være behov for enhver håndøre og de to musikere klarede 45 minutter inden hovedmanden tog de sidste 12 minutter alene på scenen, ironisk nok noget af det bedste lydmæssigt. Lyden var også jævnt ringe og mudret og om det var musikerne eller mixerne eller begge der fejlede?

I saw them back in 1996 or 1997 it was a top gig the band was on fire for halloween and so were we!Dando was disguise in a beautiful spiceman with all thoes little pots of spices ducktaped to his shirt and pants.we spiced up the night later on..but thats another story..hope to see them again someday!