A Gig With The Ex

I came across an ex the other day, not a major flame, not one I think of regularly but an ex all the same. Going by the name of The Lemonheads, they were a band I really enjoyed at a time I was just really getting in to my music. Introduced to me by my two main musical influences at the time, my sister and my mate Michael, It’s A Shame About Ray was a great album and liked by my circle of friends – even Kris who I bet all these years later doesn’t own more than ten albums!

As with meeting any ex, it was weird to start off with. We’d both changed, I’d lost my hair and he’d, OK he’d still got his full head of hair but he looked older and maybe a bit worse for wear. A towering man, someone still able to pull off baggy clothes, he had a strange presence on stage. With a name like Evan Dando, his name is probably bigger than the band's – the fact that the guy at work knew him but not the band said it all.

Back to my love of them as a teenager and they were one of the first bands that I worked out that b-sides could actually be good. With my tickets not confirmed until close to the show, I hadn’t done my usual revision of their back catalogue and recent stuff, only having a quick flick through their latest covers album Varshons 2. Released ten years after the first Varshons, nothing had jumped out and grabbed me but I was still looking forward to the gig. Would they play much from It’s A Shame…, would they play the acoustic tracks I liked, would they play much old material at all?

As I said it was all a bit weird to start off with, they were on stage bang on time, in fact they hadn’t even stopped the warm up music by the time Dando had started playing and the rest of the band were playing catch-up. This quick start didn’t show any sign of stopping as they raced through the numbers and I was soon able to hear songs from my youth. He was certainly going to give us quantity and it was the rest of the band and sound engineer’s job to keep up and try to bring in the quality.

It was an odd sight to watch, after the opening tracks Evan grabbed himself some extra slack on his guitar lead so that he could get to the back of the stage to grab his bottle of Maker’s Mark bourbon. This seemed to cause the rest of the band to raise eyebrows at each other but it didn’t perturb Dando and, just like meeting your ex’s family years after your relationship, it suddenly felt like we were seeing the inner workings of The Lemonheads, with equally awkward moments.

They have always been Dando’s band and he ran the show that way. Changing the set list at the whim of the crowd or his want, stopping songs suddenly and heading off in another direction without warning. Picking an enthusiastic lady out of the crowd and playing her song request “this one’s for you blondie”. As she successfully requested a second track he got half way through it and then just stopped and said he’d play it when they’d finished the set list. He started playing a cover and the bassist had no idea, turning to the drummer for help, mouthing “what’s going on”.

It wasn’t a shambles though. Dando did it with the style of an old rocker, pouring his whisky over his head to wet his hair and push it back. It would have been cool if he hadn’t got it in his eye and broke off from playing his guitar to wipe it out with his T-shirt. Looking like a bigger, stronger Iggy Pop, he seemed to grow in to the gig, starting to smile and talk a bit more.

There was no time for applause between songs and with my favourite tracks, singles, b-sides and album tracks all played they headed off stage for the customary calls for more. They soon came back on but with Mrs Robinson still not played it looked like there was only one way it could go. Of course we should have known there was no chance of that. A few songs played, he put his hand up, signalling what looked like five more minutes. But no. That was it. He turned, walked off stage and the band hurried after him. Another encore? Lights on, music playing. Like the ex heading off that you no longer have a connection with, there was no need for a long goodbye.