Slipped my mind that I could use my brain....

I am a BIG fan of music. I know, most people are, so it's probably not that special, but really. I dig music, a lot. When I was a freshman in high school, I went to a school that was an hour (plus) bus ride from my house. We had a LOT of time on our hands. My friends and I all had this tape (like, yes, a tape), on one side was Violent Femmes, American Music. The other side, was Lemonheads, It's a Shame About Ray. It pretty much rocked my entire high school life, and these two bands remain two of my favorites to this day. Actually, I think I have more Lemonheads songs on my playlist than any other band.

I'd had the opportunity to see Violent Femmes several times, and they were consistently awesome. But Lemonheads eluded me.

Until I accidentally happened to see an ad on Facebook. Normally I ignore these, all of them. I'm not sure how this one caught my eye, but it did. So I was SUPER psyched when I saw that Lemonheads were playing a small local venue, in just a few days.

The Coach House is in interesting place. Kind of a dining hall. Kind of a bar. With a stage. I got there plenty early, and scored a seat (at a banquet table...) right next to the stage. There was a dinner option, but I passed, and hung out at the table with my coke.

Evan Dando sat at the next table over for a bit and watched the first act. We bonded, I'm pretty sure. Just setting the stage for our BFF'ness.

The first band was mediocre. I swear the (older) front man was wearing jeggings. It was disconcerting.

The second band, The Gromble, was pretty great. Sort of a mix between Violent Femmes, Vampire Weekend, and something else that I can't quite peg. But they were good, and put on a good show. If you're in the area, find them.

Plus, I'm a sucker for a horn section.

Then.

Then there was this.

Evan Dando played an acoustic set for about 30 minutes.

The rest of the band came out afterwards, and played the It's a Shame About Ray album, start to finish.


Yeah, that's upside down. Oops.

There was a projector onstage, that I was intrigued by before they started, and the entire time they played, it showed random footage of driving around, snow, open fields... a bird...

They played a couple other songs from their other albums...

And then Evan spent some more time solo, playing requests from the (small) audience.



It was amazing.

I've been lucky enough to see a lot of my favorites live, and I really enjoy when people sound as good live as they do recorded. Evan Dando has a beautiful voice, and somehow, it's even better live. These videos really don't even do him justice.

After they finished playing, he hung out and signed autographs, chatted with everyone, and took pictures.

I tried to take a picture, as well, but I have a new phone, and couldn't figure it out.

Thankfully, Evan Dando is techno smarter than me.

Me: Shoot, I don't know how to do this....
BFF Evan: Oh, you have a new iPhone. Here, look, you can push this... and flip it around.

I don't know that guy on the left. (No, really, I don't know him, or where he came from).

But obviously, I have a new BFF.