Evan Dando - The Cluny, Newcastle, 30 June 2011

Evening, all.  Giggy No Mates here.  Here are a few snaps from Evan Dando, which was last week, which means I am totally rubbish for not getting these up sooner.

Wait a minute - is it 1994 again? PLEASE let it be 1994 again!

Evan Dando, The Cluny, Newcastle, 30 June 2011

Great Big No.

Couldn't BELIEVE he sang this - a cover of Smudge's "Impractical Joke"... I knew that I knew it, but couldn't remember from where... then I came home and Googled it and VOILA!!  What a great song.  Here is a link to the original, if you are interested.  Sorry the sound is crap - I must have had my finger on the microphone!!  Duh.....

It was a great show - he played loads of things that I didn't know, but lots of old Lemonheads greats as well.  The Cluny is a great little venue, but if I had one criticism, it's that I stood quite close to the bar, and TONS of people were talking through his set, which was quite distracting.  It was really packed and I had a rubbish view -- fortunately I ran into some friends there, and we decided to move a little closer to get a better view...

Right before I took this picture I got yelled at by a girl who said, "Excuse me, I was standing there."  Oh, you paid for this specific 2 square feet of The Cluny did you?  Silly girl!  :-)

He did a cover of Gram Parson's "A Song for You" as well, which was quite nice ... fairly representative of the whole chilled out vibe he had going on.  The audience were singing right along with him, and it was a damn fine way of spending a Thursday night.  Completely opposite to the first and only other time I'd seen him (which, weirdly enough, was 17 years almost to the day -- on 1 July 1994 according to my Gig List) at Ontario Place Forum in Toronto.  What a weird venue.  The stage was circular, kind of Roman amphitheatre style... and it was revolving.  There was no security, so when scrummy delish Evan Dando came on the stage, loads of girls jumped over the barriers to give him a sneaky cuddle -- so I'm glad that this time, no one mobbed him and he could just get on with the business of transporting us all back to our our twenties.  And a good job he did of it, too. 

Into Your Arms

It's A Shame About Ray

Wish I could have stood a little closer to the front -- but I really enjoyed it.  Thanks to Helen and Dave for saving me from certain lonely loser fate. :-)