90s icons The Lemonheads played at Rock City on a typically autumnal October evening. Will Griffin offers his thoughts on the band's return to form; and he was not disappointed.
A frail Evan Dando gave Nottingham a two hour set on the 30th Anniversary of It’s a Shame
About Ray. Despite the absence of a certain Mrs Robinson, for which a minority of hecklers
reminded them, The Lemonheads were emphatic, and left little else to be desired.
Dando walked on stage alone with Miss Otis Regrets sung by Ella Fitzgerald announcing
his arrival. He began with an acoustic leg of the set, with hits like Into Your Arms and The
Outdoor Type, his strong vocals still very much intact. The set itself was vast, 37 songs
long, allowing Dando to cover swathes of The Lemonheads discography, and then some.
After 6 acoustic songs, the rest of the band joined him on stage, launching into the electric
It’s a Shame About Ray leg of the set. It’s a Shame About Ray itself was a highlight - with
an already engaged crowd, buoying a somewhat nervous Dando, who responded with
‘You’re a very nice crowd’, to continued applause. The absence of Mrs Robinson in an
otherwise complete It’s a Shame About Ray play through was curious, but the set was not
let down by its lack thereof. Dando and co were surprisingly tight, allowing them to cycle
through songs at some pace, evidenced by a set list longer than I have likely ever seen at a
gig before.
Dando littered an extensive set with multiple covers, ranging from a beautiful acoustic cover
of Solitude, undoubtedly modelled on Billie Holiday’s rendition, to Elvis Costello, Charles
Manson and even a fleeting acoustic version of I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman by none
other than Britney Spears. Through his penchant for covering his contemporaries' work,
Dando’s love for music is still ever present; and it’s a love that doesn’t ever verge on the self
indulgent, with Solitude in particular highlighting his ability to convey such raw emotion is still
very much alive.
Dando himself may have seemed frail, but his passion for playing was unmoved, and in his
everlong hair, there was a glint of the magic he and The Lemonheads achieved in the 90’s
present in that room.
The Lemonheads closed the provisional set, already 24 songs in, with The Great Big No,
walking off stage to a cacophony of applause and shouts of encore, to which Dando and co
obliged. He returned alone once more, acoustic guitar in hand, with a string of covers
(Britney interlud included) before inviting his band back on stage after Home is Where
You’re Happy, a Manson cover.
For many artists, a set this long, this vast, could have the problem of becoming tedious, and
losing the patience of its audience. But there is something in Dando’s charm, particularly in
his acoustic legs of the set, that draws the audience towards him. He may require his
crowd's encouragement to keep going, but in his earnest and committed performance, he
repays the favour in full.
"Dando himself may have seemed frail, but his passion for playing was unmoved"
As their set drew to a close, The Lemonheads closed with Suzanne Vega’s Luka (Dando
willingly obliged at the request of a fan), followed by If I Could Talk I’d Tell You from their
1996 album Car Button Cloth. 37 songs on from Dando first walking on stage, the crowd still
willed him back, asking for more, as the lights were turned on.
Dando’s struggles with substance, particularly through The Lemonheads period of 90’s
notoriety are well documented. There were points where he could not speak as a result of
drug abuse. But the man who served up two hours of grungy, jangle pop nostalgia last
Friday had retained whatever was lost in that heyday. He may have cut a frail figure on
stage, but his performance was anything but. The Lemonheads’ set may have been
indulgent, but Dando’s enduring love for not just his own work, but others too, left anyone
who was lucky enough to witness it feeling rock greatness had not just graced Nottingham -
but was still alive and kicking.
Will Griffin
Edited by: Jodie Averis
Cover and in-article images courtesy of NME and Music Madness Magazine respectively.
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