The Dandy Warhols are one of the greatest rock bands on the planet. They have their own signature sound, they continue to innovate both sonically and lyrically, and they are one of the few bands that can go on tour just to go on tour, no new album necessary.
On top of all that, they took a boring genre called shoegaze and injected some much-needed personality and soaring harmonies into it. I’ve seen them live half a dozen times and they just continue to completely blow my mind.
The Dandy’s returned to the Bay Area last week for a two-night stint at The Great American Music Hall. I scored a ticket to night one, I even upgraded to the VIP experience, and I have to say it was pretty amazing. I got to watch the band’s soundcheck which was only going to be two songs, but then Courtney Taylor-Taylor started asking for requests. I immediately shouted out my all time favorite song “Mohammad,” and they dove right into it.
After four or five songs the entire band hung out and chatted with us around a few beers. These guys are the real deal; genuine, authentic, and just all around fucking cool. They weren’t doing this because they had to, they were generally interested in just hanging out.
The setlist was for night one was a cornucopia of Dandy Warhol greatness pulling from the band’s brilliant catalog including all the fan favorites such as “Boys Better,” “Bohemian Like You,” “Plan A,” “We Used to be Friends,” etc. Surprisingly missing though was “Mohammed,” “Not if You Were the Last Junkie on Earth,” and “Horse Pills.”
But my favorite moment of the show came when Courtney Taylor-Taylor broke into a stellar cover of “Your Ghost” by Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses fame. It was a showstopper.
The Dandy’s don’t do encores and I kind of dig that. I ran into the drummer after the show and asked him about it. He said, “We played everything, didn’t we?” Touche. The show was brilliant, no encore necessary.
Opening the show was Joel Gion best known as the percussionist for the Dandy’s arch rival The Brian Jonestown Massacre and singer-songwriter Miranda Lee Richards. Richards has a new record coming out in January and her set was pretty fantastic and I’ve been lucky enough to hear the new record which lives up to the live performance. Her voice is just spectacular and her songs are hauntingly gorgeous.
MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS
JOEL GION
Check out hi res photos from the show in the gallery here.
