Review of Live At The Brattle Theatre/Griffith Sunset EP
by Bob Mehr
From Magnet Magazine June 2003
This Aussie-only live/studio double disc - released on mate Ben Lee's Modular imprint and credited to Evan Dando - offered the most promising sign of life from the ex-Lemonhead during his extended rock'n'roll furlough. The concert portion finds him recasting his catalog in hues of deep blue, with the stark, somber quality of the solo renditions transforming once-mellifluous melodies into something altogether more maudlin. A jazzy a cappella run-through of Gale Garnett's "Excuse Me Mister," which segues neatly into Big Star's "Thirteen," showcases Dando's gifts as eclectic interpreter, before he rips further from his own back pages with a couple closing cuts from Lovey, the Lemonheads' underrated 1990 album. The studio set culls the results of Dando's long-rumoured but ultimately scotched country-covers record, the six-song side bringing together trad twang (the Louvin Brothers' "My Baby's Gone") with Vietnam-era folk fare (John Prine's junkie-vet reckoning "Sam Stone," the Tim Hardin homage "Tribute To Hank Williams"). A touch overly ambient at times - owing perhaps to the influence of noted mood master and co-producer Howe Gelb (Giant Sand) - regardless, this two-fer plays like a welcome letter from a lost friend.