London, U.K. - April 27, 2000
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Virtual-festivals.com
at Camden Dingwalls
by Janine Helliwell
Before the unsuspecting crowd at London's Dingwalls have had time to hang up their coats, Courtney Taylor, frontman of Oregon rock outfit 'The Dandy Warhols' is already comfortably seated on the stage belting out an acoustic set. Even more entertaining than what's being sung is Courtney's idle banter.
Between the occasional outbursts of 'Mad Fer it' and 'Oi!', he recalls in his slow American drawl how 'Good Morning' was unashamadely ripped off from a Swervedriver song and how he was terrorised recently by a group of 8 year old girls in the usually sleepy coastal resort of Portsmouth. Then he decides to offer up the stage to a member of the audience who might like to sing a song. It's all for show, however, and a game girl who wants to sing 'Not if you were the last junkie on earth' is met by the response 'Last Junkie - I could sing that'... which he does, much to everyone's delight.
Singing is thirsty work it seems, and soon enough Courtney asks the audience to supply him with JD and Coke. However, when a generous fan offers up his own beverage for celebrity consumption it is brattishly refused by the attention seeking singer, who also rebukes requests from the audience. "I am *not* singing any Lemonheads songs" he retorts to a shout of 'Mrs.Robinson'.
After one particular favourite of Courtney's has been sung no less than 3 times, the novelty of the situation starts to fade. Unfortunately the band are nowhere to be found, Zia (keyboardist), apparently, is 'having her massage'. The wait is worthwhile when the band hit the stage proper, even though there is a slight moment of worry that this could be a Mogwai situation when they launch into the dirgey 'I love you'. But next up it's the crowdpleasers.
'Not if you were the last junkie on earth' gets its second airing of the evening and is followed by 'Every day should be a holiday'. The question on everybody's lips now is whether or not the band are going to get naked (a regular occurance when they play live). A few cries of 'get yer tits out' don't go unmissed by Zia McCabe, who shyly explains her worry that everyone will laugh at her.
What a surprise when this seemingly feisty female opens her mouth, turning out to have an itsy-bitsy voice and child like temperament. One minute she's bashing the brains out of her tambourine like a woman possessed and the next she's sweetly singing a song about - poo! From here on everything's a bit slap-dash. The band stop and start again mid song and even halt proceedings for a fag break.
Once again the audience are invited to show their adulation by providing sustinance. It's highly likely that Courtney and Zia's erratic behaviour is for the benefit of the press, but in spite of it all, the new LP sounds promising. 'All I wanna do is get off' is particularly good with it's 'ride 'em cowboy' feel. Concluding with 'Boys better' and a lullaby from Zia, the band insistently tell the audience 'that's it - there's no more'. Unfortunately though, they do decide to play an encore, by which time many of the audience are already out of the door - myself included...
[Which is a shame, 'cause you missed Zia getting naked! - Steve, the Editor].
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