Madison, Wisconsion, USA - November 24, 2000

thedailypage.com
at The Annex
by Tom Laskin


Cute, clever and cut like a sweet young thing from the high school swim team, the Dandy Warhols' lead mouth, Courtney Taylor-Taylor, has it all. Trouble is, his habit of planting tongue firmly in cheek while regaling the alt audience with the pleasures of cheap orgasm and endless sleep doesn't jibe with the roped-in, prepackaged quality of modern rock. Maybe that's why the Dandy Warhols, who played a packed Annex last Friday, haven't had much more than novelty success on the radio. Or maybe the freaks and geeks who are the Warhols' natural audience hate Taylor-Taylor for being, well, so goddamn perfect.
In any event, despite a piss-poor mix that nearly obliterated Taylor-Taylor's Iggy Pop-inspired vocals with distorting bass tones, the rail-thin front man was in top form on Friday, joking about "good" kids on crack and the narcissistic rock 'n' roll queen in Minneapolis who took him home after a show only to suggest that he jack-off to her impromptu topless dancing. The first of the Warhols' two sets concentrated on wall-of-sound '60s psychedelia, replete with a film backdrop of morphing nebulae and classic fuzz-wah guitar colors. It was a trip in more ways than one, especially when cherubic keyboardist Zia McCabe goosed the psilocybin atmosphere with arcing counterpoint from her classic Moog synth. Highlights included a billowy, Velvets-style interpretation of the flower-generation drone "I Love You" and a mind-mashing take on the Ecstasy-fueled raveup "Horse Pills."

The second set saw Taylor-Taylor reveling in the Dandy Warhols' '70s-pop side. With help from an anonymous fifth touring member of the group who moved from bass to trumpet to lap steel guitar, the Warhols gamboled through bouncy grooves like their current radio hit, "Bohemian Like You," and the more acidic "Shakin'" with shit-eating smiles planted on their photogenic faces. Sadly, Taylor-Taylor's imbibing early in the evening prevented a full-band encore, which would surely have included a delightful run-through of their goofball needle-and-spoon put-down "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth." But the squeaky-voiced McCabe did agree to entertain the late-night crowd with a couple verses of Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz." It wasn't the big, echoic guitar freakout that you might have expected from a Warhols grand finale; it was, however, in keeping with the weird, stoner vibe of the evening. And it was great.