Taking a cheap shot at Lemonheads singer-songwriter-guitarist Evan Dando does not require expert aim these days. Much has been made recently of his pop poster boy image, his short-lived flirtation with various drugs, and his relationship with former Blake Babies’ front-woman Juliana Hatfield.
Dando has contributed his share of inane fluff to the snowballing numb-skull fanfare that surrounds the band’s new record “Come On Feel the Lemonheads.” Is there more to the Lemonheads than Dando’s non-musical activities?
Friday night’s performance at the Riviera demonstrated that the alternative pop trio has more punch and bite live than on record, and that Dando is not quite as insubstantial as he’s been made out to be.
The band hit the stage ready to rip, and tore through one supercharged pop number after another. A near-capacity crowd swirled and undulated with frenetic glee as drummer David Ryan and bassist Nic Dalton propelled Dando’s power chords off the stage with infectious energy. The hour-and-twenty-minute set featured an even mix of new and old material and was devoid of the cover versions that the group is known for, such as Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson.”
At one point, Dando complained of a stomachache and, midway through the set, he and the band left the stage. For five minutes Dando could be seen hunching over a receptacle back stage.
When the trio returned, the gangly pop heart throb explained cheerfully that he had just vomited, chalked it up to food poisoning, and immediately lit into a song. If it was an attention-getter, it belonged more on the “Beavis and Butthead” show than it did in the midst of a paid concert.
As the Lemonheads churned joyfully through a series of solid radio-ready songs, there was a sense that the band is about to have its moment of success. Dando is a pop balladeer for right here and now. He may be gone in the blink of an eye, but not before we get a good glimpse of him, maybe more than we want.
Preceeding the Lemonheads on the bill, L.A.’s Redd Kross got the crowd moving with its Cheap Trick brand of power pop zeal. The quintet ran through its 10-year-old back catalog of pop stompers and touched on material from its new “Phaseshifter” album.
