Evan Dando

Wed 1st Dec, 2010 in Features

One of the emergent themes of the past few years in terms of live music is for bands to revisit seminal albums in full, warts and all, from the songs that everybody knows about to the deep cuts that the band might wish they never recorded. I’m not sure at what point it truly began, but it now seems inescapable. In recent years we have had The Saints rip through I’m Stranded and Dirty Three playing Ocean Songs, while this summer Public Enemy will be doing Fear Of A Black Planet and Primal Scream taking a trip back to Screamadelica.

In the meantime, we have Evan Dando and The Lemonheads playing It’s A Shame About Ray, almost twenty years after it was released in 1992. At the time, it was a revelation, combining the distinctly ‘pop’ hooks and sing-alongs of bands like Big Star and Cheap Trick with the emerging ‘slacker’ aesthetic of the early 90s. Yes, we can write terrific pop songs. But we totally don’t care, dude.

This combination was made manifest in Evan Dando, who was clearly a tremendous musician but seemed not to give a shit, voted one of People’s “50 Most Beautiful People” in the same year he admitted to a fondness for smoking crack cocaine. This subsequent addiction caused Dando to disappear from view for several years in the late 90s/early 00s.

So what is it about Australia? Throughout your career, Australia has been a…not haven, but you’ve certainly had a special relationship with this country…
Definitely, definitely. I just love it there. I have a lot of friends there. And I love that country.

I suppose it’s kind of a self-perpetuating thing, too, that after you’ve had a good time out here it feeds your experience the next time, and it just keeps building and building.
It gave me a metaphorical – and a very real – shot in the arm when I was 24 and needed to work harder. And make some good music. And if I hadn’t gone to Australia, I don’t know that it would have happened.

Did you write most of Shame in Australia with Nic Dalton?
No, we only wrote about three songs there, but all the songs were about Australia, just written in Austin. At home. Straight.

So does it seem like it is coming full circle to be bringing the Shame album show out to Australia?
Yeah, um…yes…If you the story long enough, it ends in death.

Does it ever seem a little bit odd to you to be playing these shows and doing the whole album in full?
We’ve only done it once before, but I think it’s cool. I’m not fussy or precious as a musician. I just like to make my fucking money, and do my job.

Sorry. That sounds hostile. But I just like to play shows. And I like that album. So I’ll keep playing those songs. And that’s what happens to a rock band after twenty years – there was good stuff, and we still play it. It’s really simple for me, I don’t think about it. It’s not big deal. It’s really fun.