A Night of Blondie

This coming Friday, March 13, the Wedge’s fancifully-named, second-floor music venue, the Iggy Ziggy Room, will host a night of Blondie music, in two, very distinct formats. For starters, the omnipresent burlesque queen Lola van Ella, will lead a troupe of her associates through the a series of live performances accompanying the music of Blondie; with her will be Whiskey Kiss, Lily LeBlanc and the show-stealing Sturdy Gurlesque.

The second half of the so-called “Screw-U Blondie-Q” evening will be a performance by Blondiegrunt, aka the Blondie-playing alter-ego of Bunnygrunt. Amazingly enough, the promotions about the night note that this gig will be a 16-year-anniversary show for the group. Despite a short, mid-life respite, the band’s been playing around town (and, more impressively, around the country) longer than most St. Louis bands, in any genre. So, much respect to the various ‘Grunts, especially Matt Harnish and Karen Ried, who’ve been the group’s backbone since formation.

In honor the altered Bunnygrunt set this week, we’ll feature the music of both Blondie and Bunnygrunt on KDHX’s “Silver Tray,” this Friday, March 13. Let’s say that the show’s sixth segment, roughly 1:40 – 2:00 p.m. CST, will be given over to the sounds of these two unique American groups.

And here’s a bit more information on the gig at The Wedge, a 21-up experience, as you might imagine:

The Wedge
442 Bates Street
St. Louis, MO 63111
314-351-1200
myspace.com/thewedgestl
www.thewedgebar.com

Posted by Thomas Crone | March 8, 2009 | Concerts, Local | Comment

Townes Van Zandt Tribute

I saw Townes Van Zandt three times. The first was in Louisville, Kentucky, at a crumbling theatre that was barely a third full. The year was probably 1993 or 1994, and Townes was drinking again, after a brief spell away from the poison. He was fragile on stage and seemed surprised even a handful of people had paid to see him. He struggled, but was also blindingly intense in the way he could be. He was always a much better guitar player than credited, and he never skimped on the thorny runs he copped from his teacher Lightin’ Hopkins. The second time was a year or so later, at Off Broadway in St. Louis. The small club was sold out, and as the crowd filed in, Townes sat at the bar smiling like he was just a regular. His first set was a disaster. He stopped and started, rambled and wandered, and after a half hour with barely a song finished, he declared he would take a break. Half the room left, but I stayed with my small group, figuring I might never get another chance to see the man who wrote so many songs I felt (and still feel) I couldn’t live without. His second set was astonishing, effortless, like he’d somehow shed 20 of the hardest years of his life, and was starting from the beginning, discovering his songs again. The third and final time was in Chicago, less than a year before his death in 1997, on a bitter winter night. The set was another fiasco, but heartbreaking, as he confessed at one point that he felt he was bleeding inside. If it hadn’t been for a heroic version of “Pancho and Lefty,” I would have wondered why I came.

After Townes died, I published some thoughts in the Riverfront Times, an extended version of which can still be stumbled across via the Google. The tortured, self-destructive troubadour card can be overplayed, but in Townes’s case, it was a card you couldn’t hide. Out of his mental, emotional and chemical demons he wrote songs like nobody before or after him. The words were like music and the music were like words, and fused together they reverberated with beauty and truth. His greatest songs are hard-fought reconciliations between despair and hope, fate and fortune, isolation and brotherhood, falling and flying.

So I’m beyond thrilled that 12 Saint Louis area songwriters and bands have come together to pay tribute to the art of Townes Van Zandt on his 65th birthday. This KDHX benefit concert takes place at Off Broadway on Saturday, March 7, with music starting at 8:00 pm. You can get the full line-up at KDHX.org. A few of the artists have sent along mp3s of their own songs; in subtle yet distinct ways, you can hear echoes of Townes’s lyrical influence on all of them.

Chris Johnson – Down in Lemay