It's a shame about Evan
Evan Dando is dead?
No, Evan Dando isn’t dead.
Look, I love the Lemonheads 1992 album, It’s A Shame About Ray. There was so much happening at the time and so much amazing music going around, creating something that great in an ocean of greatness is no small accomplishment.
I have no problem calling It’s A Shame About Ray a classic.
Its follow-up, 1993’s Come On Feel the Lemonheads contains the sublime “Into Your Arms” and the ahead-of-its-time “Big Gay Heart,” but it wasn’t as good as its predecessor.
Over the years, the stars never aligned for me to see Evan Dando and the Lemonheads. When I heard about Dando and company playing a free show at Harbor Yard in Middletown, Connecticut, I was all over it.
Sadly, the stars collided last night and I got the chance to see the Lemonheads perform. What I witnessed was either performance art or an epically shitty show - I’m confident in saying it was the latter.
Dando emerged on stage, on time, bedraggled, and alone with an acoustic guitar. It was in a word, strange. In a few more words, scattered, spastic, and incoherent. And it went downhill from there.
For a moment, he thought he was in Providence, Rhode Island; however, I’ll let that slide. There was water (Connecticut River), a college (Wesleyan University), and probably more than a few mobsters - easy mistake. Besides, his touring schedule is pretty aggressive, so I get it.
When he brought the bass player and drummer out, the show got marginally better but is still best described as a clusterfuck.
I had never seen the Lemonheads live before and I doubt I ever will again.
I would love nothing more than to tell you that he was just fucked up, that it was an off night, and that it was fun. Evan Dando was absolutely fucked up. I mean really fucked up. Other video clips floating around the web seem to prove that the show at Harbor Yard wasn’t unique. And it wasn’t very fun.
The obvious answer to such a shitty performance is overindulgence in drugs and/or alcohol. But I’m not convinced it’s as simple as that.
In the New York Times Magazine article “Evan Dando Knows He’s Lucky” from 2019, it’s reported that his family had checked him into Silver Hill Mental Hospital in New Cannan Connecticut in 1996, after some severe weirdness in Australia (you can look it up).
In the same article, Dando admits to being a “wicked manic-depressive,” which a psychiatrist supported. He goes on to express his love of drugs: “I’m sort of a fan of drugs and music. I think they’re good together. I’m just going to be honest about it. Why lie?”
By all accounts, drugs and alcohol have always been a struggle for Dando. When you add in a healthy dose of mental illness and throw a live performance in for good measure? Well, that’s a perfect storm and moves the needle from pathetic to red-lining tragic.
As the show spiraled out of control, I didn’t witness a mass exodus. People trickled out, but I think once people realized they were witnessing something unique they stuck around: tragic, but unique. Like a traffic accident you can’t help but slow down to look at.
There were moments, and I mean mere seconds, where it sounded like something might come together… and then… no.
The show ended with Dando behind the drum kit doing a two-song medley of The Eagles’ “Lyin Eyes” and another song I can’t recall - maybe “Time Passages” by Al Stewart? Weirdly, the fucked-up Evan Dando version of that Eagles song is still better than the original.
A friend caught up with Dando before his Lemonheads set and got a selfie with him. This is a direct quote from her: “He was beyond fucked up. I’ve never seen anyone like that in real life.”
And she’s a rock-n-roll girl.
At the end of the show, she sent me a text about the druming conclusion saying: “I’ll be thinking about that for a long time. I just felt sad.”
I heard one guy walk by and say: “Well, it was better than I thought it would be, but not as good as I had hoped.” His expectations must’ve been very low.
There’s a Robert Downey, Jr. parallel here. From the moment you first caught a glimpse of him (SNL season notwithstanding), you knew he was talented. Downey leveled up his game and craft with each film, peaking with an Academy Award nomination for Chaplin. And then he spiraled out of control.
Even though it took some time, Downey was able to course-correct and get his shit together.
Like him or not, Evan Dando is a clever songwriter. Well, he used to be and might still be. I suspect if he shakes free the clouds and cobwebs, there’s much more left for Evan Dando, the artist, to say. But the guy I saw perform last night wasn’t just fucked up, he was out of control.
Is the world a better place with a sober Robert Downey Jr.? Artistically, yes.
Would the world be a better place with a sober Evan Dando? I’d like to find out.
Dando has attempted course correction before, and it may be time to do it again. Like Downey, Dando is one of those guys you root for, who you want nothing more than to see get their shit together.
Maybe this is just a money grab for Dando and he doesn’t give a fuck. That would make it all the more tragic to think that he has such little respect for the people who love his music. There are loads of people who love those songs on It’s A Shame About Ray and I’m one of them.
While the brooding Gen X’ers were lamenting “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the snarky X’ers were giggling at “Ceiling Fan In My Spoon.” Luckily, I was both.
I have some clips of the show, and I contemplated cutting in some audio of last night’s disastrous performance, but it feels exploitative. Based on what he’s admitted in the past, I feel like there’s something else going on besides Evan Dando just being wasted.
No, Evan Dando isn’t dead… yet.