Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven will mix things up at the Highline on January 15 (photo by Danny Clinch)
Highline Ballroom
431 West 16th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Friday, January 15, $22-$25, 8:30
212-414-5994
www.myspace.com/crackerhatesmyspace
www.highlineballroom.com
David Lowery will be doing double duty on January 15 as he brings both Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven to the Highline Ballroom. Cracker, the Virginia-based band that has scored such hits as “Teen Angst,” “Low,” “Get Off This,” and one of the great live songs of all time, “Euro-Trash Girl,” will be featuring songs from their latest album, the excellent SUNRISE IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY (429 Records, September 2009). Although the disc is filled with Lowery’s trademark ironic sense of humor and cofounder Johnny Hickman’s infectious guitar hooks, the songs were written for the first time as a group, with drummer Frank Funaro and bassist Sal Maida pitching in. Harking back to the sound of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the foursome packs quite a punch on such fine tunage as “Show Me How This Thing Works,” “Hand Me My Inhaler,” and the instant Cracker classic “Turn on Tune in Drop Out with Me,” getting help from such friends as Counting Crows leader Adam Duritz, Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood, and X man John Doe along the way. Opening up will be Lowery’s seminal country folk punk outfit, CVB, whose current incarnation consists of longtime members Victor Krummenacher on bass, Greg Lisher on guitar, and Jonathan Segel on violin and other instruments, with Funaro sitting behind the drum kit. CVB is responsible for such critical cuts as “Take the Skinheads Bowling,” “New Roman Times,” “Might Makes Right,” and “Joe Stalin’s Cadillac,” with Lowery getting more specifically political than he does with Cracker. This is one of those don’t-miss shows you’ll regret not going to, so we hope to see you there.
Johnny Hickman and David Lowery have a blast at Cracker / Camper Van Beethoven show at the Highline Ballroom (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Update: Grizzly-bearded David Lowery did double duty at the Highline Ballroom on January 15, first playing a 100-minute set with Camper Van Beethoven, followed by another two hours with Cracker. The first set was a rousing look back at the history of seminal indie rockers CVB, dominated by Lowery’s politically tinged lyrics and Jonathan Segel’s virtuosic violin playing. Along with such favorites as “Take the Skinheads Bowling,” “Eye of Fatima,” and “Joe Stalin’s Cadillac,” the band covered the Clash’s “White Riot,” Black Flag’s “Wasted,” and the Status Quo’s “Pictures of Matchstick Men,” which was an MTV hit for them more than twenty years ago. After a break, Lowery returned with Cracker for a more amiable, freewheeling set as he told long stories about a grandmother requesting “the song about the whore” (“Eurotrash Girl”), performing “Yalla Yalla” in Iraq, and claiming that “Merry Christmas, Emily” was one of the only Christmas songs about a Jew. Guitarist and cofounder Johnny Hickman, looking resplendent in a dazzling white suit, led the way on “Lonesome Johnny Blues” and Bob Dylan’s “The Man in Me.” The night ended with members of both bands jamming through an extended take on the Pink Floyd acid instrumental “Interstellar Overdrive.” (For a slideshow and the setlist, go here.)