The Medusa Fora

I'm playing a couple of songs with the Decemberists at the Henry Fonda Theater (on Hollywood Boulevard I think) on Tuesday 13th September. They're playing two nights. I can't play the second night (youngest's birthday), so if you want to see them without me pissing in all the corners, go the second night.

Hi James,

I wish I could make it to this gig but I'm a couple hundred miles away...

Will you be playing Decemberist tunes? Any chance of a Pogues or L&S Orchestra number?

Let us know how it goes!

Nate

I think I once read that the Decemberists sometimes cover Sickbed. That would be the perfect occasion methinks. anyway, good luck for the show, James!

anytime anyone has a chance to see the GREAT James-do it. JAMES ROCKS!!!!!

EB Kid - Thanks for that "tip" about the Sickbed cover. In fact I was able to find this Mp3 of the Decemberists playing it live. I'd say it doesn't quite have the "bite" of a Pogues treatment but hey, he fucks up the words just like Shane!

Nate

I found this "review" of the gig on a blog

Decemberists!
Things about tonight's show that I think rock it:
...
Them bringing out THE MOPTHERFUCKING ACCORDIONIST FROM THE POGUES (James Fearnley, I believe) for "The Chimbley Sweep" which involved not only some fucking KICK ASS dueling accordion action between he and Jenny Conlee but also Colin Meloy getting the entire standing crowd to drop to their knees for said accordion action.

AND THEN COVERING THE POGUES "SICKBED OF CUCHULAIN" FOR AN ENCORE. HI MY PANTS WERE PEED. Even though clearly 5/6ths of the crowd had no idea what the song was. I think I was singing and thrashing enough to make up for it.

nate

I had spent a certain amount of time discouraging the Decemberists away from the idea of doing a Pogues song (oh, they are such fans!) until I read on the Pogues forum that it wasn't exactly without precedent, so, on the strength of that, (and listening to an .mp3 of it that someone had linked and heard how reasonable their version was - with lyric fuck-ups reminiscent of Shane as whoever it was pointed out) I consented to do Sickbed with them. Chris Funk the multi-instrumentalist (and whale-jaw operater) doesn't quite have the intro down, but then, neither does Terry Woods after years of playing the damn song, and Chris Funk's intro has a kind of charm, the way it mimics the vocal line.

As for the accordion duel on Chimbley Sweep - I think Jenni, or is it Jenny, let me win (I'm not sure if anyone won the first round on the Tuesday night - I played the two nights they were in town, in spite of the fact that I said I'd only do the one) - though I pasted her with Smoke on the Water, Swan Lake, and the haymaker in the breadbasket might have been from Bizet's Carmen.

As for The Mariner's Revenge Song, well, it's a towering song that swings on the same ropes and slashes with the same rusty cutlass that many a Pogues song does and there was no way they could prevent me from playing on it with them at the Henry Fonda Theatre.

And, my new stage suit, after ditching the last one in a hotel bin in Japan, now has fucking hole in the knee.

Dear santa,

For christmas I would like some knee pads that I can give James to wear on stage, so he doesn't ruin is trousers.

I'd also like a season ticket to all the Pogues shows with back stage entrance.

(milk and mince pies under the fire as always)

Love

walshy

MissWalshy wrote:Dear santa...
(milk and mince pies under the fire as always)

You leave milk out for santa, walshy?
I was always told he wanted an alcoholic beverage. (Mind you, I did wonder whether he was in full control of that sleigh...)

There are different kinds of milk, firehazard, but what difference does it really make? it's under the fire anyway...

firehazard wrote:

MissWalshy wrote:Dear santa...
(milk and mince pies under the fire as always)

You leave milk out for santa, walshy?
I was always told he wanted an alcoholic beverage. (Mind you, I did wonder whether he was in full control of that sleigh...)

We'll give MissWalshy the benefit of the doubt and assume the milk is a White Russian or something.

Me - I'm a bit worried about why she'd put the tasty snacks and drinks under the fire. Isn't it hot under all that?

And I'm more than a bit worried about whether Santa then leaves the presents at the very same place...

I worry how long will tickets last under the fire then...

Even if they physically last, most modern tickets are printed with thermal printers (meaning the tickets starts "empty" and a controlled heat head activates the impregnated chemicals in the ticket's paper to turn them black and produce the writing). The tickets can barely survive being placed in the back pocket of tight jeans due to teh body heat. Surely the heat under a fire will turn them completely black (and therefore useless) even if they don't actually burn (and therefore become an entirely different form of black, though equally as useless in either form)?

I let meself make a conclusion:
under-bed or under-Christmas-tree are much better places for both - Russian White and tickets