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Gary Lucas Out and About
This fall has seen a frenzy of activity for Gary in
the form of checking out some of his favorite performers, such as the
legendary Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac fame who came to New York's
Tramps
in August for his first local appearance in 25 years. Gary was fortunate
to have an audience with Peter after the show and was thrilled to hear
one of his first guitar idols pronounce his "Evangeline" album "superb"
(Gary had sent it to him last year when over in the UK). He also scored
an autograph from the anglo/Jewish guitar god, who inscribed his
battered, much played copy of the English "Then Play On" album "Peter
Greenbaum" (his real name)...
Gary also checked out big man David Thomas
with his reformed Pere Ubu at the Knitting Factory in September, and
thanked David personally for putting a link from the Ubu site to Gary's
own home page, quite unsolicited...
Also in September, Gary revved up his
ongoing acid-acoustic group The Du-Tels in partnership with psychedelic
folk legend Peter Stampfel for their first gig in a year or so, also at
the Knitting Factory. The boys opened the show with an audience call and
response session/quiz on bands that used semen-al imagery in their
monikers (Cream, Come, et al) which further degenerated into a screaming
flailing high energy set that romped through such classics as the "Astro
Boy Theme", the Stanley Brothers' "Litle Maggie", and the current Lucas/Stampfel fave rave, the theme from "Teletubbies" (Gary's favorite TV
show). And a splendid time was had by all. In fact, the boys were so
pleased by the overall crowd reception they immediately booked a special
xmas eve show at the venue...
Peter will also be one of Gary's special
guests at his upcoming Dec. 11th 10th anniversary concert at the
Knitting Factory, which will also feature special guests Danielle Gerber and
Richard Barone, plus the first set in two years from Gods and Monsters
(with Jonathan Kane and Ernie Brooks), and the concert debut of Gary
Lucas' Big Pishers (with Jonathan, Greg Cohen, and Kenny and Larry)
performing songs from Gary's acclaimed Tzadik CD "Busy Being Born" (which
just received yet another rave in Entertainment Weekly—its second
review there this year!, in their back to school must-have music
section).
Gary also contributed some manic, feedback drenched guitar
explorations as a special guest on a crazed late night set with
acid-lunged vocalist Damo Suzuki of the immortal German band Can, in
town
for the first time with Can's original guitarist Michael Karoli and an
allstar band of sympatico
high rollers (including their other guitarist who is a big Lucas fan,
having caught him in Germany several times live). The set was praised
in
the Village Voice here for its freewheeling shamanistic vibe, which at 3
in the morning at local psych dungeon The Cooler threatened to cut the
zonked out crowd loose from their psychic moorings, Lucas doing what the
Voice described as his "impression of a Hoovermatic"—his playing was so
intense that he blew out his Gallien-Krueger amp in toto, shredding both
speakers in a near incendiary display of his vaunted guitar
pyrotechnique. Damo was so taken with Gary's playing that he brought him
forward at set's end with big hugs all around from the band and a
thunderous reception from the crowd...
Lastly Gary performed a blistering solo acoustic set on legendary free music FM NYC station WBAI during this year's CMJ Conference, eliciting great audience response from all over
the NY area and into Connecticut and New Jersey, the switchboard
literally lighting up after Gary finished playing with listeners
demanding more Lucas music.