Good friend A Face In The Crowd took a beer in the lap to file this remarkable report from The Fred Eaglesmith Travelling Show gig at the London Music Club on Sunday night. AFTIC’s reliable research indicates that the much-buzzed Fred Eaglesmith appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman will be taped June 14 (the publicized date), but telecast by CBS (OMNI in our cableless home) on June 18. JBNB will follow up A Face’s noble lead on this matter.
Here follows the best report from the Fredhead front you or I or anybody will get from Eaglesmith’s latest London Music Club gig. (Note . . . the official name for the whole thing is The Fred Eaglesmith Travelling Show, but it appears that the Eaglesmith band has taken to calling itself The Freaks & that’s the term we like here).
Over to you AFITC:
FRED EAGLESMITH HAS A NEW CD (AND A NEW HAT TOO)
At the London Music Club last night it was a sold-out show, with Fred Eaglesmith and the Freaks looking different but sounding good (eventually). The two Ginn sisters from south Texas on vocals and occasional flute have been with the band for a little over a year while Kori Heppner on drums, Luke Stackhouse on stand-up bass, Matty Simpson on guitar, banjo and keyboards have been fellow travelers for a few years.
To get the fashion statements out of the way, Fred has changed from a large, white cowboy hat and embroidered suit jackets to a black top hat and black tail coat. Matty has the same clothes but wears white face make-up that provides Fred the opportunity to make clown jokes (I wrongfully thought it to be a KISS tribute), Kori and the Sisters have tight, rock/punk glam clothes and only Luke remains unchanged.
The evening opened with the band sans Fred doing a seven song set of Ginn Sisters material. Brit and Tiff also have a new CD: You Can’t Take a Bad Girl Home.
After a brief break they returned with Fred. For the next two hours it was what the Fredheads came for, songs old and new, corny jokes old (mostly) and new (not so many), political commentary and ridicule of folk and Celtic music.
The new CD is Cha Cha Cha and has a bossa nova feel. The two songs played from it were Careless and Silhouettes.
Special note should be made of Matty’s electric guitar playing. Whether he is getting better at it, or was always that good and now is being allowed to show it, it really, really works.
As for the sound last night, it was well into the full band’s set before it was sorted out. Luckily Fred’s sense of humour compensated. Just as my sense of humour compensated when a woman sitting beside me spilled half of her beer onto my lap. I do suffer for my art.
Finally: LETTERMAN ALERT! I learned that nowadays they don’t just tape during early evening, edit like crazy and broadcast later on the same date. Fred will be taped on Monday, June 14th but the performance won’t be broadcast until Friday, June 18th.
