Another LA Marathon
The Dandy Warhols Air Out All the Dirty Laundry

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>> Courtney Taylor-Taylor works the capacity LA crowd. >>

>> Hollywood, CA, September 24, 2003 >> It’s 8:00 PM, which is quite early by LA-night-out-on-the-town standards.  Right about now, at most of your usual concert events, the opening band, normally called ‘local support,’ would just be hitting the stage, playing to fifteen people or so, and that's if you count the sound man.  And most of those people would be more interested in what they’re drinking or in checking out their cell phones repeatedly.

But the Henry Fonda Theatre is  packed, and as the Fonda’s answering machine proudly declared, “This event is completely sold out.   Absolutely no tickets are available.”  The list of acts and times posted at the door only has one entry: The Dandy Warhols, 9:00 to 12:00.  There are no opening acts.  They are the act.

But, alas, this night we’re dealing with rulers of irony, flair and mock-despair: The Dandy Warhols. 

>> Taylor-Taylor was as cool as the other side of the pillow. >>

Three hours?  Intermission?   Someone asked if the band had that much material to work with, and, in fact, they do.  But that’s the story of their collective career in a nutshell: plenty of fans, a nice body of work, and yet no one in America knows who they are.

And so, promptly at 9:00, the lights dim, and a few minutes later the curtain rises and the members take their places.  Oddly enough, only a moderate welcome emits from the crowd, as though they know they need to save their energy for what looks to be a long evening.  Almost immediately, requests begin to be shouted from various places in the room.  This occurs regularly between songs for about half the show.  Happily, for most of those lobbing their requests stageward and holding signs, their requests would be answered.

After opening with “Be-In,” from their first record and “Mohammed” from Tales From Urban Bohemia, the band finally took a moment to address the crowd, with singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor declaring, “This is the last night of our American tour, so we figured we’d play for a while.”   This did elicit a very nice cheer from the crowd, ever-increasing with late-arriving fans.

>> The Dandy Warhols gave the crowd three hours of bliss. >>

The Dandy Warhols did reach back into their music vault, pulling out wonderful nuggets like “Lou Weed” and “Cool as Kim Deal” plus hit “Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth” and fan favorite “Ride.”

One of the highlights of the evening was the new track “I Am A Scientist,” which Taylor-Taylor co-wrote with David Bowie, who is a vocal fan of the Portland-based quartet.  So much so that he personally asked The Dandy Warhols to open for him on his just-commenced European tour.  “Scientist” has all the makings of an underground hit for the Dandys, with its cool electronic tone and Bowie-ish vibe.

The Dandy Warhols, with Taylor-Taylor leading the way, did a superb job of setting the evening’s tone early on and then kept it flowing throughout.   At no point did the set really drag or feel out of synch.

Even though industry types generally dominate LA events such as this, this was definitely a set for the fans.  Though their new record, Welcome to the Monkey House, was well represented, their three previous releases received relatively equal time and attention.  In all, the set worked seamlessly, as new tracks stood up well next to the older ones and vice versa.  And they can definitely play for three hours.