Last night I went along to the Evan Dando gig in the Roisin. It was great. Although it was quite sad to see the toll that drink and drugs had taken on the ex-Lemonheads singer, he delivered a sparkling, crowd pleasing set of old favourites with four or five new tunes thrown into the mix. In my opinion, most of the new songs were unremarkable with the exception of "Hard Drive" and "The Same Thing You Thought Hard About Is the Same Thing I Can Live Without" a song obviously about his battle with the drink. He is now teetotal and like Georgie Best uses medication to combat the urge to drink. He made a point of explaining that the word in the song chorus was "can" not "can't".

At the end of the set, before the encore he set-up an impromptu Q and A session with the audience. Apparently he missed a gig a few years back cos he was busy gettin' it on with two lesbian junkies . He would have made the show only for the crowds of people he had to get through to get to the stage. He reckons it was a close run thing but wasn't worth it in the end ..

What really made the night for me however were the support acts. Playing guitar for Evan and doing a short set of his own was Chris Brokaw the guitar player from Come and Pullman. He also played on Thalia Zedeks solo album from last year.

And best of all we had a set from the ex-Vaselines singer and guitar player Eugene Kelly. You may remember that Scottish band for their songs which Nirvana covered - "Molly's lips" and "Jesus doesn't want me for a sunbeam":-

Jesus don't want me for a sunbeam,
Cause sunbeams are not made like me,
And don't expect me to cry,
For all the reasons you had to die,
Don't ever ask your love of me.

Don't expect me to lie,
Don't expect me to cry,
Don't expect me to die for thee

Eugene joined Evan on stage for the encore which I think was "River Clyde Song". Two fine masters of the craft of the Pop Song who have failed to reach the audience they deserve. Proof if any were needed that popular music is the most fickle of the modern arts.