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I've missed the first few songs of Ad Frank's set, but fortunately I've arrived just in time for the song I most wanted to hear, "As My Limo Spins Out Of Control." It's dedicated to Tom, who wrote the title (in a competition connected with the Ad Frank Awards, which are described here), it is a witty, bitter pop gem (well, duh, it's an Ad Frank song), and it's not recorded, so I have to hear it live if I want to hear it. And I do. I think it's the only song he plays on guitar in this set; then he's back behind the piano, and I love Ad's warm, expressive piano playing. He finishes with my favorite song of his, too: "U-Hauls and Ryders," so appropriate for this time of year.
Scott Janovitz is next. He's solo with guitar for most of the set, and it's mellow and rootsy, and very relaxed. A couple of covers, and one song that's so new, it doesn't really have an ending yet. For his last song, he's joined by Mike Quinn, his former bandmate in Dragstrip Courage, on keyboard and harmony vocals. They've had a lot of practice singing together, and it shows.
Ad gives Amy Miles a weird introduction, focusing on her recent appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show, and how much the show sucked. (He seems to think that because he mentions that she was the only part of the show that didn't suck, there's nothing wrong with this introduction.) She's kind of a folk singer, mellow and a bit countrified, with a lovely voice and a guitar style that's focused on supporting the singing. She introduces one of her songs with a fun story about the Jimmy Kimmel show's censors' attempt to bowdlerize her song that has the word "bumfuck" in it four times. "Bumfunk" wasn't going to fly with them; they wanted "bumfun," which she wasn't really happy with. Ad joins her on keys and backing vocals for one song.
The main event tonight is "Commotional Rescue," an Ad Frank-led local All-Star Band covering Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' first album in its entirety. Since these songs sound just like Ad Frank songs, it's not really much of a stretch for him. (If anything, these melodies are a bit simpler and less catchy.) It's not a very high-energy album, and I'm getting very tired, so my attention does flag from time to time, but the playing is uniformly excellent, and the drummer clowns around a bit to keep himself occupied on a couple of songs that woefully underutilize his skills, keeping me awake and interested into the bargain.
