Last night stopped in with a great crew to Rose Bar in the Gramercy Park Hotel. Apparently they have been doing some great music performance stuff in the intimate space for the past few months. They have had Janes Addiction do an acoustic set and on Saturday it was Evan Dando from The Lemonheads playing with Gibby Haynes from The Butthole Surfers.
Evan strummed his guitar through a small amp and they hustled through 3 (or was it 4) songs with Evan singing “(my drug) buddy” from his seminal “Shame about Ray” album (supposedly written about his friend Gibby). It was industry crowd so I’m guessing a few in the crowd remembered these guys in their prime and knew the friendship, so it felt like a quick ode to some great memories…especially with the song selections.
They both looked and sounded good - Gibby fairly unrecognizable with clean cut, black rim glasses, still rockin Vans and Evan looking true to his youth with his long hair and sweat shirt. No bullhorn singing but it definitely a great night and thanks to Scott for his hospitality.
Here’s a great interview with Evan Dando in Rolling Stone that goes a little bit into the history and his friendship with Gibby and the summer they spent in Austin driving around in their “Nissan Crack Finder”.