Drunk In Public (The Levellers and Sonovagun) @ The Red Lion, NYC
Live Reviews | Jun 9th, 2008
Date: June 8th 2008
Band Links: link
About a month ago, Dan Donnelly announced on his MySpace page that Mark & Jon of the Levellers were coming over to perform a “Drunk In Public” show with him. I now know why they call it a drunk in public show ha!
The last time I was at the Red Lion, it was almost 2 or 3 years ago and it was to see Dan and Mark Chadwick play. It was a fun, small show and it was the same this time around as well…just a little more chaotic if you were. My girlfriend, my brother, my friend and I arrived at the pub/restaurant at around 9:30pm. Drunk In Public were supposed to go on at 10pm but that didn’t happen. It took forever for them to set up the drums and get their equipment working. It was around 11:15 before the band finally got all the kinks worked out. Once you thought they were ready to go, the sound would mess up. It was like it was the Red Lion’s first show or something. That was a good indicator on how things were going to turn out. A good analogy of the evening reminded me of a Little Rascals episode where the gang were playing in the “International Silver String Submarine Band” at a radio station. Everything was going wrong; things were being knocked over, things blowing up. Obviously it wasn’t that extreme but still the show reminded of that.
Mark addressed the crowd that the show was gonna be EPIC or traumatic. He then said the band isn’t known as Drunk In Public anymore, but “Localized Chaffing” from all the walking he did in the city the last 2 days in the 90 degree weather. Despite being very hung over and still inebriated, Mark was hilarious with his comments. The group consisted of Mark and Jon of the Levellers, Dan Donnelly and Roy Harter of Sonovagun and a bassist & drummer who I didn’t know. They started off with “What a Beautiful Day” and it sounded okay. Even Mark said “you can tell we were rehearsing all day,” in which Dan replied “yeah, rehearsing drinking.”
“No Change” was attempted twice but in the end Mark couldn’t do it. He tried to sing the verses but couldn’t get past the first verse. It’s a shame since I wanted to hear that song and even requested it to Dan on MySpace. I’m not sure which songs were in order but I believe they did one of Dan’s song next and that sounded great! I don’t have any of Dan’s music on CD but I think I’m gonna have to go out and get some. I always liked his song “Spare Change” and he played at that one as well. Dan asked Mark to play a song he played at his Ma’s wedding and it was “Don’t You Grieve.” It was a nice surprise to hear the song since it’s an older B-side (Bozos EP) and rarely played at live shows. Mark & co. did a good job with it though. At that point, they were looking for songs to play so I screamed out “The Road” and they played it. That’s what I love about these type of small shows, you can talk with the band members and scream songs at them to play. They handled the “The Road” well and it was good to hear the song again. Last time I heard it live was back in London in December 2006. Every other song or so, Dan would play a song of his instead of a Levs song. I think Mark wanted it that way, but not sure the rest of the band was ready for it. According to Roy Harter on the Levellers forum, Mark pretty much crossed out every song on the setlist; even songs they were told to learn. While the band played “Carry Me,” I walked around the club a little and tried to get different shots. Of course I’m a idiot and forgot/couldn’t get shots of Roy playing the keyboards & Theremin. On a sidenote, I want to play the Theremin, that thing is cool! Dan dedicated “The Boatman” to Si (Simon Friend of the Levellers) since he couldn’t make it over to the show. Dan did another job of singing and playing, and added some lyrics you heard during their classic Glastonbury set in 1992.
Now here’s where the set gets interesting. Dan gets his Dad Desi Donnelly on stage to play a song with the band. He certainly raised the bar for the rest of the band because he was great! He did a cover of the Rolling Stones “Route 66.” As this was going on, Mark & Jon were outside smoking, but then Dan and his Dad ended up doing another song since Mark & Jon weren’t around. At one point, I saw them leave and no one knew where they went to. 15 minutes later or so, Dan tells the crowd that they were next door at another bar, having margaritas. Dan found it amusing, and he seemed somewhat in shock as well. I thought that was amusing but I would have been disappointed if they didn’t return. I was ready to take off if they didn’t come back because it was already getting late. Thankfully Mark made a triumphant return to the stage and “Localized Chaffing” finished their set.
It’s actually funny, but as the night went on and more drinks were consumed; the band actually got BETTER! That’s usually the opposite with some bands. So once Mark & Jon came back, they played “Far From Home,” and then “15 Years.” Dan did a great job on “Men-An-Tol” and Roy gave a cool Theremin solo during that song. The last 3 songs of the evening were “Lowlands of Holland,” a bluesy rock version of “Just The One” and “One Way.” “One Way” started off as this jazzy song and they quickly stopped doing it that way and started over. Mark even declared “this will be the one song they actually get right.” Or something along those lines. It sounded good, compared to the beginning of the set where things were a little wishy-washy. Dan Donnelly’s Dad came back on stage to play out the show (“Johnny Be Goode”) since Jon and Mark had to leave for the airport. I tapped Jon on the back and shook his hand for putting on a fun show and I was off to go home.
It was still a lot of fun to see the show despite the chaotic happenings. I was just happy to hear a bunch of Levellers song since it’s been over 2 years since I last saw the Levs. I hope once the Levellers’ new album “Letters from the Underground” gets released in August, that the full band will head over to the United States for a much-anticipated US tour. I’m sure Dan Donnelly, Roy Harter and the rest of Sonovagun will be opening for them when that tour happens. Congrats to Dan Donnelly on his wedding and thanks to Dan for bring Mark & Jon over to perform this wacky show for us. It was fun!
