Robert Ellis & Ian O'Neil Unload a Heap of New Music at Mercury Lounge

"I haven't even played anything and we're having technical difficulties," Ian O'Neil said sheepishly, as he realized the mic pointed at his guitar's sound hole wasn't on.  Creedence's "Green River" seeped out over the PA, and O'Neil's Deer Tick comrade Dennis Ryan started shuffling.  Ian mimed playing the song for a laugh.  With the mic reinstated, it was time to begin.  The duo managed to get through one verse of "Bury Deep" before some atrocious feedback forced them to stop.  O'Neil borrowed headliner Robert Ellis' electric, and started over from the top.  The two followed that with "Walkin Out the Door," one of Ian's Deer Tick numbers.  Ryan moved aside for "I Got Nothing Left to Give to the Toilet," which O'Neil revealed to be a tune by Happiness, the duo's new side project.  Curiously, Dennis was silent for both songs identified as Happiness tracks.  "Oh Lord, Your Fire is with Me" was a slower one, but Ian's gentle "ooh"s had a melody fit for an anthemic pop song.  After covering Neil Young's "Don't Cry No Tears," he played "On the Beach," a Happiness original not to be confused with another song by Young.  Dennis returned to the mic again for "She's Not Spanish" and "The Dream's in the Ditch," a song so catchy that Robert Ellis was onstage singing along by verse two.  Before finishing his set with "Maybellene," O'Neil thanked the crowd for showing up for his first NYC solo gig.  I guess he doesn't count Brooklyn Bowl, where I saw him open for Deer Tick three times.

Robert Ellis kicked things off with "Westbound Train," which grew steadily into a full-on country romp, accented by the wonderful pedal steel of Will Van Horn.  It was the night's only offering from 2011's Photographs, as a week ago, Robert dropped his third album, The Lights from the Chemical Plant.  Refusing to be pigeonholed as just a country artist, Ellis used the new tunes to exemplify his stylistic diversity.  "Pride" wrapped up with a section that verged on prog, and "Steady as the Rising Sun" had a smooth R&B flavor.  "I always tell people they might want to get a pregnancy test after that guitar solo," Robert laughed, commending the talents of Kelly Doyle.  While "Rising Sun" may be the only love song on the record, that distinction only extends to animate objects, with Ellis' affair with television cleverly expressed in "TV Song."  "Not to be confused with the 'TV Song' by Ministry.  We have a lot of crossover fans," he joked.  The band dropped out for the song's Walt Disney verse, allowing Robert to captivate the room solely with his sweet, southern voice.  Ellis went it alone for the somber "Tour Song," and then invited the band back for the propulsive jazz-rock of the brand new "Elephant."  Ellis offered up some time for a Doyle instrumental, and then he put his guitar down.  Grabbing the mic from its stand, Robert dove into "Still Crazy After All These Years," which he covers on Chemical Plant.  It's clearly one of his favorite songs, evident in his enthusiasm whilst singing, but his excitement got the best of him, and it sort of felt like karaoke.  He fared better when he grabbed a Telecaster for a countrified spin on Richard Thompson's "Tear-Stained Letter," assisted on vocals by Dennis Ryan back at the drumkit.  "They have a curfew here, so this is the encore," Ellis remarked as the band embarked on a jam that contained all the creaks and shrieks of a haunted house before it melted into the burning bluegrass of "Sing Along."  Robert has claimed that he wants to avoid gigs at honky-tonk bars because they may not be as receptive to his genre-jumping.  It was obvious that the hip NYC crowd at Mercury Lounge loved it all, especially the country stompers.

IAN O'NEIL - 02.18.14 - MERCURY LOUNGE (36 minutes)

SET -
Bury Deep (aborted) / Bury Deep / Walkin Out the Door / I Got Nothing Left to Give to the Toilet* / Oh Lord, Your Fire is with Me* / Don't Cry No Tears / On the Beach* / She's Not Spanish / The Dream's in the Ditch (feat. Robert Ellis) / Maybellene

ROBERT ELLIS - 02.18.14 - MERCURY LOUNGE (1 hour, 14 minutes)

SET -

Westbound Train / Good Intentions / Pride / Steady as the Rising Sun / TV Song / Only Lies / Houston / Tour Song / Elephant / A Robot Named Pitchy* / Still Crazy After All These Years / Tear-Stained Letter / Sing Along

Deer Tick Finale Ends with Horns, Beastie Boys, and Lots of Beer

I was too exhausted after last night's Deer Tick Brooklyn Bowl finale to stay up and write, but now that I've had some sleep and a shower to wash off the beer, it's time to share.

"We're gonna play a bunch of songs," announced Ian O'Neil, fronting a band of Jeff Bailey, Chris Murray, and Julian Veronesi. Six is not exactly a bunch, but it was anyone's guess as to which songs they'd be playing because so many of Ian's songs are on Divine Providence and the Tim EP, which Deer Tick would be performing later. "The Dream is in the Ditch" started things off right, and the second time hearing it, I was already singing along. Ian revealed that they had stayed up until 5am when he heard Julian playing a new tune that he liked so much, he said, "We've gotta play that tomorrow." And they did, Ian handing over the reins to his former Titus Andronicus bandmate. "Hope is Big" made its third appearance of the residency, making it one of only three songs played every night. For the last tune, the band left O'Neil and Veronesi behind to do "a song we've been playing together for a long time," Chuck Berry's "Maybelline."

Alex Bleeker & the Freaks were next, and they sucked. Jangling between the same two chords on John McCauley's Mustang, Bleeker attempted jams that went nowhere, and sang in a boring, whiny voice. Drinking from a bottle of Jameson, he offered, "Thanks again for hanging out with us," but it's not like we had a choice. All the doors had "NO RE-ENTRY" signs on them.

Shirtless and gripping a pint, comedian Dave Hill had the honor of introducing the band. Although he was told he'd be prefacing Danzig, he chose the same intro: "They're gonna fuck you in the face with hot rock!" Deer Tick took the stage, and McCauley stated, "Ladies and gentlemen, Divine Providence." Within the first notes of "The Bump," the energy was palpable, with the crowd shouting back the lyrics. For "Funny Word," the boys were joined by a three-piece horn section that included Cochemea Gastelum (The Electric Sound of Johnny Arrow), Jordan McLean (Antibalas), and Dave Smith (TV on the Radio). The fullness of the horns brought so much to the table that they would appear on eleven more numbers throughout the night. After the rowdy punk dash "Let's All Go to the Bar," McCauley remarked, "That's the stupidest song I've ever written, and that was the hardest song to write." "Clownin Around" lacked its circus outro, which was strange, given the horns. Viking Moses played keys on "Chevy Express," though the song was muddled by a disruptive hair-pulling scuffle in the crowd. A surprising twist to the end of the album, "Miss K." transitioned smoothly into "Summertime Blues" before the band departed.

Personally, I feel that Divine Providence contains some of the band's best-written songs, but the album's sequencing doesn't serve them well. It blows its load right at the beginning with three ragers and never gets that mometum rolling again. "Let's All Go to the Bar" should end the album, as it often does their shows, sending the listener out to get wasted as a reward. Using the rest of the album as the soundtrack for the journey to the saloon doesn't work quite as well, namely because if you were just trying to get drunk, you wouldn't spend 30 minutes getting there; you'd just go around the corner. Regardless, the horns livened things up enough that it didn't get boring, though their delicate shading on "Electric" was overpowered by McCauley's wails.

A minute later, Deer Tick and the horn section returned for "Mr. Cigarette." "I mean we made you wait on the album too," said McCauley, though thankfully it wasn't the thirty minutes of silence before the hidden track as it is on the CD. This time the horns were louder than McC, obscuring Paul Westerberg's clever lyrics. I'd never heard "Born at Zero" before, which was decent, but the medley of the Nirvana-esque "Walls" and the previously-unplayed "Virginia Gal" was thrilling. McCauley took the microphone out of its stand and walked around, pretending to solo on Rob Crowell's sax and patting Ian on the shoulder. You could tell they were having a blast. "That's the first time we've ever performed that song. We've been doing a lot of firsts with this residency. It's been really nice," McCauley admitted. "She's Not Spanish" made its third residency appearance, though the first for the band, making me realize that I like O'Neil's DT songs more when he actually plays them with Deer Tick. A cover of Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars" was just okay, but it segued into a version of "Ashamed" that knocked 12/5's off of the map. Taking it at a slower tempo to start, the song built into a vehicle for each horn and guitarist to solo. The horn blasts combined with the crowd chants made this quite possibly the best performance I'd seen in the three shows. "Cake & Eggs," a song in the key of D and "sort of about oral sex," cooled things down a bit after the epic "Ashamed." "We'd like to end this by celebrating a very bad man," said McCauley, and they launched into Jim Croce's "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," playing it so well you'd have thought they wrote it.

The band ascended the backstage stairs, but John remained on the side of the stage. Gesturing us to keep up the applause, he returned to sing "Diamond Rings" with Dennis Ryan on harmony. "No So Dense" was the crowd-pleaser it always is, and as it wound down, the horns and others made their way into the lights. "This one goes out to the people of Brooklyn," and with a loud "Kick it!" they crunched into "Fight for Your Right." Matt Vasquez of Delta Spirit now had the oft-traded Mustang, but his most memorable contribution to the song was throwing pitcher after pitcher of beer onto the crowd. This insane final display was the ultimate example of why we go to Deer Tick shows: Because anything can happen because it's a goddam party.

Deer Tick, like Band of Horses at Manhattan Center, missed one song from their repertoire: War Elephant's "Long Time," but no one cared. Fully rocked, slightly sore, and reeking of booze, I made my way out onto Wythe to get back to the train. John McCauley was standing outside the back door, and I had to congratulate him on the best show of the three.

Reviews of previous Deer Tick shows:
12.12.12 Brooklyn Bowl
12.05.12 Brooklyn Bowl
10.03.11 Death by Audio
08.11.11 Pier 54


IAN O'NEIL - 12.19.12 - BROOKLYN BOWL (21 minutes, 10 seconds)

SET -
The Dream is in the Ditch / Funky Song (I Will Forget)* / Grow Tired of You in Time* / Be Kind to Me / Hope is Big / Maybelline

DEER TICK - 12.19.12 - BROOKLYN BOWL (1 hour, 43 minutes)

 

SET -

The Bump / Funny Word / Let's All Go to the Bar / Clownin Around / Main Street / Chevy Express / Something to Brag About / Walkin Out the Door / Make Believe / Now It's Your Turn / Electric / Miss K. > Summertime Blues

 

ENCORE I -

Mr. Cigarette / Born at Zero / Walls > Virginia Gal / She's Not Spanish / Between the Bars > Ashamed / Cake & Eggs / Bad, Bad Leroy Brown

 

ENCORE II -

Diamond Rings / Not So Dense > Fight for Your Right

Deer Tick Play Their Own 12.12.12 Concert with Special Guest Vanessa Carlton

Last night in New York City, several musicians and special guests got together and performed a concert for an adoring flock of fans. No, I'm not talking about 12.12.12 at MSG. Deer Tick continued their three-week residency at Brooklyn Bowl by playing The Black Dirt Sessions and Holy Shit, It's Christmas! EP in full.

That's not to say the Sandy relief show didn't permeate the Williamsburg bowling alley. When I arrived a half-hour before showtime, every screen in the building was tuned to the benefit concert. I sipped my Brooklyn Blast as Adam Sandler and Paul Shaffer performed a hilariously modified version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Around 9:00, the broadcast was replaced with live footage of Ian O'Neil, Deer Tick's guitarist, performing "She's Not Spanish." It was a noticeably smaller crowd from last week when he did his whole set alone, but this time, after his first song, he was joined by a group consisting of musicians from other bands, including O'Neil's previous one, Titus Andronicus. "This is my second week opening for my band. You have to imagine that's kind of strange, right?" he asked. Strange perhaps, but absolutely welcome. O'Neil and company performed some new tunes, an inspired version of Michael Hurley's "Be Kind to Me," and Deer Tick's "Hope is Big." Ian finished his set how he began it on the 5th, with a solo "Passing Through/Now It's Your Turn" medley. "Thank you. Good night. See you in an hour," he said, departing the stage. To settle the dispute between drunks in the restroom, he did play longer this week.

 

Viking Moses, the pseudonym of the perpetually touring (since 1993!) Brendon Massei, came next. The folky 9-song set included some older tunes, some newer ones, a joke about a condiment-drenched burger, and a cover of Lana Del Rey's "Born to Die." I'm not sure why people love her so much (I saw Penguin Prison cover "Blue Jeans" at Brooklyn Bowl earlier this year.), but might I suggest Lissie instead? I liked Massei's guitar-playing style, hitting the bottom E string with his thumb like a funk bassist, but his spoken-word singing wasn't my cup of tea. John McCauley came out for the last two numbers, making the stage look like a casting call for a Kurt Cobain biopic. Matthew Houck of Phosphorescent also joined in on the final song.

Steve Buscemi told the tale of Rockaway's Graybeards and had quite the time trying to settle them down enough to introduce the Who. When he finally managed to get it out, the screens went dark, with Deer Tick and the Who taking their stages at the exact same time. The five-piece band found their places, along with a fiddler, and Liz Isenberg and Vanessa Carlton on backup vocals. McCauley announced, "Ladies and gentlemen... The Black Dirt Sessions," and they delved into "Choir of Angels." Before heading into "Twenty Miles" (I wonder what a mashup with "A Thousand Miles" would've sounded like.), John had some technical difficulties, and remarked, "When you listen to the album, you miss out on the fun stuff like me cursing out my guitar in between songs. This is a really personal experience you're having with the album right now." Things got even more personal once he took a seat at the keys for a solo "Goodbye, Dear Friend." "Mange" unraveled nicely, and after "Hand in My Hand," McCauley admitted, "That's the first time we have ever played that song live," his beer mustache fresh from tipping back a pitcher. Another solo on keys, "Christ Jesus" ended the album in about 51 minutes.

The Black Dirt Sessions is in my opinion, Deer Tick's most cohesive album. The songs are mostly introspective, somber affairs on mortality. It's hard to believe they were recorded during the same same sessions as Born on Flag Day. While I still feel Deer Tick are best not on an album-themed leash, the record's common theme lent itself naturally to the live setting. Even though it took ten minutes longer to play than BOFD, it breezed by. Its coda, the Holy Shit, It's Christmas! EP, is pretty much its antithesis. Surprisingly, the pairing worked, with the two irreverant holiday songs providing some relief after the heavy album. For the title track, McCauley donned a Santa sweater, and O'Neil reinvented himself as the song's narrator in a wig, robe, and coathanger glasses, extinguishing a stogie in his glass of whiskey before drinking it and spitting it to the floor. It's pretty much unbearable on record, but it was entertaining with the visuals.

The encore break was maybe ten seconds long. Unable to sing last week due to illness, Liz Isenberg shared vocals with McCauley on "Friday XIII." Isenberg mingled with McC on John Prine's "Unwed Fathers" on the Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows tribute album, but she was subbed out for Carlton to even the score. "Dirty Dishes" followed, which is one of my favorite live Tick songs, where all the band members sang in five-part harmony. "Cheap Sunglasses," which is from a 7" split, closed the encore with a bang, and hinted that Deer Tick might play their ENTIRE discography over the three evenings, unlike Band of Horses' all-album-tracks show.

The band retreated up the stairs and lights began to come on, but it seemed premature. A minute and a half of applause later, they returned for three more War Elephant tunes, including fan favorite "Baltimore Blues No. 1." The ultimate surprise, however, was the closing medley of "Sleep Walk" and "La Bamba," performed in its original Spanish. Also previously released as a 7", it bodes well for fans, like myself, with the three-night pass. Every Deer Tick song ever!

IAN O'NEIL - 12.12.12 - BROOKLYN BOWL (24 minutes, 10 seconds)

SET -

She's Not Spanish / Is This It?* / I Will Forget* / Hope is Big / Be Kind to Me / Passing Through > Now It's Your Turn

 

VIKING MOSES - 12.12.12 - BROOKLYN BOWL (33 minutes, 41 seconds)

SET -

Surrounding Skin / On the Way Home / Born to Die / Sole Command of the Day / Fingernail Moon > Jones Boys / Sunday Pornography / Rough Rider / Pretty Little Eyes

DEER TICK - 12.12.12 - BROOKLYN BOWL (1 hour, 33 minutes)

SET -
Choir of Angels / Twenty Miles / Goodbye, Dear Friend / Piece by Piece & Frame by Frame / The Sad Sun / Mange / When She Comes Home / Hand in My Hand / I Will Not Be Myself / Blood Moon / Christ Jesus / Christmas All Summer Long / Holy Shit, It's Christmas!

ENCORE I -
Friday XIII / Unwed Fathers / Dirty Dishes / Cheap Sunglasses

ENCORE II -
Baltimore Blues No. 1 / Nevada / Sink or Swim > Sleep Walk > La Bamba

Deer Tick Begin Brooklyn Bowl Residency

Deer Tick began their 3-part residency at Brooklyn Bowl last night by playing Born on Flag Day and More Fuel for the Fire EP in their entireties, along with six tracks from War Elephant for an encore. The venue was packed with Tickheads, so buy your tickets for 12/12 and 12/19 now if you're interested.

Ian O'Neil, Deer Tick's guitarist and occasional singer, opened the show, taking the stage a few minutes before the 9:00 start time. "Welcome to the first night of me opening for my band every night," he acknowledged. O'Neil played a short set of the Deer Tick songs he sings and a couple covers, including "Lookin' for a Love" by Neil Young. It was neat to hear his solo takes on the DT songs, but it makes me wonder what his set on 12/19 will be like, considering all but one of the songs are on the album and EP they are scheduled to play that evening. I didn't notice any bowling noises during his set, but it was confusing to hear the crowd talking over a guy from the band they came to see actually playing the band's songs.

Hollis Brown, a band in the similar folk-rock realm, took the middle spot. They looked like total hipsters except for the fact that they were physically into their music. Mike Montali has a good voice, and at times, the band recalled a tamer Crazy Horse. They also put their spin on a Neil Young song, the Charles Manson-inspired "Revolution Blues." They're not breaking any new ground, but they're not trying to. Their album drops in 2013, and you can download their EP here for free.

The five members of Deer Tick walked onto the stage in blazers and ties, and after a quick final soundcheck, they proceeded with "Easy," the opening track of Born on Flag Day. "It's gonna be a fun few weeks," suggested John McCauley with a gold-toothed grin. "Little White Lies," the second track on the album, came next. When "Smith Hill" followed, it was apparent that the album would be performed in order, unlike Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle concerts or Dave Matthews Band's recent Away from the World show. "I'm really looking forward to next week because we get to play 'Holy Shit, It's Christmas!' Who's gonna be there for that shit show?" McCauley admitted a little too prematurely to be thinking about the other shows. He remained onstage while the other members left, Chris Ryan returning with a double bass and a fiddler in tow for "Song About a Man." The band rejoined them for "Houston, TX," Ryan keeping the upright handy to rotate between tunes.

Before playing "Friday XIII," McCauley annouced, "We've got some bad news. Liz Isenberg is sick, and couldn't make it tonight. Is there a lady here that knows all the words?" A cute girl named Caroline was chosen, and although her voice was a little nasal, she hit all the lyrics, minus a few once it struck her that she was actually onstage doing a duet with John.  "I was really doubtful, but it worked out," McCauley revealed with a laugh as she climbed off the stage. "It's because it's so close to Christmas. Miracles do happen." False starts happened for both "The Ghost" and "Hell on Earth," the latter with John flubbing the opening guitar part on his new sky blue Mustang with ruby slipper pickguard. The heartbreaking "Stung" was completed in one take, however, finishing the album in about forty minutes time.

"We have a few more ideas," offered McCauley, and they honky-tonked into "La La La" from More Fuel for the Fire. Former guitarist Andy Tobiassen left the band in 2010, but not before penning "Dance of Love." Would they play it? "It's on the EP that we said we're gonna play, so...," John obliged, and they nailed the jumpy little number that happens to be one of my favorite Deer Tick songs. "Axe is Forever" finished off the EP, and the boys slowed things down with set-closing folk standard "Goodnight, Irene," the hidden track at the end of Born on Flag Day.

The house music came back on, which seemed strange. At this point, they hadn't even played for an hour, and there was no mention of their debut LP War Elephant being played at the three shows. A minute and a half later, they returned to rock out "Standing at the Threshold." The War Elephant tracks that followed reinvigorated a crowd that didn't know what tunes to expect. Which turned out to be exactly the downfall of an album-structured Deer Tick show. Deer Tick is a party band. They defy curfews. They play as many as fifteen covers in a set. John McCauley has even been known to light his pubic hair on fire onstage. Tethered to an album's running order, that edge-of-your-seat spontaneity is absent, replaced with a formality reflected in the band's attire. (I saw McCauley's band Diamond Rugs perform their eponymous album this summer, but that loose vibe remained intact, likely because that group of musicians don't regularly play together.)  The most exciting moments were when things nearly fell apart halfway through "Straight Into a Storm," the duet with a stranger, attempting a song a past member wasn't there to sing, and one odd piece of headgear. You see, right after "Art Isn't Real," a bra was thrown onstage. Strapping the brassiere around his head, McCauley boasted, "I've got a cool, new hat for the winter," and kept it on for the rest of the encore. "What Kind of Fool Am I?" was a sweet solo affair, and the whole band, plus the fiddler, a harmonica player, and a very participatory crowd yelled along to "Ashamed." "Here's some top secret notes," McCauley joked, tossing out the setlist pages into the audience. I purchased the three-night pass, so here's hoping the encores get progressively longer and wilder. Either way, I'm going to see Deer Tick play all their songs, and that's pretty fucking cool.

IAN O’NEIL – 12.05.12 – BROOKLYN BOWL (21 minutes)

SET –

Passing Through > Now It’s Your Turn / Lookin’ for a Love / She’s Not Spanish / Walkin Out the Door / Hope is Big

HOLLIS BROWN – 12.05.12 – BROOKLYN BOWL (35 minutes)

SET –

Gypsy Black Cat / Ride on the Train / Faith & Love & Everything* / When the Weather’s Warm / Down on Your Luck / Walk on Water / Nightfall / Revolution Blues

DEER TICK – 12.05.12 – BROOKLYN BOWL (1 hour, 16 minutes)

SET –

Easy / Little White Lies / Smith Hill / Song About a Man / Houston, TX / Straight into a Storm / Friday XIII / The Ghost (false start) / The Ghost / Hell on Earth (false start) / Hell on Earth / Stung / La La La / Dance of Love / Axe is Forever / Goodnight, Irene

ENCORE –

Standing at the Threshold / Art Isn’t Real (City of Sin) / These Old Shoes / Spend the Night / What Kind of Fool Am I? / Ashamed