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September 20, 2010

Set list for September 3, 2010

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As a sneak preview of what we’re likely to play at our upcoming Pygmalion set (Saturday, September 25, Mike ‘N’ Molly’s in Champaign, Illinois), here’s what The Viper and His Famous Orchestra played recently at a welcome back happy hour for graduate assistants at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, hosted on Friday evening, September 3 by the Rob Henn-affiliated Teaching Assistants’ Association.

Set #1

  • I Left My Liver in Libertyville
  • Big Headed Small Minded Man
  • Winnebago Bay
  • Sharkin’
  • My Seafaring Lassie
  • Ich Bin Berlin (The Sundown Song)
  • Das Kapital
  • One Big Union
  • Ballad of the Henry 55
  • Whispering

Set #2

  • First Round Polka
  • Randolph St.
  • Sharkin’
  • Party in the U.S.A.
  • Stopper in My Hand
  • Last Call Waltz

We played in the Tripp Commons room on the 2nd floor of the Memorial Union. And playing there, as well as trawling through the bowels and the freight elevators of the Union, brought back lots of memories of my time as an undergraduate and a Union rat in Madison. Painful, awful memories. Thanks a lot, T.A.A.!

 

July 20, 2010

Set list for July 11, 2010

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In our final of four Illinois shows for the weekend of July 9-11 (see the previous three posts for more), The Viper and His Famous Orchestra (minus Edward Burch, by this point on his way to St. Louis) played two sets on a Sunday afternoon at the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum in Champaign. (Facebook photos here.)

It’s a great space: the museum is housed in the two-story lobby of a beautiful vaudeville palace (currently undergoing restoration) that once was on the Orpheum circuit (later the O in RKO). Don Gerard tells us that he saw Jaws here during its first run in 1976. Now that’s talking about sharkin’.

Here’s what we played:

SET 1

  • The Viper’s Blue Yodel no. 6.02 x 10 to the 23rd
  • Stopper in My Hand
  • Party in the U.S.A.
  • Sharkin’
  • My Seafaring Lassie

SET 2

  • First Round Polka
  • Ich Bin Berlin (The Sundown Song)
  • Dance Any Way You Want To
  • Uncle Bud
  • Randolph St.

Surprisingly, Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the U.S.A.” seemed far less familiar to this pint-sized crowd than in had to the 30-to-40 somethings who listened to us do it on Friday night in Chicago (see video above). Go figure.

Between sets, we led a workshop upstairs on building instruments. The Viper & Riley Broach showed how to put a washtub bass together and play it. Kip Rainey demonstrated the wax paper & comb kazoo. Rob Henn manned the jugs. Victor Cortez and John Peacock showed how to build shakers, play the suitcase, and create drum mallets out of superballs — like bumbles, they bounce.

Then during the second set, my daughter, Irene, led a raffle at which a lucky boy named Lev went home with the kid-sized washtub bass we’d built in the workshop. He even played with us for a double-washtub-bass performance of “Uncle Bud.” Congratulations, Lev!

 

July 20, 2010

Set list for July 10, 2010 #2

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For the third of four performances in Illinois over the weekend of July 9-11, The Viper and His Famous Orchestra brought their 7-piece sound to the beer garden at Mike N’ Molly’s in Champaign, following the solo/mixed set by Edward Burch, there to launch the new Jay Bennett album, Kicking at the Perfumed Air (see jaybennett.org), and all following the Champaign Music Festival at which Hum rocked for Champaign’s 150th Anniversary (John Peacock preferred the band with horns on the other stage; and I suppose you’d have preferred an astronaut.

We’ll be back in Champaign again on September 25, at Mike N’ Molly’s, as part of the Pygmalion Music Festival.

Here’s what we played this time:

  • First Round Polka
  • Atomic Sermon
  • Sharkin’
  • My Seafaring Lassie
  • Big Headed Small Minded Man
  • When I Was a Young Girl
  • Party in the U.S.A.
  • Stopper in My Hand
  • Randolph St.
  • Ich Bin Berlin (The Sundown Song)

ENCORE

  • Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
  • Protest Song (Rain on the Tin Roof)

The next day, we stopped into Carrie’s Antiques & Jewelry and almost bought matching suits, you know, like the News.

 

July 20, 2010

Set list for July 10, 2010 #1

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When he was doing his own in-store appearance at Exile on Main Street record store in Champaign, Illinois, Edward Burch was kind enough to invite me to join him. To a ravenous crowd of 1-3 at any given time, we brought it. Aside from the songs on which I harmonized in Edward’s set (“Second Last Call,” etc.), here’s what The Viper played.

  • Uncle Bud
  • Sing a Song of Texas
  • Good Morning Irene
  • They’re Knocking Down Our Home
  • The Best Things in Life Are Free

In response to the photo above, posted to facebook, John Peacock wrote:

Ryan’s best look ever!

To which I replied:

Ryan here: yes, from the flattened American Girl cap, to the hanging ties on the orange shirt, to the black socks pulled all the way up, to the look on my face that suggests I don’t know I’m standing behind a microphone, I have definitely got it going on. Wonder why Ed didn’t wear shorts?

It may be this photo that inspired the 7th Day Adventist diet that I’ve been following since.

 

July 20, 2010

Set list for July 9, 2010

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Two Fridays past, we played a “secret” show (i.e., one we didn’t publicize) for a small but enthusiastic crowd, following a small but enthusiastic potluck, at the Humboldt Park, Chicago home of LeRoy Bach. The guests were met, the feast was set, and Edward Burch, followed by The Viper & His Famous Orchestra provided the merry din.

This was the first of 4 performances from that weekend (set lists and commentary from the other 3 to follow. Here’s what The Viper & HFO played.

  • Sharkin’
  • First Round Polka
  • Atomic Sermon
  • Sharkin’
  • My Seafaring Lassie
  • The Viper’s Blue Yodel no. 6.02 x 10 to the 23rd
  • Uncle Bud
  • Big Headed Small Minded Man
  • Party in the U.S.A.
  • Hey! Rounders
  • Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’

This was our first fully orchestral show since 2009, and featured a ridiculously expanded crew that included The Viper, Riley Broach, Edward Burch, Victor Cortez, Rob Henn, John Peacock, and Kip Rainey, three of whom played the suitcase at any given moment.

Sue Peacock has posted a number of videos from this show to YouTube, including the “Sharkin’” you see above, at:

The lighting is dim and kind of red, but the sound is surprisingly good.

 

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