The Viper and His Famous Orchestra will play at the 2010 Pygmalion Festival in Champaign, Illinois on Saturday, September 25.
Going head-to-head in a competition for your affections with Roky Erickson with Okkervil River (playing at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the same time), yours trulies will playing the beer garden at Mike ‘N Molly’s, with Zach May and The Maps opening at 7:00 p.m. and The Viper and His Famous Orchestra going on at 8:00. There’s an $8 cover for the show, though if you already have a full Pygmalion Festival pass it is, of course, free.* Because other shows are booked into the venue after we go home, we have a strict ending time of 9:15.
We’re excited to be playing again in Champaign, we’re excited about Zach May and the Maps, and we’re — well, we’re just plain excitable boys all around.
And if you can’t make it Champaign on the 25th, then you’ll want to check out Viper alum Edward Burch in Chicago that same night at the Subterranean club (2011 W. North Ave.). In a benefit for the Jay Bennett Foundation — “A special night of playing the early songs and celebrating the release of Kicking At The Perfumed Air“ —Edward Burch and the Staunch Characters will play with special guests Steve Frisbie, David Vandervelde, and (members of) Dolly Varden. Show starts at 7:00 p.m. and tickets are $10.00 .
*NOTE ON PYGMALION. Advance tickets are available through the Krannert Center. Full festival passes cost $65. You can find the full schedule through Smile Politely (and now it looks like the Pygmalion site also has the schedule up).
The Viper & His Famous Orchestra 
Thanks for the plug. Only now, nearly 6 months later, did I actually notice it. I would note, for the record, that the lineup who played that evening went under the name Edward Burch and the Third Verse Quiets (named for a song arrangement style that Jay and I were perhaps too often drawn toward). The Staunch Characters were explicitly: Andy Leach, John Peacock, Nate Bakkum, and Steve Lamos. While the 3VQ are a force in their own right, the Staunch Characters were a powerhouse band. Someday, they will need to reconvene.