|
 Dan Hicks Christmas letter from Hicksville
Dan Hicks is, of course, one of the greats of music, an amazing songwriter and performer who has melded swing music
and ... lots of other types of music ... with his hip sensibility ("I'm the only hip person there is," he has said)
to create unique and fabulous performances.
Triviana sent photographer Sarah Orr and a friend of hers, Scott Dussault, to this show. Her report -- a letter from Hicksville -- follows. Click on the images to see larger versions.
At first the night was kinda slow. Funny thing, though
-- Dan Hicks was the first person to walk on the stage. HE
casually came up to the mike, very softly. I bet
hardly anyone noticed that it was him until he spoke
into the mike. I turned and was surprised to see that
it was Dan Hicks and not some manager or promoter. The
whole evening he kinda acted like the master of
ceremonies instead of the lead singer of the headliner
band.
First he brought out
the Christmas Island Brass Band. They were all decked
out in holiday paraphernalia -- Santa hats, red
ribbons, etc. The tuba player was the best.
They didn't
just come out on the stage, they started playing music from
the back and made a conga line through the crowd
before they reached the stage. It was quite festive
and entertaining, I must say. So the tuba player lead
the conga line. He had garland wrapped around it and a
red light coming from inside of it. So once on stage
they played for a while, it was good, but they played a
little too long. One rude man yelled "Where's Hicks?"
I thought it was mean, the band was good, they just
played one song too many.
So they left and Hicks came out again. Made a few
funny remarks about "Holidaaaazzzeee" again. He
commented that the audience might want to get their
tombstones ready cause the evening was going to kill
them. To the disappointment of many fans in the
audience, Hicks did not start playing, but brought out
more musical guests -- two beautiful women from Japan.
They wore traditional outfits but had Christmas garlands
around their necks like feather boas.
(NOTE: I just now looked at the flyer and I guess the
name for the evening was "Holidaze in Hicksville.)
The name of the two-girl group is Petty Booka. They
had very beautiful voices and both played ukuleles.
It had a Japanese-Hawaiian sound. They
played a few songs in Japanese, but also performed
American songs such as Cindy Lauper's "Girls Just Want to
Have Fun."
After that Hicks FINALLY came on -- I think around
9:30. The show had started at 8 p.m.
One of the funniest things was his dance moves. Props
to his choreographer. Damn, it was hilarious. He and
the two female singers danced in tandem. He kept
kicking his legs up, higher than the women I think. He
couldn't beat Brittany Spears in a dancing competition,
but the show wouldn't have been as good without it.
The funny dancing matches his quirky behavior. It was
a nice touch.
He mainly played songs from his latest album (I only
know this cause he mentioned it). The only song I
recognized the whole night was "I Scare Myself," so it
makes me think that it was in fact mostly new stuff.
but what do I know? I've only heard one album and
Scott hasn't heard any.
Selected Dan Hicks albums
"Striking It Rich"
|
|
|
