Stan Ridgway after the show doing his best Richard M. Nixon impression. I'm supposed to be Elvis Presley by my girth.
Another fine, memorable show at the Cactus Cafe last night! Stan Ridgway celebrating the 25th anniversary of Call of the West, Wall of Voodoo’s most famous album and the one with the single “Mexican Radio.” However, the show was a big treat for my concert-going partner Mark, his wife Alison, his brother Scott and me because we’re fans of Stan’s larger body of solo work. The previous statement isn’t meant as a conceit, the problem is the general public being unaware of Stan’s post-Voodoo career. Most people have a flash of memory when you mention his song “Don’t Box Me In” from Rumblefish.
As a performer, he is even more entertaining than the characters and situations his lyrics illustrate. When he took the stage, he asked the audience to pardon him for the Spinal Tap moment his band was experiencing; they were lost in the UT Student Union somewhere. Then he told the crowd to forget he was there earlier so he could go out the back door and have the keyboard player start up an MP3 of “Vertigo” (from the Hitchcock movie) to introduce him. Stan and the band did a good variety of songs from all periods of his career. Best of all, he sang my personal favorites “Drive She Said,” “Road Block” and “Don’t Box Me In.”
After the show he gladly answered questions, autographed items (he wanted to know where I got my copy of The Big Heat since it was an out of print 1986 edition) and posed for pictures. There weren’t many people so I asked a couple questions I wanted to know. Is he related to General Matthew Ridgway, the Allied commander who succeeded MacArthur in the Korean War? Yes, his mother said that he is distantly related to the famous general but doesn’t know many details. Has he ever heard El Vez’s cover and alteration of “Mexican Radio”? Yes and he likes it. He even recommended the Mexican band Kinky that’s currently covering it. I need to check it out.
If you really want to see a performer who is film noir music personified, I recommend you catch him on this tour. He’ll be playing small, intimate venues until late August and now would be a good time to see him because he doesn’t venture beyond the southwest much from what I saw on his Web site.