Spending the night with Stephin Merritt

Photo: Chris Buck

Let's be clear -- I don't have much objectivity where Stephin Merritt is concerned. He's my all time favorite cranky little gay musical genius. Actually, he's my favorite cranky musical genius, full stop. Had last night's Magnetic Fields show at Los Angeles’ Music Box at the Fonda blown monkey chunks, odds are I still would have squeezed out a favorable review praising Merritt's newsboy or pianist/vocalist Claudia Gonson's wry warmth or Dan Handler's (that's Mr. Lemony Snicket to you) surprise appearance, complete with accordion.

Seeing a Magnetic Fields show is always an experience, and with "sound players " The Interstellar Radio Company warming up the audience with a delightful version of a Robert Sheckley's story, the crowd (seated, I assume, at Merritt's request -- the Fonda is normally standing room only) was breathless with anticipation for Merritt and Co.

Handler and Gonson cold-opened the show with a Piaf-esque version "Zebra" before the rest of the band filed on stage and in true thematic Merritt-ocracy fashion, the band finished with Distortion's "Zombie Boy." In between was a tight set that covered not only selections from the bigger albums -- 69 Love Songs, I, and Distortion -- but also a selection from Merritt's other projects: The Sixths "Give Me Back My Dreams" and a few by The Gothic Archies. Dan Handler sang and played on "Scream and Run Away", alone on stage, and wooing the audience with his deadpan delivery and request, sardonically, for audience participation. Oh how we participated!

Merritt's crankiness is legendary, but the audience knows what to expect, and as he sat on his chair, bouzouki (yes, bouzouki) in hand, he seemed to be having... Okay, a good time would be an overstatement, but a time nonetheless.

While Gonson ran the show, Merritt presided, watching his empire unfold, and for the most part, the empire seemed to please him. The band's got irony down pat -- when the they'd settled into place, Gonson counted off and they launched into the biting and hilarious "California Girls," toned down from the album's gleeful, bitter joy, but made even funnier by Shirley Simms softer delivery and the fact that they were singing it to a whole room full of California girls wild to hear it.

However, there's as much lushness and love in the Magnetic Fields' work as irony, particularly at a live show when the band's stellar musicianship shines through. The live version of "Come Back from San Francisco" was a plea and a regret, richly melodic with all the spaces filled in by Sam Davol's cello and John Woo's guitar, becoming a song about the tweaks and tinges and love, a counterpoint to "California Girls" and the other side of want.

My personal favorite moment came when Merritt played the opening notes to "Papa was a Rodeo." This song is such a story -- a slightly dirty, heart-breaking country song from a city boy, and it ends with these two people who've found their way together through dust and determination and luck -- I've been obsessing over The Pine Valley Cosmonauts’ cover for the last month and a half. To unexpectedly hear it at this show, amongst all the songs they could have chosen, felt like I'd gotten my very own desires met by a man infinitely unwilling to meet anyone's needs but his own.

The whole band came back to do a stellar version Distortion's opening track "Threeway." The audience giggled like repressed teenagers instead a bunch of hipster music nuts as the band shouted "threeway," the only lyric in the piece.

Finally, Merritt ended the show alone with his bouzouki and "Book of Love" -- the king having his final, melancholy say. I left hoping that in this city full of pretty, pretty boys, Merritt would find someone to go home to. But really, what's a cranky bitter genius going to do with fleeting happiness?

-- ANDREANNA DITTON

Comments

[Misha]

That's actually a Kelly Hogan cover, with the Cosmonauts acting as backup band. She's raved about the song in several interviews, and called it one of the great country songs of our time when I saw her live (highly, highly recommended if you ever get the chance, she's got an amazing voice, though mostly she's been touring as a backup singer w/Neko Case lately).

BTW, she's also got an original song called "Sugarbowl" on her 2001 album Because It Feel Good, which is a lovely tribute to her friend and Atlanta queer-scene fixture in the 80s Benjamin Smoke.

(Imagine that all the links I spent 10 minutes finding and adding were still here. Sigh.)