Review: "Hail to the Chefs" Fundraiser - 9/27/04 - Modern Cafe - Mpls, MN

Quite the event -- superb food, great people-watching and some really excellent music. MC was local Mpls music legend Chris Osgood and the restaurant was staffed by all kinds of volunteers, including a fair number of familiar local musicians.

Music at the late show started out with local folk/country singer Wendy Lewis & her trio (who offered up the first of 3 Neil Young covers played last nite -- "For the Turnstiles") and then Trailer Trash's Nate Dungan, who turned in a nice solo set highlighted by a brand new, topical original ("Foreign Policy") and a hopefully- not-topical-anytime-soon reading of Gram Parson's "My Uncle."

Next up was essentially a scaled down version of Golden Smog: KJJ, Marc Perlman, Danny Murphy & Jessy Greene. Their 7 song set was dominated by a whole lot of "bummer" tunes sung by Kraig -- an interesting, to say the least, counterpoint to the racous, celebratory mood that prevailed amongst the political/food/music junkies that were in attendance. Nothin' like a coupla "junk" songs to go along with your slow-cooked salmon, spinach puree and chevre tart! Everyone sounded pretty damn good in spite of the crude set-up -- the "stage" was a hunk of plywood elevated with milk crates in the corner of the restaurant and the PA was about as basic as you can get.

"Mini Golden Smog"
(Johnson, Perlman, Muprhy, Greene)
"Hail to the Chefs" Fundraiser
Modern Cafe
Minneapolis, MN
9/27/04

SETLIST
-- On the Beach (nicely colored by Jessy's violin)
-- Signed D.C. ("my soul belongs to the dealer")
-- Ill-Fated (sung by Danny, of course, very nice to hear again)
-- Making Waves (rarely played over the last 5 years -- harmony vox by Jessy)
-- Losing My Religion (yes, the R.E.M. song, first verse sung by Danny, Kraig sang the rest; complete with that catchy Mandolin riff, courtesy of Perly)
-- Yesterday Cried (another one that rarely shows up)
-- The Losing End (Neil cover #3, dedicated to GWB)