Atomic Pop
February 1, 2000
Jet Lounge
When Jon Brion first steps onto the Largo stage each Friday night, he looks mild mannered enough, but about 37 minutes into his show, he transforms into a raving lunatic. While playing an upright piano, he grabs a microcassette recorder to dictate a guitar solo, kick starts a sitar practice box and then starts to sing lyrics he's found in The Complete Lyrics of Hank Williams book. Though this isn't the sure-fire way to become a pop star, it is the reason Fridays are Largo's biggest draw.
Truth of the matter is Brion nearly turned the Friday night residency offer down, mainly because he felt that was the one day of the week where he thought Flanagan could make some money. Eventually he acquiesced and Friday nights have become the club's most popular evening, with Brion being joined on stage by an array of pop music stars including semi-regulars Robyn Hitchcock and Grant-Lee Phillips, as well as visitors Michael Stipe, Fiona Apple, Beck, Beth Orton, Neil Finn or Ron Sexsmith. The beauty of a Brion evening is when he stands there alone and has to find a way to blend audience requests for the Rolling Stones, Supertramp and the aforementioned Williams.
"It's the concept of not having a set list that is really liberating," he says with a smile. "The whole point of the show is that I'm tired of watching people play the same set every night. I hate it, I really hate it."
So he threw that convention out the window and invited in the chaos theory. "The show can become whatever it wants once the beast gets going," he says.
In addition, Brion points out that he has up to 70 of his shows on tape and is trying to find the time to edit them for a pair of releases -- one filled with things that were improvised entirely on the spot and another of covers and random bits. Finding the time, though, is the key, considering the über-musician is busy producing such artists as Fiona Apple and Robyn Hitchcock, as well as working on his own collection of songs.
