Beautiful Freak Tour 1997

LOS ANGELES, CA - THE LARGO - october 24, 1997

info:

I'd like to tell you about another super special show at Largo, this one by a mysterious supergroup dubbed Grant E Buffalo Tom Jonestown Massacre and Young, members of which bore a suspicious resemblance to Grant Phillips, E, and Jon Brion. They entertained an odd mix of Largo regulars and every heavyweight exec from Atlantic Records with an eclectic set featuring new songs from E and Grant, a banjo section (E: "We could do dueling banjos with two guys, but since there are three of us I think this is banjo war!") wherein E lost rather badly in the 'dueling' section, which was followed by banjo-ized Purple Haze (Grant: "Scuse me while I tip this cow..."), the theme from Cheers, and, rather spectacularly, Fleetwood Mac's The Chain.

They all renamed themselves Marilyn Manson style (Grant was Tracy David Chapman, Jon was JonBenet Hitler, and I believe E was UnaBarbara Bush or Alanis Mussolini), insulted the A&R portion of the crowd like only a coupla guys with record deals can, and had a good old time, from the looks of things. I understand Grant was to come back for the last part of Jon's second set but we were falling asleep (no reflection on the entertainment) and went home.

Oh, and Grant's wife Denise opened the show with two songs... E on drums... very nice.

[review sent in by Elisabeth]