Last Waltz with Mary Ann

I got to Linneman's Riverwest Inn good and early Friday night. After all, it was the Farewell to Frank show, and I wanted to make sure I got a seat. My suspicion that the place would be packed would later prove true, so I lugged in my tripod, since Brian had asked me to shoot some video of this fun but bittersweet night.

I got settled in just in time for Frank to take the stage as Earth Sound Research, a pre-Dr Chow outfit that, for this evening included his good friend Chris Deisinger on ukelele(?), original Dr Chow bassist Andy Aeros Kaiser, and Dave Bolyard on percussion and occasional horn. The whole set had an otherworldly feel to it, a quiet folky blues that swelled with emotion. It brought to mind those old Trance and Dance Band shows, feeling transported back to some previous time and space, but not quite sure when and where. It was​ from an era of Frank's performance that I embarrassingly don't remember: because when they burst into audience favorite "Giant Rats" I didn't recognize the song at all, but still enjoyed it.  Seeing those three back Frank up made me realize it was​ going to be an all-star night, a sort of "The Last Waltz" of Riverwest, so I made sure I remembered to bring my backup battery for the video. I'm light years away from Martin Scorsese, but, hell, I thought to myself, aim high.

For all of Frank Chandek's bombastic stage presence, he's a humble and appreciative man. Every heartfelt​ thank you he offered (and there were plenty) was​ sincere, to the point where he ran out of ways to say it.  On anybody else, it would have seemed robotic, but it seemed like Friday night the reality that this was The Last (official) Show was truly kicking in, and he delivered a performance like he felt he owed it to the packed house.

He joined his spiritual brother in rock, Voot Warnings, for a briliant set of Voot's latest compositions. Voot's band these days -- Vic Demichei on drums, Jacob Muchin on bass and Bolyard again on percussion and horns -- are all the sort of virtuosos that make Voot's music sound much simpler than it is, but Voot's been diving into dark corners with dissonant chord progressions, jarring melodies, and nihilistic subject matter. Still, he can yodel "Go Fuck Yourself" on top of a happy melody and get a crowd dancing, and of course he and Frank brought down the house with classics like "Jesus Christ is My Wife" and "Dance Motherfucker Dance." Voot's band has always been a revolving door of all stars, but Friday it felt like Frank had always been a part of it.

Before the full blown Dr Chow's Love Medicine band took the stage, it was family time. Stonie Rivera introduced the man who needed no introduction, and brought up Frank's wife Amber, who was radiant as well. That old cliche about how behind every great man is a great woman was more than truth Friday, and there's really nothing more to say.  Bassist Joe Polittzi started the pulsating, rolling bassline that opens "Sea Creatures" and, despite some techinical issues stage left that were solved mid song, they were off. 

They didn't play everything, and maybe they didn't play your favorites. They didn't have to. (Well, they played a lot of mine, including Mary Ann Is Insane and Hard On, and Somebody Else). There really aren't any Dr Chow songs that suck; there aren't any that you say to yourself "Ah, hell, I'm gonna get a beer", so they played their usual mix of terrific originals and well-chosen, crowd-pleasing garage band covers. The mix of the band contributes to that: with Paul "the Fly"Lawson on guitar and his garage and psychobilly/blues/surf roots, formally trained Politzzi on bass, solid and versatile Dan Glazer on drums, and my man Brian Wensing, a space rock fuzzbender on guitar, this is one of those bands that shouldn't work, but does. This is a band that covers everything from  Frank Zappa to the Rolling Stones to Blue Oyster Cult to any number of Nuggets one hit wonders and makes it all sound together.

It was Deisinger who noted later that Frank's songwriting is so fluid, you don't realize what a truly great songwriter he is. And looking back over his career as a frontman, his charisma has always been beyond reproach, but it's been a delight to watch his vocal control, phrasing, harmonic range and overall talent evolve from "hey this guy is good" to flat out greatness. Everybody in the room had always knew that his departure from Wisconsin was going to leave a hole, it was Friday night that we all realized just what a gigantic crater this meteor of a man and his wife were going to leave.

I've already written enough about these guys and those last shows. They'll be doing the annual Zappa Fest at on December 9 at Shank Hall, and then they'll be done. Frank and Amber promise to come back often for visits, and I'm sure the band will fire up for the party such a visit will end up being, but as I wrote before, the time for taking them for granted is over. Here's a set of pictures I compiled of their entire career, and here's my sorry attempt at capturing The Last Waltz of Riverwest on video.

OK, one last round of Mary Ann Is Insane:

Farewell Frank and Amber, and Godspeed.