Dennis Brennan CD release bash, Lizard Lounge, May 19, 2007
By JON GARELICK | May 23, 2007
SHOW US YOUR D&Bs: Dennis Brennan and Babes in Boinkland. |
The second of Dennis Brennan’s two-night CD release bash (for the Hi-N-Dry disc Engagement) at the Lizard Lounge on Saturday was a full-on rock-and-soul revue, replete with female back-up singers (Laurie Sargent, Sarah Borges, and Gabrielle Agachiko), horn section (Russ Gershon and Dan Rosenthal from the Either/Orchestra), lady poet (Carla Schwartz), and strippers (Babes in Boinkland, with “D” and “B” pasties, no less). The repertoire was all over the place. There were Brennan’s own shoulda-been and new classics ( “Delmore Schwartz” and “After the Ball” from Engagement), Gil Scott-Heron’s “Lady Day and John Coltrane” and Morphine’s “Thursday.” And he conjured Mose Allison with “Fool’s Paradise” and Chet Baker with “That Old Feeling.” Brennan was wired all night. (“You look flustered,” said Borges from the sidelines after the Babes had just left the stage. “I am flustered,” Brennan said, “I think I have the vapors!”) And the band — guitarists Duke Levine and Kevin Barry, bassist Andrew Mazzone, drummer Billy Beard — killed: Nashville-studio chops delivered with bar-band bomp. Jake Brennan joined his dad for a hellacious rip through the ancient Don & Dewey rocker “Justine.” Brennan himself was like a mix of Dan Penn, Tom Waits, and Peter Wolf — the songwriting, the showmanship, the beat-rocker intensity. Listen and learn, people.
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