Photo By Jakub Mosur
Fred Armisen knows music really well. His knowledge is vast and deep. He understands music theory, understands music’s relationship to pop culture, and knows how people “listen” to music. I can think of few other people outside of Tom Lehrer that could pull off shows such as “Stand Up for Drummers,” “Comedy for Musicians,” “Comedy for Guitarists,” and now, “Comedy for Bass Players,” which he brought to the Great American Music Hall for three packed nights.
Similar to 2020’s “Comedy for Guitarists,” he brought out a different guest each night. Night 1 was Les Claypool of Primus fame. Night 2 was Kathy Valentine from The Go-Gos. I’m sure those shows were great, as I learned to play bass by emulating both of those folks. Well, I *tried* to emulate. Those two are monsters on the 4-string boomstick. (Why wasn’t Mike Watt invited to this?) But on the third night, we were graced by Bay Area rock royalty: Green Day’s Mike Dirnt.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The show opened with Armisen playing the upright bass, backed by a drummer, pianist, and sax player. He introduced the piece they were playing as a piece by “famed Swedish composer Alex Ollofsen.” They played a simple, light jazz number. I’m not 100% sure the sax player played a single note. After maybe about 90 seconds, the band was off stage, and Armisen started telling jokes. It was a pleasant opener but it seemed like a lot of effort to bring a full ensemble for just a few moments. At no point in the set did this band return to the stage. It wasn’t until near the end of the set that Armisen confessed that “Alex Ollofsen isn’t real” and that they simply improvised the song on the spot, and he “hates” playing upright bass. Not entirely sure what he was getting at there…
Anyways, the stand-up! Armisen was his usual droll self, telling all kinds of music-related jokes and accompanying himself on guitar and drums. There was very little actual bass humor for the first 45 minutes or so for a show about bass humor. Then he pulled out a beauty of an Ibanez bass and really leaned into his love of the instrument. The first really amazing gag was when he pulled out a “headless” bass that you can “eat the head on.” And on the end of the bass was a brownie that he ate while playing.
Mike Dirnt was brought out shortly after to ecstatic applause. As much as Armisen is adored, there were plenty of Green Day fans in the house. And the show started out exactly as you would expect- with Dirnt doing stand-up comedy for the first time in front of an audience. Is he a natural? Well, no. He definitely did a lot of the Fozzie Bear meets Norm MacDonald exaggeration of the punchline. But he really did give it his all, and I think with a few open mics under his belt, he’s going to develop into his own, create his own comedy voice, and could actually make a go of this if his day job ever were to hit the skids.
Following the jokes, Dirnt strapped on the bass, and we got to see two old friends that were doing no-budget national tours in barely functional vans in the early 90’s reminisce about their time together, jam a bit, and mostly have fun. It all seemed very loose and unrehearsed. But they locked into each other well. They played snippets of all sorts of classic rock songs, including a bit of “Longview.” They managed to do about half of The Who’s “A Quick One,” complete with Dirnt doing both Roger Daltrey & John Entwistle’s parts on one of The Who’s harder songs to master. I’m not sure I learned much about Dirnt’s relationship with the bass or got that many laughs, but it was fun to feel like we were crashing a jam with one of rock’s biggest, most enduring stars. The two brought two fans on stage to do a short sketch about touring bands, finding breakfast, and then Dirnt road off to “Christie Road” or something like that.
The post-Dirnt portion of the set was when Armisen started having fun. He did a LOT of drum jokes, which is great because he seems most comfortable as a drummer. He ended the set with the very risky move of “asking for requests.” The first one was for “Fistight In The Parking Lot,” and a random man from the audience screamed out, “I CAN PLAY IT!” Fred then pulled an older gentleman out of the audience that ended up being former DRI bassist Harald Oimoen. And, yes, he did know the song. He actually showed Armisen a few of the chord changes. The next request was for “Raheem from 30 Rock playing guitar.” Surprisingly, Armisen went for it. He quickly found Raheem’s deep stare, gently picked up the guitar, and said, “This is drum.” We also got his hits “Catalina Breeze” (from Documentary Now!) and “Maggie Thatcher,” originally performed as Ian Rubbish. He denied us “The Dream Of The 90s,” however because it needs Carrie. He closed up with a mildly off-key and silly take on “Blackbird” by The Beatles.
It was, as usual, a GREAT set from Fred Armisen. I’m excited to see what he comes up with next year- “Comedy for Vocalists”? “Comedy for Monitor Guys”? “Comedy for Buskers Getting Chased Out”? He’s allowed to take ANY of these ideas, of course.
