Fred Armisen has come a long way since his days drumming for Trenchmouth. He’s been the bandleader for Late Night with Seth Meyers. He’s drummed for Devo. He had a sketch comedy series with Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein where he took every opportunity he could to show off his musical chops. He’s had success in multiple fake bands on his other show, Documentary Now!. Despite acclaim as an actor and comic, he always seemed most at home as a musician. It came as no surprise when I learned he was doing a stand up special called Stand Up For Drummers, in which he exclusively told drum related jokes. When SF Sketchfest announced that he was branching out to guitarists this year, I decided that it was necessary for my own survival that I attend one of these.
The shows were billed as A Fred Armisen Residency: Comedy for Guitarists, but Everyone Is Welcome. Each show throughout the three night run featured a different guest guitarist; first up was country superstar Brad Paisley, while the second show gave us jazz experimentalist Bill Frisell. Night three was supposed to be Wendy Melvoin of Prince + The Revolution. That last show was the night that I jumped on… And then, a couple weeks out, she had to drop off due to “scheduling conflicts,” which I’m pretty sure meant she had to be here instead. With the assortment of guitar players involved already quite random, it could have been anyone taking her place. Obviously that meant we got Vicki Peterson of Paisley Underground powerhouse The Bangles.
The stage set included a drum kit, two basses, and so many guitars that I gave up counting them. Armisen casually walked on stage in white denim pants and a white denim jacket, picked up a guitar and started strumming and practically free associating. He played some chords and mocked jazz guitar covers. He went on about how folks cannot play a straight D chord without adding folky flourishes. For about the first 20 minutes, Armisen stuck to the premise of guitar based humor. And it was good. Punchlines hit in all the right ways, and you didn’t need to play guitar to get the jokes.
Then things started getting extra silly… Armisen produced a bunch of items he secured at NAMM, a conference for musicians. He showed us a guitar that was just one neck and two heads and no body that I swear is a joke because I can’t find any evidence of this on the internet. Then he pulled out a $200 digital maraca which nobody would ever need. Last, he put on a pair of gloves with drumsticks for fingers and actually played drums with it. It sounded like he was playing with brushes. Not long after this, he played a bunch of Aaron Copland compositions and called it the “worst kind of music on Earth.” (I agree with him.)
After his main set, Armisen grabbed a bass and made Peterson come out and they improvised a bass duet. Peterson claimed to not be a bass player, but it sounded pretty good for something entirely unexpected. After a few moments of jamming, Peterson put down the bass and immediately scolded Armisen for his mockery of the D chord and began to play a medley of songs that open with this chord, and EVERY SINGLE ONE HAD THE WEIRD FOLKY FLOURISH! She was frustrated, and Armisen was weirdly defensive of his own playing of this chord. The two of them continued to banter with their instruments for a bit, with Armisen moving between friend and fan boy getting to ask his hero about obscure album cuts. (Yes, he made her play the solo to “Hero Takes A Fall.”)
Most of the set was pretty much on the fly, but there were a few “programmed” bits that were really good… Peterson and Armisen brought someone to the stage from the crowd to perform a short play about getting breakfast while on tour, and it was funny for most people, but hit too close to home for anyone who has actually been on tour. Less exciting, but still good, was a bit where Peterson and Armisen pretended to be laptop musicians.
The show wound down with Peterson calling out for a kazoo player, and who ended up being an incredibly charismatic performer. This led to a surfed up medley of The Strangloves’ “I Want Candy” and The Bangles’ “Walk Like An Egyptian.” The audience took over the “way oh way oh wayohwayoh” part without any instruction. It was instinctual. Peterson was barely able to keep a straight face as Armisen serenaded her with a terrible jazz cover of The Beatles’ “Blackbird” to close the show.
It was a joyful night that left me kind of sad that I missed the first two of these. Armisen is an expert at the comedy of music, and I hope to see much more of this from him in the years to come.
