Tim Heidecker has too many talents to list from his storied career, so many that I'll only briefly touch upon a few of them. I'm sure many of my peers remember staying up for the late night block of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network, ready to take in all the strange hilarity that ensued from the likes of Heidecker's early work in Tim & Eric. Over the years he has remained as hilarious as ever. The absurdist nature of his work is still alive and well but he's added so much to his repertoire and this past weekend at Thalia Hall he shared his musical talents and knack for putting on a very good show.
Instantly the set felt as weird as you'd expect from an unhinged recording of "The Star-Spangled Banner” with all the digital fireworks you could want and a text intro that joked with the crowd and truly prepped them for what was about to go down. Heidecker and The Very Good Band emerged and got right to work with three tracks that immediately captured the audience's attention: “Well’s Running Dry”, "Buddy", and "Trippin' (Slippin')". While Heidecker's abilities were never in question, any doubt that an audience member may have had was immediate squashed with the tenacity of this opening set.
Speaking of opening sets, Heidecker made sure to break it down to the audience that he was revolutionizing the concert flow. "No up and comers moping around stage" he declared before urging crowd to get rowdy: "We're not the opening act!" But the Thalia Hall crowd didn't need anymore amping up. They were animated and eager for the set whether he was joking around with some Chicago Blues noodling on a totally real and not fake song "Titanium Jewellery" (coming soon to the next Rolling Stones record), serenading the crowd with their ode to the late Herman Cain, or getting a little more serious with songs like "Bows and Arrows". While any other show that jumps so wildly between vibes may seem dizzying, it all felt right at home in the hands of Heidecker and the Very Good Band.
As promised, toward the middle of the show Heidecker introduced the great Neil Hamburger to the stage to take over for a bit. Heidecker and crew backed Hamburger for a cover of Randy Van Warmer’s “Just When I Needed You Most” and some of the most thrilling, death defying fidget spinner tricks Thalia Hall has ever seen before letting him meander wild for a comedy set. No aging rocker went unscathed as Hamburger delivered one liners deriding the likes of the Eagles, Dave Grohl, Anthony Kiedis and more.
When Heidecker returned it wasn't straight back to music. He took the crowd on a small detour to a variety of internet comment sections, giving the spotlight to some of the silliest interactions you can find on Facebook, YouTube, and beyond. And after a little "Spaghetti Again", Heidecker and the Very Good Band ramped up the soundscapes. While he admitted to leaving the more serious songs like "Dark Days" and "Bells Are Ringing" to the end of the proper set, the more jovial tracks
And with that the band started making their way off stage. However unlike every other bands usual trip to the back for a few moments before returning to the stage for an encore, the band confusingly meandered around stage, trying to find the exit to no avail. After a few false exits Heidecker returned to the mic “They're not letting us off the stage. They're saying we have to do 2 more songs." After a quick little jaunt that they wrote earlier in the day ("It's Friday morning in Chicago") the Very Good Band went into a new song "What's Wrong With Me". He confidently declared the song is so catchy that the crowd would be singing the chorus like it was an old favorite. But it wasn't until the following song where the crowd seemed so connected with the onstage antics that it left me awestruck. As the opening chords rang, several audience members shouted "Hot Piss" and sure enough that very song followed with rapturous cheers. The song is as funny as it is great, letting Heidecker and the Very Good Band go wild. It was a little surreal and quite honestly I never thought I'd say this, but there's nothing better than a hot crowd screaming "hot piss" as loud as they can muster. Tim Heidecker truly knows his audience and we were all greatful for the great jams and laughs.
All photos by Julian Ramirez