[Jandek] Jandek In Ann Arbor

[Sharif Mansour]

This was my first Jandek show, and it was emotional. The first song
could be called "Just a Piece of Trash" or something like that. The
dancer did some sort of uncomfortable-looking dance interpretation
with the band. Personally, I thought it worked really well, but I
heard a few chuckles. About 30 people DID leave after the first song.
And about 20 after the second. 15 after the third and so on for at
least the first hour. This was a free show at a University, so I guess
that's what you get.
I sat a few rows back (and am in need of glasses) so I couldn't even
see the "representative" as he was standing in the far right. I saw
the light reflecting off a black bass guitar, a pair of white hands
suspended in air, and the a head of a man wearing all black, hiding
his face in the shadow of a big black hat. It was Jandek. There he
was. Mr. Six and Six is a three-dimensional human being. If you ever
listened to Jandek's albums and KNEW Jandek was always going to hide
from you, seeing him play and sing directly TO an audience that YOU're
in, it blows the mind. I was surprised how easily I could follow the
words, and it was all really sad stuff. I could recount a few, but I
would probably mess them up. By the second half of the show, I
couldn't understand him as much. My friend later pointed out that he
hadn't taken a drink of water for the whole show, so maybe thats why.
Well, thats it for now. SEE JANDEK, PERIOD.