I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 6, 2019] Dean Friedman

I was really excited to see that Steven Page was going to play in Bethlehem.  I grabbed seats immediately.  And when I saw the set up of the room, I grabbed seats right in the front.

In my head, this room was going to be set up with a short stage (maybe a foot high) and a series of tables around it.  Instead, what we had was a full-sized stage (four feet tall) and a series of tables that went right up to the stage.  So, in fact, I could rest my arm on the stage if I wanted to.

It was also unexpected that you could order food at these tables–with waitstaff service!  Evidently you could have arrived at 6 and ordered a proper dinner.  We arrived at 7:15 and had (rather yummy) Parmesan fries.  It was also awkward having strangers sitting across from us.  They really didn’t seem like people we wanted to talk to either.

When the usher seated us he told me I did a great job getting seats.  But he was wrong.  We were actually too close!  And the way that Friedman had his gear setup, his monitor was literally blocking my view .  I couldn’t see him at all when he played the piano and I could really only see his face and guitar when he played guitar.

I also had no idea who Dean Friedman was when he was announced as the opening act.

So when Friedman came out, he was not what I was expecting.  He was much older than I imagined (he’s 64) because typically opening acts are younger than the main act.

But he was amusing and had a good voice and he told funny anecdotes to go with his songs.  He set up the first song with an amusing bit about people wondering what he does for a living.  It’s most awkward when he wife asks what he does for a living. So he tells her this song, “It’s My Job” (to love you).  Sweet

Up next was a funny song that he set up as being NOT a sweet tender loving song.  “I Never Really Liked You All That Much” does not really fly after #metoo although there was a lot of funny in it.  In fact his lyrics and delivery reminded me a lot of Loudon Wainwright III (who I like quite a bit).  The first questionable line came when he rhymed glitch with bitch.  But that may have just been a set to not sing the word that rhymes with “being blunt.”

Then he sat at the piano and told us that Barenaked Ladies once covered one of his songs and it was their first hit.  I thought I knew all about BNL’s early days, but I had never heard of them covering this song and consequently had never heard the song.  He also told us it was banned by the BBC for mentioning a company in the chorus.  I didn’t think any of this was true, but it all is.  The song is “McDonald’s Girl” and it came out n 1981.  When he looked like this <–

This song was kind of fun for me because he did audience banter and he asked me where my first job was.  I am only bummed because he told us that he was from Paramus and I could have said that I worked at the Tower Records in Paramus, but it wasn’t my first job so I told him my first job (cashier at Foodtown).  That was all a lead up to the song and my story was quickly forgotten.

Turns out he has been making music for decades.  His first record came out in 1976!

I don’t really know what else he sang in the middle because it’s not the same as the previous show.  I know he sang at least one song that wasn’t “funny,” and I didn’t enjoy it as much.

However, I do know he sang “George Washington Slept Here” which I really liked.  New Jersey natives see that George Washington was all over the place.  This is an amusing but reverential song about Washington and his work during the war.  The recorded version contains a lot of over the top patriotic music with it, which I did not care for.

He sat at the piano to play his final song and as soon as he started people began cheering.  Evidently “Ariel” was quite a hit in 1977 when he looked like this –>

According to lore, this is the only hit single to contain the word Paramus.   It was cute and kind of funny although, again when I listened to it on the record it was pretty awful (70s engineering choices).

Overall, his set was enjoyable.  However, I was mostly annoyed at the huge monitor in my face so I didn’t fully enjoy his set.

But it was cool to be in the presence of a folksinger from the 1970s who wasn’t Loudon Wainwright III (who I would like to see someday, although now I imagine it would be not unlike this.)