Oddball jokester and surrealist comedian Tim Heidecker brought his latest album tour to The Sinclair for a cozy night of folksy rock and weird humor. Accompanied by his touring band (The Very Good Band) and comedian DJ Douggpound, the show proved to be all killer and no filler.
Heidecker is known by most as a comedian and host of several talk show/podcasts, including Office Hours, On the Cinema at the Cinema and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! That said, not many people know he is also an avid songwriter, releasing Slipping Away, his eighth studio album as a solo artist last year. Heidecker, known more for his eccentricities and special brand of anti-humor, has taken a much more subtle and genuine approach to his solo music.
Heidecker opted not to tour with an opener, but rather an intermissionary act – DJ Douggpound. “Usually, this is why you have an opening act,” said Heidecker in between songs, joking about how the crowd took about three or four songs to relax and settle into the groove. Longtime fans would probably expect some surrealist aspects of Heidecker’s humor to leak through into his solo work…and they would be correct. Following the band’s performance of “Cleaning Up the Dog Shit,” Heidecker asked the crowd what they thought of the Grateful Dead, welcoming a chorus of cheers and applause before he gave a joking thumbs down and went into a rendition of what he thought the song would sound like if the Dead performed it: slow, cacophonous and lazy.
The jokes kept coming, sandwiched between earnest songs about growing up and fatherhood, including one where Heidecker claimed that the ghost of the late Herman Cain haunted the venue and audience. “Lord Cain” was Heidecker’s attempt to rid the crowd of the “evil spirit” before he and his band took a brief intermission to open the stage to the even more unhinged performance of DJ Douggpound.
Tim Heidecker and the Very Good Band continue their tour in celebration of Slipping Away through February, wrapping up in Phoenix, AZ. Check out the rest of Cam’s photos below.
