MUSIC: The Stan Ridgway Acoustic Trio at SXSW/Mother Egan's 3/15/06

The beer garden of an Irish pub at 4pm in the afternoon isn’t the kind of place one usually thinks of when it comes to seeing the Raymond Chandler influenced dark cinematic pop of the great Stan Ridgway performed live, but the backyard setting worked quite well and Stan's music turned out to be a perfect happy hour soundtrack—who knew? Backed by Pietra Wexstrun on keyboards, Rick King on acoustic guitar, and a sampler, Ridgway delivered his tunes with a deceptively full band sound that one certainly wouldn’t call "acoustic." Ridgway’s enjoyable acerbic wit was on display as well. Mostly a Wall Of Voodoo greatest hits set, the highlights for me were the cover of "Ring Of Fire," and of course, "Mexican Radio," done Tex-Mex style in honor of the occasion.
ray-dee-oh... ray-dee-oh...
ray-dee-oh... ray-dee-oh...

www.stanridgway.com/