“Every event has its own kind of power,” says Vic Chesnutt of the ideas
pondered in “Gravity of the Situation,” the opening track on his newest LP,
Is the Actor Happy? Unfortunately, the gravitational pull of some of
Chesnutt’s past Austin performances has been less than auspicious in
power.
“Well, I was drunk and trying to hit people with bottles,” Chesnutt recalls
of his Waterloo Ice House show about two years ago. “I like to get drunk in
Austin.”
But what would one expect of a man touring in support of his LP
Drunk, a title which is also his nickname? One could say that theatrics
and reality blended a little too well to be distinguished from one another that
night.
Chesnutt has straightened out somewhat since that infamous performance. Not
long afterward, he married Tina, the bassist for his band, the Scared Skiffle
Group.
Chesnutt has also been too busy to live-up to the old diminutive. He has
just released Is the Actor Happy? on the California Indie, Texas Hotel,
and is preparing to do his next LP for Capitol where he will be “the poorest
artist on a major label.” He has also been hard at work on a Sweet Relief LP
which will feature the likes of Meat Puppets, REM, et al., doing his
songs.
Is the Actor Happy? is Chesnutt’s most appealing assemblage of his
self-described “pseudo-symbolist folk music” to date. It’s pop, but it’s still
true to Chesnutt’s strange vision. Dogs named Bubbles inspire choruses, history
dissipates into fractal lines, and phrases such as “and her freakish nipples
were akimbo” keep the LP from getting too far into the realm of MTV. Still, the
whole thing flows with a smooth Southern literary grace. Look out, Faulkner.
Chesnutt makes this pledge for his shows two Electric Lounge shows: “I will
be good. I will not be an ass. I will sing real purty.”
I think the actor is happy.
Friends of Dean Martinez, a band made up of former members of Tucson
supergroup Giant Sand, opens for Chesnutt. – Joe Mitchell
This article appears in September 29 • 1995 and September 29 • 1995 (Cover).