Review: Evelyn Evelyn (Mostly) at The Academy

Whether you’re a glass-half-full, glass-half-empty, or who-the-Jaysus-fecked-me-glass kind of person, you’ve got to admit that there’s no better excuse for cancelling a gig than “A volcano erupted and banjaxed air travel as we know it”. No one is going to blame you for not crooning for the agreed two hours because of an Act of Gawd, especially if, like 50%-of-Evelyn-Evelyn Amanda Palmer, you were in Reykjavik at the time that volcano became the world’s least convenient wonder. But then again, Amanda Palmer is not just Amanda Palmer. She’s Amanda Fucking Palmer. And in The Academy, Dublin, on the 19th of April, Amanda Fucking Palmer and the giant head of Jason Webley, beamed in especially through the magic of Teh Internetz, proved to all present and entranced what’s really meant by that old chestnut “The Show Must Go On”.

Evelyn Evelyn / Brogen Darren

Please say hi to Brogen Hayes. She dragged me along to see Amanda Palmer’s gig in the Academy on Monday evening. Here’s her thoughts (and some interjections from me too). - Darren Evelyn Evelyn are a fictional musical duo, made up of Evelyn Neville and her conjoined twin sister, Evelyn. The sisters have lived a harsh, cruel life that would not be out of place in a Victorian melodrama. Of course, Evelyn and Evelyn are Amanda Palmer, who is probably best known as one half of the Dresden Dolls, and her comrade and fellow musician, Jason Webley. Fictional, remember! Palmer and Webley had a whole stage show worked out. They had costumes made. They had wigs. They had worked out how to play guitar with one hand each. They had created a whole back-story for the Evelyn sisters and the tragic events of their lives. Sadly, the conjoined twins of … There’s more

Amanda Palmer brings Evelyn Evelyn to Dublin

How excited am I that clever duo Jason Webley (whose superpower is making the accordion cool) and Amanda Palmer (her of Dresden Dolls and, er, Amanda Palmer fame) are bringing those Evelyn Evelyn girls to The Academy, Dublin this April 19th? Well, guess: Evelyn and Evelyn Neville are conjoined twins who perform their darkly bouncy songs on piano, guitar, ukulele and accordion. Also, they were once the star attraction at Dillard & Fullerton’s Illusive Travelling Show. Also, they site their influences as 80′s music and showtunes and Joy Division and the Andrews Sisters. Also, they may not be entirely real. So yup, I’m pretty excited. Why not be a little excited alongside me? Amanda and Jason are, of course, the creators of Evelyn Evelyn, a concept born when Amanda told Jason that The Dresden Dolls were nearly called Eleven Eleven. The first song they wrote for the twins was Elephant … There’s more