"I thought I was the only one who wrote songs with Paul," mused Rob Waller of I See Hawks in L.A. toward the end, doing a fair job of seeming surprised at the panoply of collaborative talent that had preceded him on the stage. And it was indeed impressive that Paul Lacques had squeezed his talents as a composer and a multi-instrumentalist into such a breadth and depth of situations.
Dating back to 1989, Old Westernish Katie Thomas & Richie Lawrence revived a "Wonderful Waltz," plus "Corn," from the catalog of the children's group Earthworm (an improbable hit of the Lacques oeuvre).
Lawrence continued with sparky Stefanie Naifeh to reunite the Underthings and invite us to acquire a "Brand New Mind" and dance in French.
The intellectualized surf craze of Double Naught Spy Car sailed along smoothly as long as core members Marc Doten (bass), Joe Berardi (drums) and Marcus Watkins (guitar) balanced out their sound with keyboardist Dannny McGough. They had to hang back for a minute, though, when Watkins sat down with lap steel guitar and had to blink away tears -- that was Paul's instrument.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Lacques Brothers: four or five, and that's without Paul. Drums, guitars, singing -- can't keep track, too busy noticing the family resemblances and enjoying "California Country." (A couple of sisters came up at the end of the evening, too, and that McCabe's stage is SMALL.) The brothers were joined by Brave Combo bassist Bubba Hernandez, who bellowed out Paul's hearty "Teresa," the event's sole poke at Lacques' polka/two-beat fetish as represented in the band Rotondi.
Tony Gilkyson & Rick Shea put on a display of country-guitar communality, performing I See Hawks in L.A.'s "Grapevine" and soon augmenting that very outfit. More and more extended family kept managing to find space on the stage as bassist Paul Marshall sang the lonesome new "Salvation." Waller added the Hawks' signature anthem to the preordained four-song set, then another selection -- he just didn't want it to stop.
Victoria Jacobs, Paul's partner of many years, kept singing and thwacking the drums in perfect time. She didn't want it to stop, either, just as she'd sung in her own "Clever," the opener of this memorial: "There is no end to our love."
The one thing we missed was Paul's longtime alliance with Andy & the Rattlesnakes. Andy Krikun was back East, but there'll be another day soon for that remembrance.
After the two and a half hours had passed, one thing became clear: Paul Lacques was left-handed in more ways than one. Although his music was always accessible, he was no mainstreamer. He searched for collaborators who could find that twist, that certain something to make you think. And after the thought, the smile.
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Many couldn't attend this event because Lacques' friends sold it out in hours; see a 20-minute condensation here.
Donate to the Paul Lacques medical GoFundMe here.