Earlier this week, Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven were set to play in Texas when both bands’ frontman, David Lowery, came down with the flu. Instead of canceling the gig, they did mostly instrumental sets, reaching deep into their catalogs for songs that would fit. You’d need a long history and serious chops to pull something like that off.
“One thing we discovered from that show is that we’re actually musicians. We can do it,” said Jonathan Segel, who plays violin in Camper Van Beethoven and keyboards in Cracker. (Lowery was still recovering during our interview but will be back onstage at the Middle East tomorrow night.)
“I think that a lot of people who’ve been disenfranchised from popular music are finding bands like us who can actually play,” Segel said. “If people are still interested in bands who have a camaraderie and a chemistry, they will surely like us.”
Formed respectively in the ’80s and the ’90s, Camper and Cracker have been doing winter tours together for the last decade, hitting the Middle East at this time every year. In the process, both bands have gotten closer together, both in terms of spirit and personnel. The freewheeling Camper has taken on a rootsier sound, while the country/punk-based Cracker has become more eclectic. During 2013-14, both bands did double concept albums on roughly the same topic: Camper’s “La Costa Perdida”/“El Camino Real” and Cracker’s “Berkeley to Bakersfield” both explored the cultural divide between different parts of California.
“That came out of our previous album, ‘New Roman Times,’ which was more of a fictional version of the USA — and like the movie ‘Idiocracy,’ it’s moved a little closer to reality. And that led us to discussing the culture of northern and southern California, since it’s a microcosm of the whole country — extreme wealth and extreme poverty. So the Camper albums covered that and Cracker’s went from west to east, with a punkier disc and a country one.”
Both bands hope to make new albums this year, though Segel says, “The current state of the recording industry makes the whole idea of making records a tenuous proposition.”
One thing that hasn’t changed is Camper Van Beethoven’s surreal sense of humor. On this tour, they’re digging up some songs from their early albums (so the ’80s college-radio staple “Take the Skinheads Bowling” is a shoo-in). They’ve also been rejoined by original drummer Chris Pedersen, who’s been absent since the ’80s. And their show this weekend will feature one of two thematic sets they’ve lately devised.
“We did two shows in San Francisco over the holiday, first a psychedelic set on the 30th and then a set of love songs for New Year’s Eve. So we’re alternating those two sets on the tour, love songs and psychedelia. Not that love isn’t psychedelic in itself.”
Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven at the Middle East, 472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, tomorrow. Tickets: $22; ticket web.com.
