George Brainard/photo provided
Buckle your seatbelts folks. The Austin Lounge Lizards will be in the house, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 11 to kick off the Brewery Arts Center's summer line-up in the Outdoor Amphitheater.
A rollicking evening of intelligent, thinking-persons satirical folk, country and bluegrass awaits, addressing everything from politics and religion to love and culture.
"We're just going with our natural inclination; these are things we'd be thinking anyway," said Conrad Deisler, guitarist and one of the group's three founding members. "We just add music."
For 30 years, the Lizards have delighted audiences with their sharp, witty social commentary, honey-coated in great music. And it was all an accident.
The journey began in 1976, when Hank Card and Conrad Deisler, both history majors at Princeton University, started writing songs together. After graduating from Princeton both Hank, an Oklahoman, and Conrad, a Texan, ended up at the University of Texas in Austin, where in 1980 they met banjo and dobro player Tom Pittman.
They started playing clubs in Austin, never expecting fame would be a byproduct of their friendship.
"We finally decided when we were done getting paid in beer, our music started to greatly improve," Deisler said. "But we were just three friends playing together who never intended this to be a money making enterprise.
"We started as a drinking club with a music problem and are now a music club with a much smaller drinking problem."
With their decidedly liberal bent, the Lizards, Deisler said most often have to catch a plane out of Texas for shows.
"When we perform, it usually involves a flight out of Texas," he said. "We did have one Republican out of Roanoke (Va.) who hired us to play a party and then hired us a second time.
"When I asked him about it, he said it was because his guests drank so much they could stand (listening to us)."
Nonetheless, concert-goers of any political stripe are invited, he said, adding, "A good number of our songs are commentary about social issues; we probably write more songs about religion than anything else."
Humor is the cornerstone to everything the Lizards do and poking fun at themselves has become fine art or, at very least, art of a sort.
"We have become very good at making ourselves the object of ridicule," Deisler said.
Newest members to the Lizards' line-up include Darcie Deaville, on fiddle and mandolin, who came on board in 2008, and Bruce Jones, on electric bass and vocals, who joined in December 2009.
"They both bring incredible talent to the show," Deisler said. "Darcie has added a lot and we can now do duets plus she has wigs and things she changes in and out of during the show," a nod to her theater background.
And Jones, known for his 20 years as bass guitarist with Omar & The Howlers, and who has released several solo albums is now exploring his fullest musical potential.
"I love the blues, but I'd imagine from a bass player's perspective it's gonna be a boring job - two notes and all - after a while," Deisler said.
With new people, new creative energy and new songs in their repertoire, morale is high and the Austin Lounge Lizards are looking forward to a new chapter in their history, which extends farther than most marriages.
"You know, there are just a lot of great things going on - we never saw this for ourselves," Deisler said. "During our 30 years together, we've all had at least two marriages and the short answer to staying together is 'separate hotel rooms.'
"But really we have a strong friendship, we have our own lives when we're home ... it's been surprising how fast time flies."
Tickets for Austin Lounge Lizards cost $25 for reserved seating or $22 for students, seniors and BAC members, available online at breweryarts.org or by calling 775-883-1976. Online tickets will be sold until 2 hours prior to the show, with some tickets available at the door. Brewery Arts Center is located at 449 W. King St., Carson City.
Coming Up: Mark your calendars for the Sunday, June 27 performance of Carrie Rodriguez also at BAC's Outdoor Amphitheater. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $20 for reserved seating and $17 for students, seniors and BAC members. For more information and tickets visit breweryarts.org or call 775-883-1976.