Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders “Live At Tubby’s” cassette (Eiderdown)

It’s a goddamn shame that I have never been to Tubby’s and I have never feasted my ears in real-time on the sounds of Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders. Perhaps the Dog Star will align and this may come to pass.

For now, I can only thank the Taper Gods that this session was captured for posterity. Guitars helmed by Alexander and Gardner weave smoke-blown tendrils of electric ecstasy while Sheppard and Verrastro engage in what could best be described as a convo betwixt two friendly bombastic tectonic plates. There are moments where you are floating in the most graceful space-time you can imagine and then moments where you are being submerged in its joyful cacophony. This beautiful chaos is barely-restrained and delectable on its own but then add Wednesday Knudsen’s saxophone to the mix and take a deep breath..we are going OUT and ABOUT. The saxophone banters with the rhythm section and presents high-minded declarations over and under the 6-strings. Her playing IS the icing on the cake, that secret sauce for the evening.

And that’s just the A-Side! Flip that tape, and you’ve got a version of Crosby’s Almost Cut My Hair that ratchets up the originals’s resolute stubbornness and stoned paranoia til it makes even more perfect sense as a soundtrack for NOW times. It all starts so calmly that you barely notice that you’re actually moving, picking up steam and heading in an undetermined direction as everyone locks in. Things get so cloudy you’re not sure if you are still standing on the earth or if the earth is standing on you. And then…
The smoke clears…and the Lidders emerge victorious once again.

– M. Entree (Autumn 2025)