According to Rolling Stone, Velvet Underground co-founder and surviving member John Cale has released the details surrounding his latest special Velvet Underground and Nico Concert. It follows in the wake of the recent The Velvet Underground And Nico 50th Anniversary Show in Liverpool with The Kills, Clinic and more.
The concert will be titled John Cale: The Velvet Underground & Nico (Program A) with the singer-songwriter performing each of the album’s tracks along with the Wordless Music Orchestra and other, yet-to-be-announced, special guests. The program will take place on November 16 and 17 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City. The third and final evening of the event will celebrate the full career of Cale, pulling selections from his diverse and wildly influential career as a performer. The performance will touch on everything from Velvet Underground to his forays into baroque pop and experimental drone minimalism.
This will be the only United States-based concert that remembers the landmark collaborative album the group released with model, artist and musician Nico. The banana-adorned album, released in the counter-culture peak of 1967, was produced by pop-art icon Andy Warhol, who insisted the band work with the German-born Nico – while some of the band members were skeptical, the results are impossible to argue with. From the blissful calm of “Sunday Morning” to the chugging drug pick-up anthem “I’m Waiting for the Man” to the ubiquitous “All Tomorrow’ Parties” and the lowest lows of “Heroin,” it’s arguably a perfect album. The spirit of a very-gritty New York City flows through the compositions and the late Lou Reed’s lyricism, which was indelibly effected by the pulse of the city.