Dean and Britta’s Screen Test

The house band at Andy Warhol’s Factory happenings was not Courtney Taylor-Taylor’s outfit, you dodgy hipster. (It’s a common mistake, confusing the ’60s with the ’90s, especially at Café du Nord around closing time.) Back in the day, the Velvet Underground’s droning assault, graced by Nico’s atonal invocations, generously lent mysterious gravity to Andy’s shallow scene. A kind of baton pass has taken place, with the Warhol mantle of Lou Reed’s old band adopted by Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, the VU-loving couple who forged their musical and romantic bonds in the now-defunct Luna. Inspired by the four-minute silent studies Warhol shot of iconic muses like Edie Sedgwick and Dennis Hopper in the mid-’60s, the duo composed a delectably complementary pop score. What fresh melancholy — and long-hidden exuberance — will these intimate yet inscrutable portraits reveal, framed by ethereal melodies rather than heroin rock’s gray dissonance? Generations collide and collapse when Dean and Britta perform 13 Most Beautiful … Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests.
Tue., Feb. 3, 8 p.m., 2009