Local comedian Brent Weinbachs second full-length album, The Night Shift (on S.F. label Talent Moat), is a surrealist audio collage far removed from conventional comedy. Sure, there are some funny jokes albeit odd ones but theres no shortage of Andy Kaufmanesque metahumor as well. Theres also scads of scatology; unhinged personas with strangely affected accents; ridiculous riffs on foreign languages; bizarre sexual tangents; an obsession with the word penis; and loungey, heartfelt piano songs (Weinbach, a former East Oakland substitute teacher, is also a talented keyboardist). On the phone-prank front, we get incoherent answering-machine rants, staged conversations with San Francisco weirdos advertising rooms on Craigslist, and some disconcerting messages Weinbach and his sister left for a man who was tormenting her. An atmosphere of absurdist Joe Frankstyle, late-night-radio confessional monologue permeates the CD. Its a whimsical and oft-incongruous 64-minute journey, worthy of repeat listens and unlike anything youve heard before. Tonight, Weinbach performs The Night Shift in its entirety. Be sure to stick around for his obscenity-laden take on the Russian alphabet and some unusual audience participation when he conducts Weinbachs Second Movement. Moshe Kasher, Alex Koll, and Laura Weinbach also appear.
Fri., Sept. 11, 8 p.m., 2009