Local comedian Brent Weinbach’s 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 there’s no shortage of Andy Kaufman–esque metahumor as well. There’s 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 Frank–style, late-night-radio confessional monologue permeates the CD. It’s a whimsical and oft-incongruous 64-minute journey, worthy of repeat listens and unlike anything you’ve 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 “Weinbach’s Second Movement.” Moshe Kasher, Alex Koll, and Laura Weinbach also appear.
Fri., Sept. 11, 8 p.m., 2009
