Evan Dando & Juliana Hatfield

Sugar Club Dublin Tonight 8pm €25 01-6787188

The Lemonheads were the college band du jour back in the day. Their blend of surging power-pop guitars, punk rock and Americana-tinged music brought them out of the shadows and into the bright, bright lights. Come the early 1990s, though, with albums such as the scene-stealer It’s a Shame About Ray and their hit cover version of Simon & Garfunkel’s Mrs Robinson, frontman Evan Dando (once in at least one magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People List) not only embraced moderate-league success but also capitulated to its associated temptations.

Fast-forward some years, and while The Lemonheads as an entity no longer exist, we still have Dando around and about and match-fit. He’s currently touring the 20th anniversary birthday of It’s a Shame About Ray in the company of Juliana Hatfield (a one-time Lemonheads collaborator). For some people, this is a ducks-lined-up-in-a-row gig. To those same people, can we be the first to wish you – and, indeed, Dando and Hatfield – a Happy Christmas?

Can't see that? Catch this:Stars Tonight, Dublin

TONY CLAYTON-LEA