The Baseball Project, one of the best kept secrets in Indie music, came to Santa Barbara to play on a sleepy Sunday night at Velvet Jones nightclub. The band is the brainchild of former R.E.M. guitarist Scott McCaughey, and Steve Wynn, who is most well known as the leader of the 1980s “Paisley Underground” band, The Dream Syndicate. Their shared passion for American baseball led to the formation of the band and has produced three albums of baseball themed music, since 2007. The band also features the former bass player of R.E.M., Mike Mills, and Wynn’s longtime collaborator, drummer Linda Pitmon. R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck is also a part time member of the band, although he is not participating in the current leg of this tour.
The band played a near two hour set, including more than twenty songs for the lucky group of fans gathered in Velvet Jones Sunday night. Offering up their own distinctive sound, there are definitely recognizable elements of R.EM., The Dream Syndicate, American folk, and even post punk in their music. For music fans interested in baseball, the band writes clever lyrics that reflect classic American roots music. If Bob Dylan loved baseball his songwriting skills may have produced much the same results as the witty members of The Baseball Project. The veteran performers appeared relaxed and vociferous in front of the little club crowd and exhibited voluminous amounts of wit and humor, while constantly bantering with the audience and each other.
At one point a fan bought drinks for the band, and the performers paused to chat about their favorite restaurant in Santa Barbara, before getting back to baseball talk. Wynn asked the audience, if there are any ball players from Santa Barbara and someone yelled out “Eddie Mathews”, who played at Santa Barbara High School. Then, right on cue, they sang a song that talked about Eddie Mathews. The next song took a comic turn as it was about Larry Yount, who was the only pitcher in Major League Baseball, to never throw a single pitch during a game. Ironically, his younger brother, Robin Yount became a baseball Hall of Famer. Another song on the set list this night was “To the Veteran’s Committee”, a reference to the Veteran’s Committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame. The song was sung by Mike Mills, and made a plea to have Atlanta Braves star Dale Murphy inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. Every member of the band took the lead on at least a few songs, with Wynn and McCaughey holding down the lion’s share of the lead vocals. The band closed with a punky upbeat version of their song “Ted Fucking Williams”, about the last baseball player to bat over 400 average in a season, way back in 1941.
The last time McCaughey was in town, he played a solo set as the opener for a very sold out Jeff Tweedy concert at the grandiose Granada Theater. Velvet Jones nightclub has been offering up incredible performances for nearly two decades and is one of the last bastions for live music in downtown Santa Barbara. Sometimes those of us who live here forget how lucky we are to see a band like the Baseball Project in such an intimate setting.
