Orchestral pop fans in the City of Angels are in for a real treat on Thursday. Velvet Underground co-founder, John Cale, will not only be performing his 1973 classic – Paris 1919 – at UCLA’s Royce Hall, but he’s also bringing some contemporary company to help him further flesh out the 35-minute concept album about the signing of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the first World War.
The Los Angeles Times’ music blog Pop & Hiss has revealed that Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and Queens of the Stone Age collaborator Mark Lanegan will join the 68-year-old Cale and UCLA’s philharmonic orchestra at the university’s Royce Hall for the first stateside performance of the album. UCLA’s orchestra is responsible for playing the lush arrangements on the original album, but it should be interesting to hear Gibbard and Lanegan harmonize with Cale on tracks like “Child’s Christmas in Wales” and “Paris 1919”.
If you’re a little put off by the idea of watching a performance based on something you learned in high school, don’t let that stop you from attending the show. Cale promised the LAist that after Paris 1919 is performed, the show’s “second half is really gonna be about three rock and roll songs with the band, a few, maybe new ones [before] the orchestra comes back on and we finish the night off.”
Tickets for the show are still available at Ticketmaster.com and passes for a ticketholders only after party with “complimentary wine, desserts, and a chance to mix and mingle with the artists” are available if you RSVP by September 286h. Here’s a video of Cale performing “Paris 1919” with a full orchestra in Holland to get you excited.