On last week’s episode of the XL II 90 Live Music Radio Hour, NuFone Rick was joined by Dopapod keyboardist Eli Winderman and drummer Neal “Fro” Evans. They were on to talk about their live musical journey ahead of their headlining show on Saturday, December 4th at the High Noon Saloon.
We kicked off the interview with Eli and Neal talking about how their belief in their unique musical voice in combination with a desire to bring happiness and joy to their audiences as a driving factor for their touring life. Eli and Neal made clear Dopapod are a big supporter of the live music community, and traced how getting the music out there has expanded and deepened the community around the music.
One of the more interesting parts of the conversation was hearing Eli and Neal talk about their musical Halloween costume. At a three night run at the Woodlands in Columbus, OH, they covered a diverse set of musicians who played at the three different Woodstock festivals. “It’s a pretty small spot but we enjoy playing it because our friends run it. We had a three night-run booked. And then the pandemic happened and this got pushed to this tour. And Woodstock was on folks mind…Three night at the Woodlands, Woodstock, it worked.”
Speaking to the possibility of some of the covers making their way into future setlists, Eli continued “That version of Sweet Emotion. That song is so great. Just such a fun song to play. I am really happy we now have in our repertoire.”
Select Dopapod live performances from over the years was interwoven throughout the interview. Stand out selections included the “Donkey Kong Theme > Trickery > Dracula’s Monk > Trickery > Donkey Kong Theme > Trickery” from an April 9th, 2017 performance in Fairfield, CT, “Psycho Nature>Blast>Around the World” from their recent Halloween show in Grand Rapids and “Nerds” from their July 3rd, 2021 performance at the Peach Music Festival in Scranton, PA, a show Eli and Neal both agreed was a standout of the year
As always, this episode and all of WORTs diverse musical programming is available for two weeks on the archive at archive.wortfm.org. The Dopapod interview aired November 27, 2021. Additional excerpts from the interview are available on the XL II 90 Live Music Radio YouTube channel.
Dopapod will be at the High Noon Saloon on Saturday, December 4th.
Updated: Watch a video capturing the High Noon Saloon show!