Few entertainers can use instruments to fascinating and hilarious effect, but Fred Armisen has an acute and relatable sense of humor that makes him one of the most beloved comedians in all the land.

But he’s also a longtime musician and an educated, discerning listener. Both his knowledge of bands and his connections in the industry can be described as far-reaching.

As he’s shown in various roles throughout his wildly successful career — including 11 memorable years as a cast member on Saturday Night Live — Armisen has a knack for creating musical characters or concepts, and his blend of talents makes him a standalone figure in Hollywood.

The 57-year-old Mississippi native visited Capital Turnaround in Washington DC the night of August 9, and by both cracking up and charming the packed house, he proved his to be one of the most unique and sonically curious of any act out on the road today.

After a brief video intro on the projection screen — a roll of his famous clips, slightly addled by an audio malfunction that both the audience and Armisen himself found amusing — he emerged to a standing ovation.

Revisit the The Blue Jean Committee, one of Fred Armisen’s “fake bands” from his SNL days, via the 2015 studio album, Catalina Breeze:

Poking fun at musicians in general right from the start, Fred shared his deep appreciation for music along with his choosy tastes, and he revealed how his own aspirations to become a professional rocker would influence so much of his career as an actor, writer, and producer.

A drummer in a punk band back in the ‘80s, he’s never stopped playing and rather went on to fuse music into so many of the characters or roles he filled on TV or the big screen. Just a few years ago, he earned a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album, a nod to his 2019 release, Standup for Drummers.

“I have a long history with DC,” Fred told the crowd. “I should have been in a band here.”

He seemed to speak from the cuff on what was the first night of his tour, a swing called Comedy for Musicians But Everyone is Welcome.

“Are there any musicians here tonight?” Armisen inquired likely knowing there were indeed a few on hand — and not just anyone, but members of nationally known bands who quietly sat in the crowd and enjoyed the presentation along with everyone else.

But Armisen dug in on artists in general, mocking how a random band member sulks around a department store or struggles with any other activity that seems normal to the average person.

And he picked on specific chords, too, including the often-overdone D and the ominous E minor.

“When you hear an E minor, you know it’s gonna be a long night,” he said, and like most of his words, these were met with big laughs throughout the Navy Yard venue.

This naturally led him to his incredibly accurate country-by-country examination of guitar stereotypes, rewarding the room by impersonating players from various nations.

And, as many hoped, he performed tunes from some of the “fake bands” he’d portrayed over the years, including “Catalina Breeze” from The Blue Jean Committee, born out of a live SNL sketch in the early 2010s.

An instrument and gear nerd, Armisen showed off some of his latest acquisitions, including a mysterious neck-to-neck stringed contraption with “no inputs,” a marvelous and mysterious creation by the cymbal giant Zildjian and an invention of his own: a pair of gloves with drumsticks as fingers.

Fred Armisen shows off his “drumstick gloves” at a show in the Winter of 2023:

A wild night to remember, Armisen took those in the room on a voyage through punk rock drumming history, impressing with his knowledge of specific drumming styles and various regions and times of origin.

He showed himself to be an expert of punk music in general, and he eventually let on to his close relationship with the late musician and audio engineer Steve Albini, considered one of the most important minds in modern music and a prolific studio guru who recorded a long list of albums considered vital to their respective genres.

The two men shared in their music interests, but also connected by way of a similarly dry and cynical brand of humor. Armisen illustrated their relationship to knee-slapping effect with another around-the-globe feature, this time a critique of the flags of the world.

It turned out to be a highlight of the evening as he read Steve’s marvelous takes on individual flags or those they’d lumped into groups.

“Kind of rooting for the three-stripers,” Armisen read a text below a batch that included the familiar likes of France, Ireland, Italy, and several others.

The crowd was in stitches, and it made the lengthy set flow along. Before it wrapped up, Armisen had ticketholders up on stage with him, including one brave lad who’d asked to join him on drums toward the end of the set.

“Thank you all for being here and for sort of letting me bounce these ideas off you,” he expressed his gratitude for what felt like a splendid kickoff to his tour.

In closing, Armisen dedicated one last ditty to his late father, his own take on “Blackbird” by The Beatles.

“Sorry if this gets a little serious, but … ” he tilted his head upward. “Dad, … I’m in Washington DC.”

Below are images of Fred Armisen live at Capital Turnaround the night of August 9, 2024. All photos copyright and courtesy of Casey Ryan Vock.