Velvet Underground LIVE from the NYPL, December 8, 2009. mp3.

Yes, the New York Public Library, flanked by lions named Patience and Fortitude.

This is a retrospective interview, not a concert.

The Rumpus: The Velvet Underground's Not-Quite-a-Reunion Reunion:

Soon the lights were dimmed and a hand reached from behind the stage to lift the record player needle. After a few bumbled attempts, "Heroin" was played in its seven-minute entirety. The assortment of bearded hipsters, aging rockers and eyeglass-wearing college girls nodded along in a sort of communal nostalgia for a time that nearly all of us had missed.

After a smattering of applause, the talk begins. Rolling Stone writer David Fricke interviews Lou Reed, Maureen "Moe" Tucker and Doug Yule.

The one fleeting bit of live music came when Reed and Tucker sang a few lines of The Primitives' "The Ostrich," a parody song written by Lou Reed before forming The Velvet Underground.

Caveat about this story: "(Side note: The Barbarians had a hit single titled "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl" about metrosexual 60s hipsters wearing too-tight jeans. Perhaps an appropriate reference given the audience at the NYPL that night.)"

This is simply not true. The song was about young men (high school kids!) growing their hair long in the crewcut '60s, and was used by overbearing uncles and macho construction workers to taunt young longhairs who rejected their values. "If you had long hair then, you were looking for a fight," says Lou Reed. There were no "metrosexuals" then, it wasn't merely a hairstyle. There were just freaks and straights clashing over values.

The interview is more interesting than you might think if you're disappointed that they don't play tunes for you. Warhol took them in, fed everybody, and they were invited to make a record because of him. He produced it: "Just don't change anything, leave it alone." Warhol said.

Later, the banana. The fun started for Andy when you peeled it and got a pink banana. Reed says he later did the same thing for the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers album cover with a zipper. Dismissive, he told him he'd already done that.

Good stories, worth a listen. Smart artists talking real.