Free The Lizard People!

First off, if you have not heard Jonathan Coulton or Paul & Storm, I suggest you visit their respective websites immediately.



Seriously, what are you still doing here?




Ok, now that you are back and you are totally sold on both acts, if you ever get the opportunity to see them live, GO! Do not hesitate. Do not go to your cousin's birthday party instead. Shell out your $20, line up with all the other geeks and prepare to have a marvelous time (and laugh yourself silly). I may even see you there.

Seriously though, they were fantastic. Paul & Storm opened and did several very silly, geeky songs including their TMBG parody If They Might Be Giants Were the Ice Cream Man. Then Jonathan Coulton came on and was awesome. He sang some stuff on his own and he sang some stuff with Paul & Storm including a cover of a little song you may have heard of called Birdhouse in Your Soul. There were pirates and zombies and everything was wonderful and it ended too soon. Sigh.

We will now rejoin our program, already in progress.

...show was of special significance to my boyfriend since it was at his old stomping ground, Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, RI where he had seen TMBG numerous times in his teen years. We had a bit of trouble parking and were quite early, having intended to find food before the show. Unfortunately, the only thing in the area that was open was a Dunkin Donuts. By the time we got in line, it was quite long (partially because I misinterpreted where the line was and stood in the wrong place for a while). It being January 30th, it was also bitterly cold but we didn't have to wait too long before doors.

I have to admit, I lied slightly. I forgot that I don't actually have pictures from this show as cameras were not allowed. But there are pictures for everything after this.

We ended up roughly in the middle of the room, several rows of people back from the stage. The inside of Lupo's had apparently been completely re-done since the last time my boyfriend had been there, to the point of being almost unrecognizable (the band actually commented on this as well).

Our vantage point included a view of the stages and balconies backstage so I got to watch the comings and goings of the opening act before the show. I also ran into several of the ladies from the group in the bathroom applying make-up. This was by far the STRANGEST band I have ever seen. It was called Spray Paint Star and was primarily made up of people who had played in Hedwig and the Angry Inch with guest appearances from several members of the Loser's Lounge. It was really much more like watching a bizarre musical than a rock show. And yes, almost every song they sang was about spray paint. They started with a number about the New York subway system which sounded promising and was actually decent. The lead singer was even dressed as a conductor. But from that point on it got weird. During the next number there was a guy who kept wandering onto the stage from the wings, pretending to be drunk. He eventually joined the band and sang a song with them (the idea was, you were supposed to think he was just a drunk audience member who ended up on stage and I'll admit they briefly fooled me). They were eventually also joined by a woman dressed in a sort of medieval style dress who was supposed to be some kind of messenger from above. There was a song about King Tut that they put on Egyptian Headdresses for and several others that I have blocked. At the end of their set, the lead singer fell down dead on the stage and it took the audience a while to figure out that they were done playing.

This was a really fantastic TMBG show despite the weirdo opener. The only down side was the incredibly drunk girls who forced their way in front of us before the beginning of the show. Two of them were not too bad but they weren't doing a very good job keeping tabs on the third girl who was GONE. She was falling over onto people (a tiny Japanese girl almost got crushed but was saved at the last minute by her friend) and waving her arms about and just being a obnoxious. I felt very bad for the couple who had been first in line to get in and were right up front. They got stuck talking to the girl and once the show started they were so bothered by her they ended up leaving (or at least moving to the back). The girls finally did end up leaving, or at least moving before the end of the show and I think everyone around us let out a silent cheer.

The TMBG set was as follows: Sleepwalkers - Ana Ng - Damn Good Times - WDTSS? and WDTSRS? - Withered Hope - Drink! - Wicked Little Critta - Take Out the Trash - Istanbul - Dead - Alphabet of Nations - Seven - Doctor Worm - Meet James Ensor - Famous Polka - Older - See the Constellation - Birdhouse - The Guitar - Clap Your Hands - Don't Let's Start - Spider - New York City - Mesopotamians - Fingertips - Particle Man - Maybe I Know - James K. Polk

The set really played like a greatest hits list. I don't think I have been to any other show where they played that many of their most popular songs all together. And they were in such a good mood and just being silly :-)

The venue was REALLY cold and the band commented about it several times. They eventually turned off their giant fans and Flans said that was the first time they had ever had to turn them off because it was too cold. At one point he asked Iggy to turn on the "KFC warming lights," the big orange ones across the top of the stage, so that we could all warm up. We had a few blissful seconds of warmth and Flans offered us free tanning.

There was an area to stage left on the second floor that had floor to ceiling bars and Flans kept referring to the people watching the show through them as the "Lizard People" and calling for their release. He even dedicated a song to their release and they came up repeatedly throughout the show.

This was my first time hearing Sleepwalkers live. Little bit of an odd song to start with but I really like it. It was kind of like the calm before the storm of awesome that was to follow.

Flans seemed to be preparing for the family show the next day by getting all his swearing done tonight, particularly while introducing WDTSRS?

Really good rendition of Alphabet of Nations. Linnell did an excellent Guatemala which is always my favorite part of the song.

Best performance of Older/Confetti EVER! They shot off the canons between two of the lines near the end and then froze to watch as the confetti arced high into the air before falling...and falling...and falling...and falling. This was not normal confetti. This was EPIC confetti! And the whole time the band was frozen on stage just watching it. Marty was poised over the drum with his big mallet raised over his head like he had been caught in a game of freeze tag and he just stood like that for over a minute. I don't think he even blinked (and he had a great expression on his face). The confetti never really did stop falling. They did eventually finish the song but throughout the rest of the show pieces of confetti would just fall randomly from the air and even the guys said it was the best confetti they had ever seen. Apparently it was not their regular confetti, it was some provided by the venue. Their's had gotten wet (Flans made a joke about it not occurring to them that the confetti that had been sitting in their warehouse for 10 years might not still be good) and was just a big wad when they went to load the cannons. So there was a mix of their multi-colored confetti and Lupo's two-tone SUPER confetti. I REALLY wish I had pictures of this, or better yet video.

I was psyched the Constellation stayed in the rotation after the Apollo 18 show!

Fingertips had a slight lighting snafu (complete lack there off) during a portion that prompted Linnell to sing "I found a new friend, under total darkness."(Thanks to the person on TMBW whose write-up reminded me of that, I had forgotten and it was one of my favorite silly moments of the show). After a few shows without it, Dan revived the Where's Dan? segment at the end of the song by climbing on top of a set of very high speakers to play his solo. He seemed to make the security and tech guys pretty nervous but I'm sure they would have caught him. He did have a sort of funny "how do I get down?" look on his face when he was done.

Particle Man had Elusive Butterfly of Love as it's insert, another new one for me.

Really, really good show. Actually, this was a whole weekend of really good shows (and some ridiculous travel problems on Saturday that all turned out fine but were very frustrating). Double feature LPR show tomorrow. Five days until Ithaca!

Post Write-up Edit: I remembered after I wrote this that this was the show that featured the bizarre on stage conversation about Tom Poston and Suzanne Pleshette from The Bob Newhart show. They were talking about how they didn't like each other when they were doing the show but then had gotten married years later. Then I believe they was discussing them being buried next to each other or something to that effect. It seemed to be something they had read recently but then I think Linnell started making parts of it up. It was truly strange and I had to go back and mention it because it came up again at the February LPR show.