Welcome to Amish Country

OK, I know I didn't get this up yesterday. I was distracted by International Talk Like A Pirate Day. I apologize.

On September 26th, 2008, I attended my favorite show thus far, at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster, PA. To date this is the farthest I have traveled for a TMBG show, though that will be changing very soon (10 days and counting though it will be a few days in before I get out of familiar territory).

We wanted to attend the first of the series of shows the band did at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC on the 27th but we traditionally go to the National Book Festival in Washington DC every year and it was on the same day. There was no way we could get from DC to NYC in time. So we did the next best thing and swung out through Lancaster, PA on the way to DC to catch this show the night before. On a side note, this year we gave up the Book Festival to go on our road trip which is an indicator of how much TMBG has moved up in my priority list just in the last year.

I actually worked for a few hours on the morning of the 26th and we left straight from work to drive to PA. My roommate was with us for the Book Festival, though she didn't attend the show despite my encouragement. I was really nervous about making it in time since we needed to time the almost eight hour drive pretty precisely or risk missing the beginning of the show. I also had a miserable cold so was not feeling my best at any point during the trip.

We were doing great until we hit Amish Country and the highway became a much smaller road with stop lights, traffic and low speed limits. We had originally planned to walk to the theater from our hotel but by the time we got there it was only about 10 minutes before doors so we dropped off my roommate and decided to drive. Fortunately, there was a garage across from the theater. The line was already around the block when we got in it but it started to move shortly afterwards. It took forever to get in as they were checking tickets and IDs and separating people out for will call and generally being slow.

The club is very industrial with lots of sheet metal and exposed beams. I believe someone said it used to be a fire house or police station or something like that. The stage was on the second level and you could choose to stand on that level or on the third level where there was a balcony overlooking the stage. We picked stage level and found a decent spot in the middle of the room. I had expected the opening act to start around 7:30 and TMBG to go on around 8:00 since the doors were at 7:00. I was wrong and needn't have worried so much about getting there on time. The opening act didn't start until 8:00 and TMBG didn't go on until 9:00. Lots of waiting, not fun for crappy-feeling me. I had not anticipated the smoke filled club, being used to Massachusetts where smoking is not legal in public buildings, and a was having so much trouble with coughing I had to buy a ridiculously over-priced bottle of water.

The opening act was a group called Les Chauds Lapins (The Hot Rabbits) and was one of the more entertaining opening acts I have seen. They sang French folk songs from the 20s and 30s, which I would have expected to be boring since I don't speak French. However, they translated what each song was about before they sang it and several of them were quite racy and funny. They also performed them with such enthusiasm and lovely instrumentation that they were very enjoyable at least for the short set they did. Might have gotten old after a while. The groups was a male/female duo and my boyfriend pointed out to me that the man was Kurt Hoffman whom he had seen play sax with TMBG back in the early 90s.

They did one song about a woman who was skinny dipping and was seen by a man so they had to get married. There was another that involved something erotic with a strawberry patch, I think. I wish I remembered better. The audience seemed mostly confused though there were a few people who obviously enjoyed it. The girl in front of us, who was laughing and smiling all through their set, turned around at one point and said "I speak French, trust me, it's really funny." Kurt was playing an absurdly small banjo through most of the set, and the woman, Meg, switched between several instruments depending on the song. They were a fun little act.

There was more waiting before TMBG went on and I was beginning to feel really miserable when I heard those familiar crickets and forgot about everything else. Right from the get go, this show had so much energy. The audience was totally into the band, singing along with every song and dancing around. The band was on fire and looked like they were having a great time despite some technical problems. I was ecstatic when Flans announced that this was to be an Every Album show, where they would play one song off of each of their albums, because that was also the theme for the LPR show the next day which I was going to miss and meant this was probably going to be a similar set.

If you read any other recaps of this show on TMBW or anywhere else they are almost sure to mention the obnoxious fan in the front row who really ruined the show for a lot of people there. Apparently, he smelled very badly and he kept shouting at the band and generally making a nuisance of himself. I didn't see it, but apparently he also tried to grab Flans's guitar when he was holding it out for the audience to play. He even seems to have gotten in some disputes with other fans online after the show. Fortunately, he had no major impact on my show experience because I was quite a ways back from where he was standing. I can't say I didn't notice him because it was hard not to with the way he was yelling and he was definitely annoying and out of line (and he did smell, because I passed him on the way out) but I've had much worse experiences with obnoxious fans at other shows. This may be the only time I am glad I wasn't in the front. I feel bad for those who were because their memories of this fantastic show are probably all of a rude fan.

They opened with Hey, Mr. DJ, followed by Mesopotamians and WDTSS? Flasnsburgh's declaration that the "heat and light from the sun are caused by nuclear reactions between a failed domestic policy, a failed foreign policy and a failed presidency" got huge cheers. Flans then explained that they had recently learned that WDTSS? was not correct and the the sun is in fact made of plasma. They had responded to this by writing an answer song to themselves, Why Does the Sun Really Shine? which they premiered at this show. I heard this song numerous times between it's premiere and it's release on Here Comes Science and got more explanation about it's creation over time but this first performance was the best, partially because of the newness and partially because it was just so darn funny the way Flans introduced it.

They did Don't Let's Start next, then Seven (we want cake!) then blew everyone away by launching into Mono Puff's Unsupervised, I Hit My Head. I don't think anyone was anticipating the Every Album concept also including solo projects. To be perfectly honest, I have never found a huge difference between the majority of Mono Puff's songs and TMBG but this one in particular works well as a TMBG song.

They followed with Spider, which I was pleased to see stayed in the rotation after the Apollo 18 show at Mohegan Sun because it's just fun to watch. They rocked Cyclops Rock, then did West Virginia from Linnell's State Songs album. If people were surprised by the Mono Puff tune they were floored by this one. I think several women may have swooned. It was a fantastic performance. Linnell was really putting his heart into it and had the whole audience mesmerized. Don't believe believe me? Go find a YouTube video and see for yourself. There are several out there.

Dan once again did his killer intro to Istanbul, one of his best I think. They did Dead, Damn Good Times, Alphabet of Nations, then Snail Shell which is only one of two times I have seen it. They pulled out Dinner Bell, again from the Apollo 18 show. They seemed to have decided to make the most out of having to re-learn some of the less frequently played songs for those Mohegan shows.

Drink! was missing it's usual audience participation instructions but some of the audience did it anyway. I always find it interesting the difference between shows where the whole audience participates in the right places on songs without any prompting and shows where no ones does. I guess it's the difference between areas where the band plays frequently so the fans have been to numerous shows and areas that they seldom get to.

I got my first performance of She's an Angel which is such a beautiful song. We got to jump in the air for Clap Your Hands. I could not scream properly at the end due to my cold. This may have been one of the last times they did the "everybody scream" ending since lately it's been replaced with more clapping. I can't remember when I noticed it's disappearance.

Despite my continuing belief that The Guitar is not the same without the presence of the horns this was a stellar performance of it. I am always impressed that the boys can manage to play their instruments accurately while jumping up and down and they were doing a lot of jumping. Linnell and Dan joined Marty on cowbell during Danny's solo and Flans got the audience doing some repeat back of "bullshit" and "ow" (from cow).

The last song before the encores was the best of the whole show. Flans sang a song composed on the spot which manly consisted of "Everybody conga, I'm not fucking kidding" then more instructions on how to conga. The audience was a bit hesitant to get the conga line started (all afraid of loosing their stage-side spots) but he did eventually succeed in getting a small conga line going through the middle of the club which my boyfriend and I eventually joined. While we were congaing the band launched into No One Know My Plan which I have never heard before or since. It was an absolute blast. We finished in a spot much closer to the stage on the left hand side so had a better view for the encores.

They started the encore with band intros and when we were all told to scream for Marty he made a valiant effort to DESTROY his drum kit for us, kicking it and wacking it and generally going nuts. Brilliant!

There was a rousing rendition of Birdhouse followed by Fingertips. In this episode of Where's Dan? he could be found on the third floor balcony over the stage squashed in with the fans but doing a fabulous solo all the same.

For the second encore they pulled out....The Stick! If you haven't seen it before, it's a giant stick with a mic attached to it which Flans pounds on the floor to provide the back beat to Lie Still, Little Bottle. It's quite entertaining to watch him use it as it is several feet taller than he is. No one can ever accuse this band of being dull.

They were meant to close the show with Particle Man, once again with the I Love to Sing insert and Danny and Flans on the kaoss pad. Linnell also tore into the accordion at the end of the song, giving the people in the front row some in the face bellows action. When they finished, it seemed Flans wasn't quite ready for the show to be over so they launched into the Famous Polka (without the vocal), which I also hadn't heard before. Fantastic way to end the show. I totally forgot that I didn't feel well and that I hadn't eaten any dinner and that I was completely exhausted because the show was just that good. I even forgave then for forgetting to do a song from Factory Showroom (or Long Tall Weekend, or Venue Songs) though they seem to have rectified that the following night. The only thing I ended up regretting missing at the LPR show was Cowtown with the dual clarinets but I saw it at a later show which totally made up for it.

I'm going to try to do another double feature tomorrow of a Flood weekend in October. We'll see if I actually get both shows done.

Post Script Edit: ....or either of them done. Sorry, didn't happen will do both Tuesday. Promise.