The End of the Tour

October 18, 2009 - The Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at NYU - New York, NY - Family Show

Last stop on our incredible road trip. Seemed appropriate that we followed the band back home. We got to the Skirball Center about two hours early because we didn't have anything else to do. Ran into another fan that I know from TMBW and have seen at previous shows and hung out in a Dunkin Donuts for a while to escape the cold. We only had to wait outside the actual venue for about ten minutes before the lobby opened and we were able to wait inside for the last 10-15 minutes before they opened the theater. We saw Flans in the lobby coming to find Scott and got to watch him try to figure out how to get into the office area behind the box office.

We had front row seats on the right hand side and were pretty much the first people in the auditorium. We got to watch all the comings and goings in the auditorium and on stage while we waited for the show to start. Saw lots of other fans I know by sight from other shows. Saw Jamie Kitman coming out from backstage and mingling around the auditorium. Got to watch Iggy hanging the plastic birds all over the lighting towers. He clambered up them like a monkey with a lot more confidence than I would have had.  Spent the last few minutes before the show started watching the theater completely fail to find seating for some of the band's family. Really wanted to offer them ours since we could have stood and there were free seats off to our right anyway but they were all they way on the other side of the auditorium.

The setlist was a little different from the previous family shows though they were still using the Vic setlist with scribble marks all over it (we didn't get one but we could clearly see Dan's when we were standing).

I Never Go To Work - Clap Your Hands - 813 Mile Car Trip - Where Do They Make Balloons? - WDTSS - Pirate Girls Nine - Bed, Bed, Bed - The Famous Polka - Roy G. Biv - Alphabet Lost and Found - Older - Fibber Island - Zilch - Particle Man - Shooting Star - My Brother the Ape - Alphabet of Nations - I Am A Paleontologist - Seven - Doctor Worm  Encore - Meet the Elements - Istanbul

Flans made several jokes about the name of the venue. He was speculating on whether there was a Mr. Skirball or if the word had some other origin. They decided that it sounded like an old type of ball game and Linnell suggested that the venue had been built on an old skirball playing field. Flans apologized to Mr. Skirball several times during the show mostly for getting confetti all over his theater but I think there was something else too.

Flans also made several references to the number of members of the Weinkauf family who were in the audience, having all come out to see Danny play. The best was when he included Weinkaufs in a list of people he was addressing in the audience. It was something like "Weinkaufs, parents, kids" but the words aren't right.

Linnell stuck with the real words on WDTSS except for shouting "BRAINS" as the last nuclear reaction. Glad to see that joke made it though the entire tour :-)

When instructing everyone on how to count before Pirate Girls, Flans said that the people in other areas of the country they had visited had had trouble getting to ten, but the good news was we only needed to go to nine.

Flans grabbed Marty's horn during Bed, Bed, Bed and was honking it behind his back again. He didn't bring it back out to the mic though which I was hoping he would so I could get a picture.

The Famous Polka is apparently called The Famous Polka because it is the only one they know.

During Roy G. Biv, Ralph was playing his fruit shaped maracas at the back of the stage. One is an orange and the other is a banana and he was wearing a bright green shirt. So when Flans sang the "O is for orange" line, he shook the orange maraca. "Y is for yellow," he shook the banana maraca. "G is for green," he pointed to his shirt. He caught me laughing at him doing this and proceeded to shake his banana maraca at me which only made me laugh more. Oh, I will miss him if he doesn't tour with them again.

Flans made the Color Me Sync'd joke about Marty before Alphabet Lost and Found again.

The puppet segment seemed to be pretty short compared to other shows. They talked about the coffee cup and the Avatar album again. After the puppet segment they made a joke that they have made numerous times before but I don't think I have mentioned yet. They claimed that the puppets eat all of their snacks backstage during the show, which is odd because, you know, they're puppets. Maybe some puppet video will turn up from this show since I saw several people with cameras.

On the intro to Alphabet of Nations, instead of just doing random reverbs of the title, Linnell was trying to mimic everything that Flans said. So when Flans said The, Linnell said The. You get the idea. I think Flans was trying to trip him up a little at the end. Really, really excellent Guatemala. Toss up whether this show or the Kutztown one had the best.

Flans asked us all to stand up and pretend we were about to hear our favorite song before Paleontologist. I wanted to shout out "But it IS my favorite song!" Linnell used totally new dinosaurs for his bit.

Flans had some really great facial expressions during Seven. He looked like he was really into it.

The band intros were pretty short solos except for Danny and Marty and even those were shorter than usual. I wonder if Dan ever minds not getting featured with a special "bit" in the intros. He gets more solos during the shows than the other guys so maybe they figure that it evens out.

Flans told the parents to remember the Meet the Elements song when their kids got older because it would really help them in high school. He made some sort of joke that I couldn't hear which prompted Linnell to begin reciting some elements. Barium seemed to be particularly funny but I missed why.

They finished it all off with Istanbul and Ralph on the ground and confetti flying through the air and me suddenly very sad that the tour was over.

We tried to get a setlist afterwards but Victor took most of them backstage and didn't bring them back. I spotted Dan talking to some friends over near where we had been sitting and fought my way back across the crowd to try to get him to sign our CD. I was trying to be polite and wait until a break in his conversation when I heard him say "let's go back stage" and they all got up to walk through a side door. I called after him, feeling like a total dork, and one of his friends heard me and got his attention for me and he very kindly came back down and signed our CD. I told him his was the last signature we needed then immediately regretted it because I was afraid that sounded like his was the one we wanted least, and not just that he was the last person we had found. He was very nice though and didn't seem to mind me bothering him. Man, I need to work on not being so nervous when I try to talk to the guys though. I think my face turns scarlet and I either say nothing at all or something stupid, when I want to say something meaningful that will convey how fabulous I think they are.

So, that is the end of the tour. The band takes a couple of weeks off before heading to the West Coast and we head back to work and our normal, mundane lives. I am really regretting not planning to go to the charity show in Brooklyn next week, but I honestly thought I would have had enough by now. Soooo no true and it's too late to get the time off from work now. So we will be at Mohegan Sun after Thanksgiving and the in-store in Braintree in December. And I am totally stoked about New Year's Eve in Northampton. Then we will see what 2010 holds. I am really hoping the band tours again for the new album that should be out at some point, hopefully to a different area of the country so we can tag along again. My vote is for the South this time so it will be warmer but really, I'll go anywhere.

As for the blog, I will go back and write-up the last five shows from before the road trip that I never got around to, then I have some other ideas that I will play around with after that. Expect to hear lots about Kid's Go as I work in a bookstore so the book is a big deal for me.  Also I'll have the last of the pictures up on Flickr by tomorrow.