Motor City Mayhem

The Great TMBG Roadtrip 2009 Day One

October 8, 2009 - Saint Andrew's Hall - Detroit, MI

And we're off! We headed out on the road Wednesday night and made our first stop in Niagara Falls. We spent Thursday morning looking at the falls before continuing on to Detroit. Man, that's a lot of water.

We arrived at Saint Andrew's about an hour before doors and were the third group in line. It was a cold and slightly damp wait but there were lots of comings and goings to watch outside. We saw every member of the band coming out of the theater at one point or another except Flans. This was the first time I have ever seen Linnell outside a theater and totally spoils our theory that he arrives at venues via secret tunnels dug especially for the occasion.

We got a perfect spot center stage and spent the next hour listening to a loud moron shout obsenities and nonsense to no one in particular.

The opening act for this tour is called Guggenheim Grotto. They are a couple of Irish guys and they are (thank god) really good. I do not mind seeing them all week at all. One plays guitar and uke and one plays piano. They both sing. They have kind of folk/rock/country style.

After they said they were from Ireland someone in the audience accused them of having fake accents and they responded by acussing him of having a fake accent. Good and witty! The guitar player also eventually "shhh'd" the screaming moron to much applause. He said he'd never been applauded for "shhhing" before.

The piano player told a funny story before one of their songs. He said there was a line that repeated eight times that they encourage people to sing along with. It was something like "come get naked and get under the sheets." Apparently the first time he played it for his sister they were in the car with his four year old nephew in the back who sang "get naked and get under the sheep."

TMBG came on to thunderous applause and much screaming from the Linnell fan girls to our left. The house was packed and Flans thanked everyone for the great turn out.

Setlist: Meet the Elements - Damn Good Times - Los Angeles - My Brother the Ape - Youth Culture Killed My Dog - Birdhouse - Clap Your Hands - Where Your Eyes Don't Go - Seven - Hearing Aid - James K. Polk - Shoehorn with Teeth - What Is A Shooting Star - Drink! - WDTSS? - WDTSRS? - Dead - Spider - Don't Let's Start - New York City - Cowtown - Istanbul Encore 1= Science Is Real - Ana Ng Encore 2= We Live In A Dump - Mesopotamians

The setlist was almost identical to the Ithaca show except a few songs shorter and in a different order. This was not a problem since it was such a fantastic set.

Flans started the banter by saying that this show was already better than the last time they were at Saint Andrews because that time they had played the day after Skinny Puppy and the club had still been covered in fake blood. He said later that that show was made more awful because no one came.

They had a couple of false starts on Los Angeles which Linnell took credit for "even though it looks like it is someone else."

There was some confusion on stage involving Linnell's drink. He had it on the floor under the keyboard then moved it onto the edge of Marty's drum platform. Danny went looking for something later, probably his drink, and found Linnell's and didn't know where it had come from so moved it on top of one of the amps. Danny didn't find what he was looking for though. Then Linnell went later to get his drink from behind Danny who did a "oh, that was yours?" and they both started laughing at some joke I didn't hear.

I may have Youth Culture in the wrong place by one. I missed writing it down but I know it was right in there somewhere.

The confetti canon went off the first time during Clap Your Hands, I think. It seemed to surprise Linnell a little.

When talking about their Grammy win before Seven, Flans said the "it's an honor just to win" line again. To which Linnell responded, "It is rather embarassing to be nominated" or something similar to that.

This was the best puppet show I have seen yet. Flans-puppet was obsessed with his coffee cup hat, first saying "I have a coffee cup on my head," then periodically crying "Coffee Cup" throughout the bit.

They also noticed that the puppets made shadows on the screen that looked like the hecklers from Mystery Science Theater so there were jokes about commentating on themselves. Then Flans-puppet was asking why his hat was in his mouth because the shadow of his hat was right where his mouth was on the screen. He spent some time trying to bite his shadow.

The puppets were calling themselves The Avatars, "not from that James Cameron movie," and thanked TMBG for opening for them.

When Linnell said that the next song was about a shoehorn with teeth, there was a lot of cheering but Linnell joked that it wasn't that song about a shoehorn, it was a different one.

After the puppet's two songs, Flans announced that they were back and encouraged everyone to switch to Facebook because The Avatars had taken over their MySpace page. He also offered Friendster as an alternative saying that it has come a long way.

Flans had the balcony call the first "drink" in Drink! and the floor call the second. The crowd was enthusiastic if not too timely. I had particular difficulties coming in at the right time. Linnell was having trouble getting his accordion situated and kept encouraging Flans to start without him and he'd catch up.

The nuclear reactions on the sun were caused by "Deerborn, Pontiac, Ann Arbor and some other place." When Flans refered to something as being flinty after the next song, Linnell suddenly said " Flint, that was what I was trying to think of." Flans found it very amusing that flinty had reminded him of this.

Flans said something about pandering while introducing Miasma and said they had become addicted to a drug called Pandor, the pandering drug.

When Flans introduced Dan during the band intros Dan was at the keyboard instead of holding his guitar so he did some keyboard improvising instead. Flans didn't realize this at first but when he did he made Dan get his guitar and come out to do a proper guitar solo.

Ralph did some more great, crazy sax playing at the end of Istanbul. He actually shook hands with the girl next to us while playing and almost knocked over Flans's mic stand while rolling on the floor.

When they came back for encores Flans asked Linnell to talk about the the next song, Science Is Real. Linnell went into this hilarious riff about a song where the name of the song is also the first line of the song. I wish I could remember the exact quote because it was fantastic.

During the end of the show and most of the encores the girl next to us was desperately trying to get one of the Johns to take a note from her. It was kind of annoying. She did eventually get Marty to take it after the show. Someone also threw a bag on stage during the encore which Dan picked up and tossed backstage. I hope it didn't have anything fragile in it.

At some point during the encore Flans brought out a copy of Here Comes Science and encouraged everyone to buy it because CDs are an endangered species. He also said the copies at the merch table were signed by the whole band except Ralph who would sign it after the show. Made me sorry that I already have a copy and don't need another.

After the show, Flans, Marty and the blond tech (whose name may or may not be Scott) came out to pass out bumper stickers. There was such a rush for the stage that we got stuck for a bit, pressed up against the barrier.

There was a barrier set up about a foot and a half in front of the stage to hold back the crowd, leaving a gap in front of the stage. Poor Marty leaned out too far handing out stickers and fell in the gap. He didn't fall hard and was OK but he was very startled and was stuck in the gap until everyone had stickers. He was joking with Flans about having the ambulance ready. Since I got stuck up at the front I ended up caught under Marty's arm while he handed stickers over my head. It was kind of funny.

Marty also had a rather odd fan encounter after he was back on stage when a kid was hollering at him but kept calling him Dan and wanted him to sign something but had no pen.

I have some really fantastic pictures which I'll post when I get back next week. I was actually too close to Linnell to get many good ones of him because the stage was so high that the keyboard mostly obscured him. But I finally got good pictures of Marty drumming which makes me very happy. I still don't have good puppet pictures but I'll keep trying.

St. Louis tonight. More Flood, which is appropriate since it has been raining all day.