We'll Rock It So Well We Will Roll Down The Hill

October 16, 2009 - Mr. Small's - Pittsburgh, PA

Wow, what a cool venue! It really is perched on a pretty steep hill. It is a renovated church so it has the high vaulted ceilings and those great acoustics. We had a little trouble figuring out which door to go in and wandered around outside for a bit and as such there were quite a few people in line ahead of us. This was probably the most unpleasant wait of the whole trip because it was cold and raining and generally gross. And for the first time on the whole trip we didn't manage to get a stage side spot. Still had a great view from the second row though so I wasn't too disappointed.

Guggenheim Grotto had some fans in the crowd. Don't know if they were people that came to the show to see them or just people who had seen them at another TMBG show this week and liked them but they were very enthusiastic. And the boys seemed tickled pink that there were girls screaming for them.

There was some kind of problem with the keyboard while they were setting up after the Guggenheim set. Will, the sound guy, was playing with it and couldn't figure it out so he consulted with Victor, the guitar tech, who also couldn't figure it out. There was much switching of cables on the back to no avail. Just when it was starting to look dire, the show was late starting (not by much), replacement cables were being pulled out to test, and Scott, the tour manager was coming to find out what the problem was, Will realized that one of the plugs on a box on the floor was plugged into the wrong place. Huzzah! Will saves the day. We tried to start a mini cheer for him but it was much too loud for anyone to hear and most people hadn't been paying attention to the keyboard issues anyway.

The TMBG set was almost the same as the previous Flood show with one addition (I'll give you one guess what it was - we were in Mr. Small's after all) and the encore was tiny bit different.

Setlist: Meet the Elements - Pittsburgh (aka Mr. Small's) - Polk - Theme from Flood - Birdhouse - Lucky Ball and Chain - Istanbul - Dead - Shoehorn - Shooting Star - We Want A Rock - Someone Keeps Moving My Chair - Hearing Aid - Minimum Wage - Letterbox - Clap Your Hands - Cowtown - Whistling in the Dark - Hot Cha - Women and Men - WDTSS - WDTSRS - Racist Friend - Particle Man - Twisting - Sapphire Bullets - They Might Be Giants - Road Movie  Encore - Damn Good Times - Mesopotamians  Encore 2 - Drink - Fingertips

Not surprisingly, the Mr. Small's Venue Song got a huge response. It is one of my favorite Venue Songs so I was looking forward to hearing it in the venue and I was not disappointed. It rocked! We sadly, did not roll down the hill but almost.

Flans had introduced the Flood show before Polk so before they started Theme from Flood, Linnell said, "You know that album we were talking about? Here it is!" and they launched into the song.

I wish that every person who had ever told me that they had never heard of TMBG or asked "who's that" could have been in Mr. Small's for this performance of Birdhouse. It is always popular and crowds are always excited to hear it but I don't remember ever feeling quite so in tune with a room full of hundreds of people who LOVE this song as much as I do. Every single body was dancing or singing or jumping or just grinning.  The music was blasting, the room was shaking, and I felt that if everyone who ever looked at me like I was nuts when I told them how many TMBG shows I have been to could have been in that room they all would have had an enlightenment experience and thought, "oh, NOW I understand!"

Flans made several comments about the temperature of the room and how it is different every time they play Mr. Small's. Apparently the last time they were there it was boiling hot. This time it was freezing cold. One of the guys said it was like being on the Letterman show, where I have heard it is always frigid. Flans remarked later that it was nice to play in less than 100 degree temperatures. Danny turned the giant fan on his side of the stage off. It was pretty cold but it was not the coldest show I have been at (hello, Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel). I think Flans was just shocked at the difference from their last visit.

They attempted to launch the confetti canons during Lucky Ball and Chain but it totally failed. The one on the right side of the stage didn't even have the tube attached and the one on the left spit one clump on the girl standing under it and nothing else. Linnell laughed at it a bit but they kept going right into Istanbul. There were also some guys who worked for the club attempting to fix a light on the left side of the stage and distracting the band. There was one guy at first who was stepping aside during songs and fighting with it during the breaks but then another guy came out and they couldn't really both fit off the side of the stage. They attempted to make their escape during the "fake" end to Istanbul not realizing that the song wasn't over and Flans leaned over to them and presumably told them not to worry about it and could they just get out of the way. Though he must have said it nicely because he didn't look mad.

After Istanbul, Linnell commented on what a total failure and disappointment the confetti canons had been. Flans said they were already down one wing and now their other had failed too. The best part was that Linnell then introduced Dead as "the current state of the confetti canons" and they dedicated the song to the poor dead canons.

The puppets seem to have settled on The Avatars of They for the name of their act. They talked quite a bit about TMBG albums while they were trying to introduce Shoehorn. They couldn't remember what album the song was on because Flan-Puppet's CD's were all pirated and didn't have names on them and Linnell-Puppet had his TMBG music on a burned disc called Mitch's Burned CD. Flans-Puppet apparently liked TMBG's early stuff better because it was edgier and he liked the drum machine. He lost track after Apollo 18. I totally forgot to mention it but at one of the earlier shows, I think Cleveland maybe, the puppets dubbed themselves Tar (Linnell) and Avi (Flans). They never mentioned it at the other shows but it might be a handy way for me to identify them in the future.

Flans introduced the two clarinets before Cowtown, and Linnell added in an intro for "the men who play them." Flans said it was time for the clarinets to "get paid" and then introduced them as Profit (Ralph) and Margin (Linnell).

Before Whistling in the Dark, Flans kept asking for the stage lights to be darker, whispering "darker, darker, darker, daaarrrkkker" until he was sounding quite evil. Iggy kept turning the lights down and down but I don't think they ever really got as dark as Flans wanted them. There was a note on the setlist to "stay in dark look."

Linnell didn't play around with Sun too much except for pronouncing oxygen in a very odd way and instead of helium he shouted "BRAINS." Nothing like a good recurring joke, especially one that goes away for a few days so you think they've forgotten it and then it turns up again. Did I mention the Indianapolis setlist with the little monster drawn on the bottom saying "BRAINKS!" With that spelling. Hehehe.

Linnell did Here You Come Again during the bridge of Particle Man again. After the song Flans made a joke about him being Dolly Linnell or John Parton or something to that effect. Someone in the crowd then shouted "nice tits." Crude, but amusing.

Between Particle Man and Twisting, Linnell said he was going to stop for a minute to drink some coffee even though this was the moment they usually went straight into the next song. There was silence for a minute, then he said "I don't really have anything interesting to say." Another moment of silence then: "Uncomfortable dead air." It probably doesn't translate well in writing, but it was pretty funny.

During They Might Be Giants, Flans used a Flashlight taped to Linnell's keyboard to cue the confetti "blizzard," as it is marked on the setlist, from the back of the room. It was set up somewhere back by Iggy's lighting board and showed the unsuspecting crowd thoroughly. That machine is really powerful because it blew confetti all the way up to the stage. They used a new small square confetti that was particularly invasive. I was finding pieces of it in every crease of my clothes for hours afterwards, and more in my pockets the next day.

At some point near the end of the show when Flans was talking about Marty's new drum kit he said that they were the only ones buying the things. "Us and dentist's offices, which might explain the enamel white color."

Successfully got Marty to sign our new copy of Science after the show. We even stopped and bought Sharpies just for this purpose. Now, just two more signatures needed to have a completely signed album.

This was one of the best shows of the tour, definitely the most enthusiastic crowd. Except for the one girl we overheard walking back to our car who was so clueless she shouldn't have been allowed in the building. Her friend was trying to tell her that Mesopotamians was on their newest album and she said that couldn't be because Flood was their newest album. Ahhhhhhhhhh!!! Was she not listening to the "It's a brand new album for 1990" line? Or maybe she thinks it is 1990? Her friend was trying to reason that that couldn't be because Istanbul was on Flood and that had been around for years. We walked away at that point. I certainly hope someone set her straight.

Apologies for the delayed posting of the last few write-ups. My phone internet threw at a tantrum at the end of the trip and stopped letting me into my blog and now that I am back at work time is an issue. I should have the Kutztown and NYC reviews done in the next few days. Also look for a TON of new pictures on my Flickr in the next few days.