Where Was I, I Forgot

October 15, 2009 - Beachland Ballroom - Cleveland, OH

Somehow playing Flood in a club called Beachland seems wildly appropriate. Despite being late due to annoying traffic there were very few people waiting in line when we got to Beachland. There was a girl dressed as a pickle though. She was advertising a puppet show that she was going to be performing in the attached tavern before the show. We were a little disappointed the have to miss it in order to secure our stage spots. It sounded fantastically odd.

We got to wait in the tavern after only about 15 minutes outside which was a blessing since it was freezing and wet. People insisted on forming a line inside to the bafflement of the staff and briefly bottlenecked the door but it got sorted out and most everyone ended up in the same order they had been in outside. The people in the tavern got to go inside the theater first so we still got a stage side spot.

We were on the left side of the stage which seemed like a good place to be until they moved the keyboard after Guggenheim finished. It was much more left than center because the stage was so small so the left corner of it ended up right in front of my face. It was so close it completely obscured most of the rest of the stage. If anyone ever wanted to know the serial number of the keyboard I could have told you, I was that close. My saving grace was that no one stepped in behind me so I could step back to see over the keyboard when I needed to.

Setlist: Meet the Elements - Polk - Theme from Flood - Birdhouse - Lucky Ball and Chain - Istanbul - Dead - Shorehorn - 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 - Ana Ng - New York City

We finally confirmed, by aquiring a setlist, that the out of sequence order of Flood was intentional, at least at this show. It does spice up the end half of the set with some livelier songs. And, as my boyfriend pointed out, they come back from the puppet set with the lyric "where was I, I forgot the point that I was making" which is very fitting. I don't know if that part is purposeful or just a happy coincidence.

There was a sign on the door outside specifying no cameras but there were so many people using them that I ended up taking out mine too so I have some good if oddly angled pictures.

When TMBG came out Linnell put his coffe cup down on the stage so close to me that I could smell it. And boy did it smell good. Some kind of vanilla blend I believe. Linnell also brought his camera on stage with him which comes into play later.

Flans mentioned again that Polk was released on a promotional EP for Flood so singing it was promotion for the Flood set. He also announced in advance that there were going to be three pledge drive interuptions to Flood and to stay tuned for the telephone number to call.

During Polk, Dan was having trouble with his guitar and left the stage, giving the guitar to the guitar tech Victor. After the song, Victor was out on stage fixing something on Dan's pedals and Flans said he could see that something was obviously not right because Victor was on stage. But he was sure that, because Victor was a perfectionist, he was just correcting some minor inperfection and that all would soon be well. I don't remember when but at some point Flans also gave a shout out to Will, their sound guy for handling their monitors with no feedback and no back talk.

They used the old confetti canons in place of the popping sound in Lucky Ball and Chain. The confetti kind of clumped again and Linnell said they probably shouldn't wet the confetti before the show.

The puppets talked mostly about their upcoming album James Cameron Presents The Avatars of They which they could not play until the movie was released.

When Marty moved to the electric kit, either the first time or the second time Flans had him demonstrate it and said that it sounded like that guy's car that stops outside your house in the middle of the night and, as Marty played the siren noise, the police that come to make the guy go away.

At some point in one of the Flood songs, probably during Minimum Wage but possibly as late as Hot Cha, there was a moment when four or five people to my right all raised their cameras to take a picture of Linnell at the same time and he gave this startled look as he suddenly looked out onto a crowd of papparazzi. After the song he said he had an idea and pulled out his camera and asked all the people to raise their cameras again and pretend to take a picture of him so he could take a picture of them. I badly wanted to get in on the picture but I hadn't actually been taking a picture at that time and I would have really had to force myself into the shot because I was too far to the left. It was really cool though. He took another crowd shot picture later which I may or may not have been in. I think it went over my head.

Before Cowtown, Flans said this was probably the first time two clarinets had ever appeared together on this stage except maybe during a school recital. Then followed a very funny exchange which I will quote to the best of my memory.

Flans: We have John Linnell on his Bundy school model clarinet.

Linnell:*affronted* This is a very expensive clarinet.

Flans:Oh, it's a fancy clarinet.

Linnell: It's a Buffet.

Flans checks with Ralph and confirms that he also is playing a Buffet.

Linnell: You gave me this clarinet.

Flans: I know I did.

Linnell: Then you should remember what kind it is.

Or something to that effect. Both humorous and informative if you ever wondered about the history of Linnell's clarinet.

Introducing Hot Cha, Linnell said that Flans had written this song and and he still didn't know what it was about. Flans quipped that is was about Linnell's family. Linnell responded with, "I know that, I meant the rest of it." Several people in the crowd had made "oh, I don't believe you said that noises" when Flans made his joke. Linnell then started immitating those people hollering several variations of "Damn,"" Snap" and " you got owned." This got such a good response he kept it up, really yelling and screwing his face up. It was fantastic. And you could see Danny and Marty cracking up in the back, totally in astonishment at how ridiculous Linnell was being. They whole band was in a very silly mood tonight, but Linnell in particular.

When Marty went across the stage to the elctric kit, I believe for WDTSS but possibly later, Linnell commented that they hadn't been playing any music for Marty switching kits tonight and proceeded to sing Marty a little electric drum kit intro song while he settled himself. The stage was so small that Marty had some trouble making it back and forth across the stage repeatedly. He kept running into guitar stands and people.

Danny took his Sun drum playing one step further today by adding a drum roll.

Flans said that they had written WDTSRS to prevent all the science teachers out their from calling them in the middle of the night to complain that WDTSS was incorrect. One of the other guys said they were going to call anyway and Flans added in that they were going to call on their boom cars and dedicated the song to all those teachers.

At the beginning of Particle Man, Linnell recited this completely out of nowhere riff: "I had a dream, I had a dream I was in Alamaba, I had a dream I was in the band Alabama." He also did the Dolly Parton song Here You Come Again in the bridge which I hadn't seen him do yet this tour.

While Marty was settling himself at the electric kit for Sapphire Bullets (this may have also been when Linnell sang him his song) Linnell asked him if he knew that they had gotten the name of the song from a Mahavishnu Orchestra song. Marty did know. Flans said, of course he knows because anyone who went to music school knows that.

Also, on Marty's last trip across to the electric kit, Flans introduced him as: Marty Beller - strong enough for a man but made for a woman.

Linnell started Ana on the accordion again since he was still holding it from Drink! but he traded it for the keyboard after the first few measures.

And that was the very silly show. Much of that description wasn't really in chronological order. My apologies. I tend to remember stuff but not exactly when it happened and it is hard to make major corrections when I am blogging from my phone. The Pittsburgh write-up should be better since I made notes immediately after. I'll try to have it up tomorrow if there is time.