Weatherman Detective

March, 10, 2010 - Visulite - Charlotte, NC

Wow. This show was kind of a disaster on wheels. There were some really great and funny parts and the setlist was fantastic but so many things went wrong it was like having a ticket to a friend's really bad day. It actually kinda stressed me out because I felt so bad for the guys. I'm gonna kinda gloss over the bad stuff cause really, would you want someone blogging about your bad day?

We waited in a light drizzle outside the Visulite and were forced to listen to some alternately maddening and frightening conversations held by the people in front of us in line. But we had some yummy noodles from Nothing But Noodles while we waited which made up for it. Incidently, the guy who waited on us at the noodle place could have been Flans' blond cousin.

Inside, the club had several floor levels. We, of course, went for the stage-side level, which was down several steps. It was kind of like standing in a sub-basement or an orchestra pit. It was all cement and there were speakers set up on the floor on either side of the stage limiting the amount of stage space. We went for the right side despite the presence of an oddly placed trash can, right in front of the stage. We tried moving it but were informed by club staff that it had to be there because otherwise it blocked the speakers. Not sure why it needed to be there at all since it was completely inaccessible by anyone except the people standing right next to it (ie. us). I ended up wedged in a corner kind of between the speaker, the stage and the trash can. Awkward, but worth it for the great view.

Due to odd equipment and stage positioning I was also basically next to Will on the monitors, just on the otherside of the speaker platform. It was weirdly, almost like watching a show simultaniously from the front of the stage and the wings.

Jonathan Coulton did the same set as Asheville. He continues to be enormously entertaining and I continue to forget most of what he says which is a shame because it's always funny. He said he was hear to kill time while the Giants put on their elaborate costumes and make-up. Someone in the audience asked him how his thumb was (he had posted a picture on Twitter the day before of a scratch on his thumb). He said it was much better. "Those of you who follow me on Twitter would know that I injured my thumb yesterday. The rest of you can go to hell. *pause* Not really."

During the break I got to watch Will and Victor fail to communite from opposite sides of the stage on three different communication devices while they tried to hook up part of Marty's kit. Turns out face to face is still the best method of conveying information.

The TMBG setlist: Meet the Elements - Memo to Human Resources - Istanbul - Dr. Worm - Clap Your Hands - Where Your Eyes Don't Go - We Live in a Dump - Birdhouse - No One Knows My Plan - Guitar - Ana Ng - Hearing Aid - Shooting Star - Drink - Mesopotamians - Upside Down Frown - Withered Hope - Dead - Damn Good Times. Encore - Alphabet of Nations - Turn Around

They started out the banter commenting on the weird levels of the venue. They couldn't quite figure out where the floor people were standing and said that if chicken fights broke out they wouldn't be able to tell what was going on. One of them said the place used to be an old movie theater. Huh.

Linnell asked if anyone had seen them on local Charlotte TV that morning. They had apparently been on a program with Rob Tanner. Linnell thought this name sounded made up. They decided it sounded more like the name of a detective in a dime store novel. "Rob Tanner: Weatherman Detective." Flans said he had picked up books in the Rob Tanner series in a truck stop. Linnell said that at that point he had been called Storm Tanner. They kept bring Rob Tanner up at various points later on. Nothing like a running gag :-)

Flans said the last time they were here there had been a woman experiencing her first Ecstacy trip. I guess she was driving Flans crazy and, as he put it, he was thinking "get out of my mind lady and she was like, what mind? Ahhh."

Several people in the audience were shouting requests and Flans said they didn't take requests. They made some kind of crack about knowing how to play those songs but they still weren't going to.

After Curt played his solos on Istanbul, Flans said they had him along to play that one song but they were going to do something no rock band had ever done before. They were going to have a trumpet player on more than one song!

There already seemed to be some technical issues at that point with either instruments or monitors, it was hard to tell. But it wasn't running smoothly at any point.

My sound experience during the whole show was pretty unbalanced. Pretty much all I could hear for large portions of the show was Flans' guitar because I was in front of his amp. It was so loud it washed out a lot of the other instruments. It was also disorienting to see Dan playing in front of me but only being able to hear Flans playing from the other side of the stage. All of the bass was also coming from the left which was an equally odd sensation. It wasn't how I normally would have chosen to listen to a show, but then, I did pick the spot.

Linnell did some fantastic riffing on the Future of Sound (ie. a combo of keyboard synth and Kaoss pad) at the end of The Guitar. I appreciated the irony of having The Guitar solo not played om the guitar.

And right about that point everything started going downhill. Flans didn't appear to be in a good mood to begin with and by the time four or five things had gone south his looked like his head might explode.

Dan had to leave the stage during one song to get his guitar fixed. Then Flans walked off stage during Ana Ng. He came back about halfway through the song but didn't play and looked angry. When it got to his "I don't want the world" line he just stood there staring with the guys staring at him and didn't say it so they proceeded on without it.

They had the puppet rig set-up back stage and a huge screen the size of the whole stage dropped down for the video. Curt was rummaging around trying to retrieve his Euphonium and music from underneath it. First they couldn't find the puppets, then they lost the video image just before starting Shooting Star. They decided to do the song anyway with the disco ball "stars" shining on the screen. It was funny watching Dan and Danny and Curt try to find a place to stand on stage that wasn't blocking the screen. Meanwhile, backstage Flans gave up on his puppet and was trying to get Linnell to do the same. They decided to bag the bit after that song even though the image came back on the screen just as they came back to the front of the stage. When Flans went back to close the puppet suitcase, Linnell puppet's head got stuck in the lid. Poor little guy!

Somewhere in all the puppet confusion, a bottle of water got knocked over on the horn platform amd Flans' box of guitar picks (which is shaped like a coffin) got knocked to the floor. Just not a good night.

Linnell asked Flans if he wanted to do Stalk of Wheat without the puppets but Flans said no, he wasn't in the mood. I think Drink! was a more appropriate song at that point anyway. Flans could have used one.

I was really stoked to finally hear Electric Car. The live arrangement sounds really cool. Flans told everyone that "this song is usually sung by my friend Robin Goldwasser but she is home taking care of her emotionally needy cats."

The funniest part of the rest of the show was Linnell turning to Flans at some point near the end and asking "How ya feelin' Flans?" It was like he was testing the waters to see if there were still sharks.

When they came back for the first encore they started Alphabet of Nations which was on the setlist as the second encore (we could see a setlist from where we were standing). I looked over at Will and he looked right at me and shrugged. He didn't know what was going on either.

The guys left after the first encore, then all of a sudden the house music came on and after a minute so did the lights and people started to leave. It was weird because it seemed like the band was coming back. This was confirmed when Danny came back out to talk to Will. He asked him what had happened and Will didn't know (it seemed like it had been a club employee responsible for early end). Danny told Will that the show wasn't supposed to be over, that they had just decided to flip the order of the encores. Oh, well. Two nights in a row Don't Let's Start managed to get skipped in an encore.

We got our setlist, then headed out. Even with all the issues, it was still a fun show. They did a great job of keeping it going when I am sure they just wanted to give up and go to bed. And I bet a ton of people in the audience didn't even notice most of the problems.

And they totally made up for this show with the Richmond show, which was one of the best shows EVER! Stay tuned for that one :-)

Edit: I forgot something! There was this great moment when Flans went chasing after a piece of confetti that was floating across the stage. Once he caught it, he pretended to read it like a fortune. Then he suggested they make fortune confetti, but then admitted that this would be confusing since some people would get 800 fortunes and they would all contradict each other. He did this great combo fortune that started with great fortune and ended with no hope. It was pretty funny. I can't believe I forgot.