Wednesday, June 30, 2010

There's A Picture Opposite Me - 6/30/10

This photo project now has a name. I'm not sure I am 100% satisfied with it but there it is.

If you are just joining us and don't know what's going on please read this previous entry: Announcing The New, Improved...

And don't forget to send your submissions to me at theroommustlistentome@gmail.com


Today's entry is from Megan.


Rhythm Section Want Ad, They Might Be Giants

Monday, June 28, 2010

Wow, That's Obscure!

For today's Audience Participation we are going to dig deep into the back catalog. The deeper the better really.

The theme is Top 10 "Obscure" TMBG Tracks. You can of course pick out a different number if you want but the point is to pick out your favorite lesser known tracks. The definition of obscure in this case may be a little relative since many of us here are the sort of uber-fans to whom no track is too obscure to be familiar with. You can pick from EPs, bonus tracks, Unlimited, Dial-A-Song, Venue Songs, podcasts, McSweeney's, demos, Clock Radio, soundtracks, pretty much anything except the studio recordings. With any luck we'll expose each other to some long forgotten tracks and probably drive a few people mad, gushing about our favorite track that actually isn't available anywhere anymore.

If my list is lacking in the truly obscure it's because I came into the fandom too late and have not yet tracked down some of the really hard to find stuff. I've listed where I got the songs from though many of them are available (or were) in other places as well.

Ready? Here goes....


10. Too Cool Girls - TMBG Unlimited - I really wanted to get an instrumental onto this list but had a really hard time choosing. This is my favorite at the moment. Sounds like a swing band.

9. Love Is Eternity - Venue Songs CD - The line "Remember love's a verb" is one of the best pieces of advice I have ever heard and one of my all time favorite lyrics.

8. Mrs. Train - Back to Skull EP - I love how this song actually sounds like a train. No, I mean I really LOVE it.

7. Leeds - Venue Songs CD - I could have filled this entire list with venue songs but I went for my favorite of the not quite so well know ones. Being a bit of a fan of The Who, this one appeals to me.

6. Miniature Sidewalk Whirlwind - tmbg.com - A funny, silly song that makes me smile. Come on, you know you've been there.

5. I'm Your Boyfriend Now - Cast Your Pod to the Wind - This song goes onto my great collection of stalker songs I am someday going to make (along with Every Breath You Take by The Police). For now I will continue to sympathize with the poor delusional main character.

4. Other Father Song - Love the movie, love the song. I even have a Coraline lunchbox! For a tiny little song this has the most wonderful piano part. I could listen to it over and over (and have!)

3. Renew My Subscription - Venue Songs CD - Just a wonderful song. So perfectly Linnellian.

2. Sensurround - S-E-X-X-Y EP - This song rocks. End of story.

1.Am I Awake? - Indestructible Object - This song perfectly describes how I feel every Monday after I've gotten home from work at 11:30 the previous night and have to get up again at 5:45 the next morning to go back again. Also the "is it that time again" lyric reminds me of one of my favorite scenes in Spaceballs. You know the one I mean.


There we go. Now remind me of all the fantastic things I forgot.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Jonathan Ross

Just a quick update with the link to the band's appearance on Jonathan Ross this morning. It's only available to stream for a week so I didn't want to wait until Friday to post it.

You can listen here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00svvbn

It's more of a conversation than an interview (and a funny one at that) and there is a live performance of Meet the Elements and a surprise cover of Up the Junction by Squeeze. I also enjoyed Wossy accusing Flans of looking a little like Shrek. There is a great picture of John and John and Marty with Wossy on that page for the audio as well.

Also if anyone has any requests for Audience Participation this week, let me know. I have several ideas but am also happy to cater to the demands of the public.

Finally, I leave you with this photo Marty posted from the stage in London today. Looks like it was a great show. Can't wait to hear about it from the people that went. I am sorry to have missed the giant flying penguin and cephalopod.

photo-6

Friday, June 25, 2010

Stage Announcements

Welcome to Stage Announcements - This week in They Might Be Giants news

Can't say as there is much to report this week but, as this is the first entry, I am going to cheat a little and dip into last week's news as well. Many of these you may have already seen as several of them were posted to the wiki or I put them on Twitter or the forum or whatnot.

Lots of things kicking around from the shows the weekend of the 11-13th. There are a bunch of good photos and videos from all three shows on Flickr and YouTube but I'll let you find those on your own if you are interested.

Some lovely photos from The Stone Pony (there is a review attached to the gallery as well if you click on it): http://jerseyshore.metromix.com/music/essay_photo_gallery/they-might-be-giants/2009509/content

From Bonnaroo:
One quite nice photo: http://stereogum.com/408402/bonnaroo-2010-sunday-in-photos-videos/bonnaroo/attachment/bonnaroo-2010-they-might-be-giants-2/

A very short review: http://www.glidemagazine.com/articles/56058/bonaroo-2010-sunday-recap-cluth-john-fogerty-they-might-be-giants-mmw-phoenix-dave-matthews-band.html

A lovely photo collection that is sadly password protected beyond the thumbnails but even those are stunning (and oddly have Dan Miller labeled as Linnell in every photo): http://www.filmmagic.com/ItemListing.aspx?cgl=436813&evntI=0

This wonderful American Songwriter interview conducted before the show: http://www.americansongwriter.com/2010/06/the-bonnaroo-interview-they-might-be-giants/

And the Backstage at Bonnaroo recordings including the excellent rendition of the pirate version of WDTSS?: http://wxrt.radio.com/2010/06/13/audio-they-might-be-giants-backstage-at-bonnaroo/

If you are on Facebook and "friends" with Marty, you may have also seen the wonderful pictures the people at Ludwig drums posted of him playing his new Vistalites at Bonnaroo. I don't know if this link will work if you aren't logged in to Facebook but I'll try it anyway: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=25815273528&aid=219871&s=60&hash=dc0e4a1c064b2a2af42138260b62b0f8

And lastly, TMBG earned a tiny write-up in last week's issue of Entertainment Weekly. They did a Bonnaroo round-up of best and worst and TMBG got a nod for "Best Visuals (Small-Scale) - They Might Be Giants' tiny perfect confetti drop during Doctor Worm."

In non-show related news we have this short spinner.com piece with Flans (which is, I guess, technically show related): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=25815273528&aid=219871&s=60&hash=dc0e4a1c064b2a2af42138260b62b0f8

As well as the Epicurean Musician interview with Linnell in which we learn of his family's fondness for the 99: http://epicureanmusician.com/2010/06/john-linnell-easy-on-the-octopus/

Flans gave a few quotes to the folks at physicsworld.com for their piece on Here Comes Science in anticipation of the weekend's shows: http://physicsworld.com/blog/2010/06/rocking_the_physics_message.html

Linnell was also interviewed on Absolute Radio, a UK radio station. Stay tuned because the end of this interview indicates that the band may be appearing on this show again while they are in London this weekend. I'll find the link for you if that happens. In the meantime: http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/podcasts/Iain-Lee-s-Best-Bits/2010-06-09/

And on the topic of London, the band will be appearing on Jonathan Ross's radio show on BBC Radio 2   while they are across the pond. The episode is airing at 10:00am London time tomorrow (Saturday 6/26). If you aren't in England (and most of us aren't, though I know I do have a few British readers), you can listen to it streaming on the BBC website if you feel like getting up at 5:00am (or earlier if you aren't in the Eastern time zone) or it will get posted on the web for a week afterward. I'll put the link up when it posts but here is the link to the stream if you want to listen live (ish, as I believe it is being pre-recorded). Personally, I can't wait to see what kind of trouble Wossy stirs up! http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/

And those are all the announcements for the week (or at least all I could find). I'm sure there will be a collection of things from the Brits next week.

I shall leave you with Duende, because, really, who DOESN'T want to watch it again?!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Insert Clever Name Here

(I am making up for my late post on Monday with a super early post today.)

Welcome to the first entry in the Photo Wednesdays series. I really need a good, clever name for this project. Anybody got any good ideas?

In case you missed the introductory post on Monday, the plan is to post a photo each Wednesday that somehow depicts or represents a lyric from a They Might Be Giants song (or the whole song in some cases). I'll post some of my own entries but the idea is for you, the readers, to submit photos for me to post.

They can be elaborately staged art pieces or just a shot you snap with your cell phone (as long as it is clear enough to tell what it is a picture of). They can be literal interpretations or abstract. Pretty much sky's the limit.

Only rules are that the photos must be taken by you (you can't submit stuff by other people that you find on the internet or wherever), no nudity or vulgar content, make sure you have permission to photograph what you are photographing (if you need it) and no Photoshopping except to improve picture quality (because that spoils all the fun).

To submit a photo send me an email at theroommustlistentome@gmail.com with a link to your photo on Photobucket, Flickr, Twitpic or whatever your favorite photo site is (as long as they allow embedding). Include the lyric/song that you are referencing and tell me how you'd like to be credited (name, screen name, etc). Feel free to include an explanation I can post too if you think people might not "get it."

And that's it. Now for the introductory post. It's a bit of a silly one, staged by my boyfriend and photographed by me. I think it will get things started on a lighthearted note.


Smiling Yellow Face

"There's a face at the window, a smiling yellow face."
"There's a nut with a shotgun - bang, bang, bang. There's a doctor, a waitress, a fireman with a hat. There's a nut with a gun."   ---  When It Rains It Snows, They Might Be Giants

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

25 TMBG Songs You Can't Live Without

So, the other day I posted this thing on Facebook on the 25 Songs You Can't Live Without. It was one of those memes that everyone was doing for a while but I completely missed the boat on. I came across someone else's list on a blog and liked the idea of it so I decided to post my own anyway, even though the fad was probably long past. Unfortunately, I don't think a single person read it, or if they did no one commented on it. Which is sad, because I actually put quite a bit of thought into it. But such is the story of my life, especially on Facebook.

Regardless, I thought the same concept would make a good topic for the first official AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION MONDAY entry, substituting all songs for just They Might Be Giants songs, of course. I promised one of my readers (hi Jamie!) a topic that was more accessible to those fans who haven't been to many (or any) live shows and this seems to fit the bill.

So here follows my list of 25 TMBG Songs I Can't Live Without. The list is more or less a list of my 25 favorite songs but not necessarily in that same order because I really tried to rank them based on the degree to which I could live without them rather than how much I like them, if that makes any sense. For example, my favorite song is actually number 2 on the list.  It's weird, I know. Don't try to follow my bizarre logic. Just read the list.


25. A Self Called Nowhere
24. Seven
23. Mammal
22. Alphabet of Nations (but it HAS to be a live version)
21. The Bells Are Ringing
20. Destination Moon
19. Women and Men
18. Ana Ng
17. Meet the Elements
16. The End of the Tour
15. Am I Awake?
14. See the Constellation
13. I Am A Paleontologist
12. Till My Head Falls Off
11. The Mesopotamians
10. Where Do They Make Balloons?
9. Nine Bowls of Soup
8. Damn Good Times
7. Don't Let's Start
6. Withered Hope
5. Museum of Idiots
4. Subliminal
3. Doctor Worm
2. Man, It's So Loud in Here
1. Birdhouse in Your Soul


There it is, for today anyway. It's rather a fluid list and there are another 25 just above it that I really wouldn't want to part with either. Fortunately, I don't see any diabolical nemeses in my future forcing me to give up the entire rest of the catalog . Thank god. I look forward to seeing your lists.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Announcing The New, Improved.......

Greetings, dear readers!

As you may or may not have noticed (I certainly have), I am without any live They Might Be Giants until September. I certainly don't have the wherewithal to fund a jaunt to the UK and, though I would desperately like to (and indeed contemplated it) I don't think I can pull together a trip to California either (unless some fine reader would like to put me and my boyfriend up for the weekend and drive us around the Bay area to all the shows - not likely as I don't think any of you are West Coasters). So I am facing my longest gap between concerts since the summer of 2008, when I was too new to the game to know what I was missing. I know, whine, whine, whine, you say. But it's my blog so I am allowed to wallow in a little self pity.

*wallow, wallow, wallow*

In the meantime, I have been contemplating what to do, both with myself and this blog, to pass the time through the hot and sticky summer months. Since, my first choice - be a fly on the wall of the studio while the band finishes their new album - is probably NOT an option, I have come up with another idea. I am going to liven up/repurpose this blog a bit and see if I can't get it to more resemble my original vision for it. I don't mean just visually, though I am contemplating a bit of redesign (I already fiddled with the HTML a little to make it wider - oooo, ahhhhh - thanks, Megan), but also in terms of content.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still post show write-ups in the fall, and lots of them since I have at least two shows almost every other weekend for the months of September and October. But in the meantime I am going to set myself on a thrice weekly posting schedule as follows:

Mondays: To get the week started I'll be posting a new Audience Participation entry each Monday. If you haven't seen the ones I've done already, this is where I pick a topic for a TMBG related Top 10 or 5 or whatever list, post my own and then invite you, the audience, to share yours in the comments. The ones I've posted so far have gone over pretty well, so hopefully this will be fun. I'll gladly take suggestions for topics if anyone has any requests.

Wednesdays: I'd like to do a version of the Wordless Wednesday concept, in other words, a photo post. I'm probably going to mix it up a little between posting some of my concert shots and this other nifty idea I have. See, I know how fond TMBG fans are of song interpretations and the like but personally I avoid them like the plague. I find that once I read someone else's interpretation of a song, that is all I can think about when I listen to it and that has ruined some songs for me. But you all know I'm a bit of a photo junkie and I did think it would be fun to start a collection of photo interpretations. That is, photographs that depict a certain lyric or verse or whatever from a They Might Be Giants song. They can be staged or just something you see out in the world that reminds you of a song.

Who is going to be taking these photos, you ask? Why, you are! The idea is that you brilliant TMBG fans will snap these shots and then send me a link to your picture on Photobucket or Flickr or Twitpic or whatever your preferred photo hosting site is (as long as they allow embedding), along with the lyric or song you are depicting and how you would like to be credited (name, screen name, etc). Then I will post them up on Wednesdays. They don't have to be great art. You can submit a shot of a bluebird sitting on a birdhouse that you snapped with your cell phone as long as it is reasonably clear what it is a picture of. They also don't have to be literal interpretations. They can be as abstract as a TMBG video, as long as it ties back to a song somehow. Feel free to include an explanation I can post with your picture if you think others might not "get it."

There are only a few rules. You can only submit your own pictures, not ones taken by other people that you find on the internet. No inappropriate content (meaning no nudity, vulgar gestures or poses or the like). Make sure you have permission to photograph whatever you are photographing if you need it. And no Photoshopping except to improve the quality of the picture. That takes all the fun out of it.

I'll contribute some of my own pictures too and in the event that I don't have any submissions for the week, I'll substitute one of my concert photos. You can send submissions to my email at theroommustlistentome@gmail.com.

And finally...

Fridays: I will do a news round-up for the week including any interviews, articles, reviews, photos, announcements and interesting stuff that I find on the band. With a new album in the works I'm hopeful some interesting news will present itself over the coming months. And in the event that there is absolutely nothing to report in a given week, I'll post a retro interview from days gone by so we can relive the release of old albums and rediscover favorite quotes.

I will try my best to keep to this schedule. I can tell you that, because of my work schedule, I often post late at night and I will consider it to still be the same day even if it is after midnight as long as I haven't gone to bed yet. For example, I can guarantee that this week's Audience Participation blog will not appear until after midnight tonight. But in general I will try to get things out in a timely manner.

So go out, take some pictures, start mentally preparing your lists of favorite everything and stay tuned in to the new and improved My Name Is Blue Canary. And suggestions are always welcome either in comments or email. Thanks for reading and thanks you all your support. Together we can make it to the next show, the next album and beyond!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Happy Birthday Green Avatar!

June 12, 2010 - Ram's Head Live - Baltimore, MD

After a lively breakfast that included lots of rehashing of the previous night's show, we parted ways with half our crowd, as Megan's car headed back north and mine turned south toward Baltimore. We arrived about a half hour before doors and miraculously found parking right near the venue without hassle. Little known fact: the single thing that stresses me out more than any other about traveling to shows is parking my car. True story.

Ram's Head Live is kind of an unusual venue. It is part of a large shopping and dining complex that was built in a old power station. You enter from a large courtyard that looks like they probably have outdoor concerts there sometimes and walk down a long dark hall that feels like walking into a basement. We were perhaps the fifth or sixth group in line, but we weren't overly concerned since it was a family show.

Doors opened right on time and let us into one of the most interesting clubs I've seen yet. There was a wide open dance floor in front of a large stage and then balconies, balconies and more balconies. There was a lower balcony that ran all the way around the room, following several protrusions and alcoves around the room. Then a second balcony above that and in spots there was a third. Off to the right there was a section of the room that jutted outward away from the stage that had four levels of balcony. I imagine this club is a fantastic place to watch all kinds of bands and I wish I lived closer to it.

Flansburgh said something about there being a thousand people in the room at one point and I can easily believe it. There were parents and kids everywhere, on every level. I was somewhat tempted to try the view from one of the balconies since it was probably fantastic and would have made for some great pictures but I was sucked in by the lure of the stage. Typically at family shows we tend to hang back and let the families have the good spots, however, family shows are also typically at seated venues. Our practice at standing room only family shows has been to stake out a spot at a corner of the stage so that we still get the great view without blocking the view of a bunch of kids. Of course this time there were four of us instead of only two so we took up a little more space than usual but we were still all tucked up next to the platform that holds Marty's drum kit.

The show shared a date with Linnell's 51st birthday, a fact which many people in the crowd were obviously aware of. There were some kids in the first balcony, opposite the stage who had made a sign that said "Happy Birthday John" and another one with a drawing of a birthday cake that they held pressed against the bars of the balcony for the entire show. Then there was the guy next to us who yelled "Happy Birthday" really loudly as soon as Linnell took the stage, but he wasn't alone as there were a number of birthday wishes shouted throughout the introductions. It was also lovely to be sharing Linnell's birthday with Stacy again, as this show was on the one year anniversary of the Portland show last year where we first met. It is a tradition I hope we can keep.

When the band took the stage it wasn't Flansburgh that greeted the crowd but Broom! He introduced himself as MC Broom and welcomed everyone to the show. He made some typical Broom jokes about the other gigs he had just played and probably said some other funny stuff that I was laughing too hard to remember. He also made the guys on stage laugh pretty hard too which was a great way to kick things off. I watched Danny turn to Marty as say something along the lines of "I didn't know he was going to START with that." Nice to see that Flans can still surprise the band (though the setlist did say Broom Intro).

Broom did a mini round of Introduce the Band to get things started. When it was Linnell's turn he played a little melody on the keyboard then picked up his right foot and started playing the keyboard with his foot. Broom said he played that way because he didn't respect his instrument. Not to be outdone, Danny then strummed at the strings of his bass with his foot a few times when it was his turn. I seriously wish I had pictures but I hadn't yet determined if they were going to be allowed. The tickets had said no photography but I brought my camera anyway and they didn't search on the way in. I ended up snagging a few shots and a video on the down low and nobody said anything to me but I tried to keep them quick and limited and I just didn't have the camera out yet at this point.

After Broom had said his farewells, they started with Fibber Island complete with lots of silly lip noises and to my delight, they brought back Zilch which they didn't do at the last few family shows I went to. They followed with Meet the Elements which they said was going to help everyone learn the periodic table and, if I am not mistaken, there was some sort of joke about it helping the adults pass their driving tests. (You see what happens when I don't have YouTube to fall back on? I forget everything!)

When Linnell announced that it was time for Bed, Flans came over to our side of the stage and laid down on the side of the drum platform and pretended to go to sleep. While still wearing his guitar I might add. And he seemed to have a little trouble getting up again. I was in a great position to see all of Marty's little noise makers that he uses during the song. And my boyfriend observed that with the new clear drums you can actually see Marty's feet while he plays. And more disturbingly you can see how precariously he is actually balanced when he stands on his little stool to do the cymbals at the end. Because I have to have at least one "mother's moment" in each show when I look at the stage and cringe because I am sure one of them is going to hit something or each other or trip or whatever. That'll just give me one more thing to worry about. And yes, I am a dork.

They launched the cannons during Bed and at some point shortly after, I got beaned in the head with a matted ball of confetti tossed by some small child. It didn't hurt but it was thrown with surprising force considering it was just confetti.

Somewhere right in here Flans did what has become his traditional family show lighting check where he had Iggy bring up the house lights and get them to an acceptable amount of brightness for the parents to wrangle their kids. He was also commenting on all the balconies and saying hello to the people up in the third balcony. He didn't even notice the fourth on the other side.

Flans introduced Curt for I Never Go to Work, once again talking about his ice cream castle. He was also going on about how Curt had made his trumpet out of ice and the ice cold sounds it made. Have I mentioned I wish I had video so I remembered exactly what he said?

We did Clap Your Hands followed by Kids Go! to keep us jumping. Flans mentioned Robin before doing Electric Car but called her their friend. It amuses me that he never says that she's his wife when he's talking about her singing this song. Now when are they going to bring her along to sing it?

813 Mile Car Trip rather reminded me of the trip we had made to get down to Baltimore which is almost exactly that distance round trip. Doctor Worm had this great introduction where they talked about the degree that the worm had gotten online from Curt's ice cream kingdom and how they wouldn't trust him to be their doctor. They said you could only get an degree in ice cream from the ice cream castle and if your doctor had a degree in ice cream you needed a new doctor. Danny executed another fantastic leap at the end, jumping off of the second step leading up to the horn platform to get some impressive height.

I love how The Famous Polka has become an an opportunity for each of the guys to rock out in turn. They pretty much all get a great little solo (well, except for Dan I guess, poor Dan). Speaking of Dan, he was the one person I really couldn't see well at this show, so this recap is sadly, largely Dan-free. He was probably doing fabulously amusing things on the other side of the stage that I just couldn't see.

I can't exactly remember where in the show it occurred but at some point Flans pointed out how the kids watching the show through the bars of the balcony in front of him looked like they were watching the show in jail and said he wished he had a camera. Linnell whipped out his iPhone from his back pocket and snapped a shot of them and then said it was going up on the website, "Depeche Mode.com."

Flans had to try to reign the audience in and get them to pay attention so he could give the counting instructions for Pirate Girls Nine. The first time wasn't loud enough, the second time still wasn't loud enough and the third time they decided was too loud (it really was VERY loud). It came out all right in the song though.

Marty came down from the drum platform to go the electric kit and said something to Danny on the way down and I assumed they had once again managed to skip something on the setlist. Ever the one keeping the band on track, Danny mentioned this to Linnell who nodded but they kept on with the next song they were planning which turned out to be Why Does the Sun Shine? They had already decided to do the pirate version again this time but it still had an amusing start when Linnell started to play the slow version and Flans stopped him and, in his pirate accent, said "it starts with Marty, John." You can just catch that at the beginning of my video which I am including to save having to describe the awesomeness.



After WDTSS?, as Marty made his way back across the stage, Danny mentioned the missed song to Flans, who said "let's do it now." Turned out they had been talking about High Five and Marty walked back to center stage. Having looked at the setlist afterwards, it turns out High Five had missed being put on entirely which must have been what Marty was saying and they ended up playing it instead of Roy G. Biv. Marty started his round of high fives on the other side of the stage but quickly ran over to our side and all of our group (except maybe Steve, I think he said he had missed his) got high fived, mostly because we were the only ones on our side ready with out hands up. Marty did some great running around in circles while he was singing and just kept running back and forth from side to side of the stage trying to high five people, though a lot of the time he missed or the kids just weren't ready. There was a kid next to me whose dad kept lifting her up to get one but never in time and he kept putting her down again instead of waiting for Marty to come back around. But yay, I got a high five from Marty!

At the end of the song when Marty ran around the stage to high five all the guys in the band, he started with Danny who wasn't ready or looking up. So Marty just reached down and smacked at the top of his hand that he was holding over his bass. Danny looked up with a very funny "Wah?" look of surprise and they were both still laughing about it after the song finished.

Then came the puppets. I can't remember that they said anything particularly unique before Shooting Star. Some "it's our pleasure to serve you" and take about Avatar and the like. Danny came over and sat down on the edge of the drum platform to play during Shooting Star and I wanted to take a picture but I was so close I felt a little too self conscious. After the first song the guys all started to play a riff from The Beatles You Say It's Your Birthday. Blue Avatar announced that it was Green Avatars birthday but Blue Avatar asked them to stop playing that Beatles song because he wanted the audience to sing Happy Birthday with him. So we did. "Happy birthday, dear Green Avatar. Happy birthday to you." Then they started up The Beatles again. I rather wish they had attempted a cover of that song. That would have been cool.

Blue Avatar also mentioned that they had stickers to give away after the show that they had provided. How generous of them. They finished their set with Stalk of Wheat which I couldn't really see because Danny resumed his regular spot which was directly between me and the screen. I could just see puppet faces occasionally popping out from around his shoulders.

Keeping in the birthdayish theme they did Seven and Linnell did not get to eat any of his birthday cake because it was all stolen by sevens and greedy audience members.

Danny came out to do Paleontologist and kept trying to say it was for all the people in prison (the kids behind the bars) but Flans kept interrupting him and saying it was jail not prison. He kept saying prison was long term and that those kids were in jail. But Danny just kept ignoring him and saying prison.  Linnell used ichthyosaur as one of the dinosaurs in the spoken part which amused me since we now know from the interview he gave recently that that is his favorite dinosaur. Also, I would swear he was looking and pointing at me when he said it but I could have been imagining it (read: I probably was).

Flans let the kids play his guitar again at the beginning of Older. He started on the other side and it looked like the kids were really hesitant to play at first, like they thought they were going to get in trouble but they got into it eventually. Then he came over to our side and I could have played if I wanted to but I got out of the way to let the kids in. Then Flans and Danny did their little duet right in front of us which Danny finished by pointing the end of his bass at a young girl that was in front of him and grinning at her making her incredibly happy (she was about 10 and looked like she might be working pretty hard on developing her first rock band crush).

We got buried in confetti during the pause since the confetti machine was right in front of us. It's hard to even keep your eyes open when you are getting that much confetti spewed at you for fear of getting it in your eyes. Linnell did some great Kaoss Pad improve toward the end of the song. He was clearly still in the silly mood he had been in the day before. I guess he must have been having a pretty good birthday.

Completely fantastic Particle Man. They did the keyboard/Kaoss Pad bit again with Linnell conducting Flans and Danny. Much hilarity ensued. And with that they have officially revived my interest in Particle Man. Good job guys.

TMBG 6/12/10 #2

Linnell came over to stand right in front of us to play the crazy accordion part at the end (and when I say right in front of us I mean like mere inches. I was face to face with his knees.) I went to take a picture and had to lean back to even get him in the shot. He apparently noticed this and actually bent down to get into my shot, then held the pose until I put the camera down. I am not even joking. I just about died. But I got the shot! See.

TMBG 6/12/10 #4

There was a woman behind us who leaned into Stacy and I after the song finished and said, "It's not every day that happens." Stacy leaned over to me and said, "Well, it kind of does to us." See we got accordioned on at that Portland show too. What a perfect way to celebrate that anniversary.

During the Band Intros, Flans finally acknowledged something that I have always noted. When he does the "The bass is Danny Weinkauf" chant, the audience can never seem to get the Weinkauf and it always just peters out into a mumble at the end. I'm sure I have even noted that before on this blog. Well this time Flans pointed out that he knew the end was hard and said the name more precisely. Then he started to spell it out (I wasn't listening carefully enough to hear if he was spelling it correctly or w-i-n-e) but just ended it with kauf. Meanwhile, Danny got a nice groove going and I got some nice pictures of him and his Silly Bandz.

TMBG 6/12/10 #6

We screamed forever for Marty. I never know when to scream at the family shows because Flans gets the dads and the moms and the kids to scream but never gives an option for crazy fans with no kids who can't bear to miss a show. I guess maybe I should scream with the kids since that who I most relate to.

Pre-encore closed out with Istanbul. I had been saying to Stacy before the show how much I enjoy watching how excited Flans gets by other band members' solos when he just gets to stand back and watch. He gave a perfect example while watching Curt, grooving and grinning. We had another epic confetti launch, this one even longer and stronger than the last. Flans was thanking all the parents for bringing their kids out to the show. Danny pointed out to him that there were two spotlight operators sitting in chairs hanging from the ceiling and he thanked those guys too. We had noticed them before the show started just hanging from metal rigging in the center of the room in suspended chairs with the spotlights mounted on the front. When I noticed them the first time, one of the guys was up there talking on his cell phone. I sure hope they were strapped in. Danny had noticed them during the last confetti launch and had been pointing them out to Marty but at the time I thought he was just pointing at someone in the balcony. I didn't realize until Flans mentioned it that they were discussing the spotlight guys who were probably also getting hit with confetti even up in the air.

TMBG 6/12/10 #9

They did Alphabet of Nations for the encore and Flans reminded everyone about the stickers and told them they could not put them on their face, only on their car. He should probably stipulate that only the parents should put them on the car or a lot of people are going to end up with cars with TMBG 8-bit rock bumper stickers stuck on the side windows or something. Flans ended up on my side of the stage passing out stickers and while the rest of my group fled, I stayed behind to try to snag my setlist. I felt horribly in the way and by the time I realized I really needed to move I was stuck. Flans even made a comment that people should get out of the way to let other people get stickers that I am sure was probably directed at me. They must have needed to get out in a hurry because the crew was already moving around unplugging things and picking up pedal boards and such. I finally squeezed my way out in front of the keyboard between where the guys were standing with stickers and Victor rescued me from being squished any further by handing me the setlist off of Linnell's keyboard. Oh thank god. Sorry for the trouble guys. And yes, it came with that Organic sticker on it.

TMBG 6/12/10 #12

While I was trying to avoid being crushed the woman behind me who had made the comment about the accordion came up to Flans to get her sticker and told him next time they should play the "500 Miles" song. He just looked confused and said thanks or OK or something. I thought maybe she meant 813 Miles which they had played but I thought maybe she missed it. Turns out she had asked my boyfriend earlier before she approached Flans if they had played 500 Miles and she actually was under the impression that The Proclaimers song I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) was by They Might Be Giants. Weird.

I also got a small of amount of glee knowing that the setlist I ended up with was the one the annoying guy next to me had asked Victor for BEFORE the show (he did say after the show). What was Victor gonna do, put the guy's name on it?

I said hi to Iggy on the way out and made a mental note to remember that at crazy bumper sticker shows Iggy has a setlist too which he is happy to give to me because he's done it before. I should also note that we got new foam fingers at this show. Slightly different style and thinner foam. Still orange like most of my other ones though they did have green as well.

And that was that. We dropped Stacy and Steve off at the airport to fly home for a party and began the 400 mile trip back home. A thoroughly enjoyable weekend. I have to admit, I'm a little sad that it's over since I don't have another TMBG show until September. Anybody want to buy me a ticket to California?

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The Stone Magical Pony

Wow, what a weekend. Coming down off of a weekend like this and returning to reality is like falling off a cliff and landing face first on cement. I'd much rather stay on the cliff. I'm gonna split the two shows from this weekend into two separate entries. Here is part one.

June 11, 2010 - The Stone Pony - Asbury Park, NJ

We road tripped down to Asbury Park with Stacy and her boyfriend. Despite leaving a bit later than I wanted to and my GPS deciding that, no, it really did NEED us to go over the George Washington Bridge even though I was trying to avoid it and go over the Tappen Zee, we made pretty good time. We were meeting up with our friend Megan (fouroftwo - our spring road trip companion) and her friends at The Stone Pony and they beat us there but we were only about an hour behind them.

We were the third group in line at the door. There ended up being something much more akin to a cluster than a line at the door as we all more or less knew each other and intermingled a bit. As time went on the line grew out behind us and on down the block further than I could see.

We amused ourselves watching the water park across the street while we waited. There was a giant teacup that kept dumping water into a pool and some large inflatable balls that people eventually got in and rolled around on the water. We watched Dan, Danny, Marty and Curt all make their way into the club. It is always comforting to confirm that, yes, the band is all here. We got to hear soundcheck which included Doctor Worm, Take Out the Trash, Your Racist Friend, probably something else I am forgetting, and a rousing rendition of the Jeopardy theme by Curt. One of the club employees came wandering by with one of Iggy's rock doves clipped to his hat. It was silly.

TMBG 6/11/10 #1

Creeping ever closer to doors, the Johns wandered out with Curt and Scott off in search of dinner. A few minutes later Danny came out and had to ask some of the people in the group in front of us if they had seen where the guys had gone so he could catch up. They pointed him in the right way and he ran into Scott who sent him off to the right place. Scott to the rescue yet again.

Finally, when I was about frozen (it was VERY windy and I was wearing a skirt - not a good choice) they opened the doors. Our group of seven took over the right side of the stage while the groups in front of us took middle and left, making this the first show where I legitimately knew every person in the front row from end to end. This show was pretty much a mecca event for the East Coast TMBG fans with folks traveling in from every direction. Last count had the number of TMBW members attending at 29 and I know several other people who were there that aren't on the wiki.

The stage had an apron sticking out into the audience in the center, in front of the keyboard, which I didn't even realize until Flans climbed out onto it. There were parade barriers set in front of the main stage at an angle so the only people in the front row that were actually against the stage were those around the sides of the apron. My boyfriend and I were the last people directly in front of the stage on the right side with a head on view due to one of the lighting towers. There were people off the our right that were in front of the monitors and the sound board and were actually watching the show from the side over crew and equipment. That can't have been a great view. Ours on the other hand was quite good. We were directly in front of Marty's electric kit with a great view across the stage. The only thing we couldn't really see was the back corner where Dan's keyboard and the puppets were because it was behind the lighting rig.

The most prominent new feature of this stage set-up was Marty's new acrylic drum kit. It's completely clear with the 8-bit TMBG graphics from the current version of their website on the front of the kick drum. Those same graphics are also now on the front of the bass drum with the puppet cam mount. Snazzy! Marty must have a museum of old drum kits in his basement since this is now at least the fourth kit he's used, it you count the electric.

TMBG 6/11/10 #42

We were also happy to see the return of the rock doves on the stage. They haven't been spotted since we saw them in their box in Asheville in March so it was nice to see they haven't flown the coop. This one stared at me disapprovingly throughout the show.

TMBG 6/11/10 #3

The club had a back door that opened out onto a patio area and they kept the door open for the show allowing the crowd to spill out into the courtyard. It made for some interesting lighting while the sun was still up.

The show started pretty close to on time. The audience let out a cheer at one point a few minutes earlier that we never could see the cause of but we could see the guys coming in from outside (there was no backstage) when the cheer went up again and knew it was time to rock. The intro music hardy seemed necessary since it was obvious the band had arrived.

Flans started by pointing out Marty's new kit, saying he couldn't be more proud of it and that it had come from the estate of John Bonham and was made out of "solid, invisible stuff". Linnell said he thought he had gotten it from Wonder Woman and that she had taken it on her plane but Flans said he had seen that on eBay and she wanted top dollar so he had gotten John Bonham's kit because it was cheaper. Flans then joked that they weren't playing any songs tonight, which got a surprisingly positive response from the crowd.

Flans noted the people standing outside and said that next time they'd get there earlier. Linnell thought they probably wanted to be out there and Flans said it was probably nice out there and that watching the show from there would be like watching TV outside. Linnell said that if he was at the concert he would probably be watching it from outside which prompted Flans to do a pretty accurate impression of Linnell standing with his arms folded watching the show.

Flans did a cute little "me-me-me-me" into the mic before he started singing. They launched the music with Asbury Park, getting the requisite venue song out of the way. I have to say, having seen them do this venue song more than any other it wasn't quite as unique to hear it in it's actual venue as it has been with others.

TMBG 6/11/10 #4

They followed with The Mesopotamians, then We Live in a Dump, (which Flans said was very emotional for them because it was about where they live), Meet the Elements and Damn Good Times in rapid succession. Flans made briefly made some screeching feedback with one of his pedals during Meet the Elements which he later explained was because he was so distracted by looking at all the guitars on the walls of the club. He promised it would he would never do it again....in this show. He then went on to tell a story about how they had done a show with The Flaming Lips a few years ago and they have this part in their show where they have all these guys on stage in suits. They just get local guys to wear the suits and they take their driver's license from them to make sure they get the suits back. Flans suggested that the next time they are at the Stone Pony they figure out a way to get all the guitars off the wall and give them to people in the audience in exchange for their driver's license and then all play a song together. "There's like 80 guitars in here. It could be possibly one of the worst musical events ever staged. I mean it would really sound like ass." Linnell said it seemed like everyone liked that suggestion except perhaps for whom ever owns all the guitars. Flans thought that Sam Ash at the Guitar Center probably owned them because there were a lot of brand new guitars on the wall with people's names on them. He suggested that the Guitar Center employees actually wrote the names.
Flans: "This one's mine. Fuck you."
Linnell: "They wrote Joe Perry."
Flans: "Dear Joe Perry, I wish you played this guitar."
Linnell: "Love, Sam Ash"

Linnell then asked Iggy if they had the cannons with them and got a no. There was some booing from the crowd but Linnell said it was a good thing because they were real cannons. Flans said they were saving the real cannons for the kids shows. Linnell said they were going to shoot the kids out of the cannons because they were small enough to go in them and Flans followed with a hilarious impression of a child flying through the air after having been shot out of a cannon.

TMBG 6/11/10 #11

And back to the music with Alphabet of Nations. This version included some particularly classic Linnell facial expressions while singing. Then Linnell picked up his accordion to the cheers of the crowd. Flans pointed out that it was newly repaired and had been in two pieces either that day and that Adam, their sound guy had fixed it. It was apparently, the third accordion that Adam had repaired that week, so apparently other musicians have trouble with broken accordions as well. Flans welcomed Curt Ramm to the stage. "You might recognize him from Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions band. Bruce Springsteen, very up and coming fellow. Very popular in certain areas of the country." I enjoyed Curt's response to this which was a short of nod and shrug as if to say, yes, that's true, you might recognize me from there. Proud and modest at the same time. Curt was wearing this fabulous t-shirt with a shiny question mark with the world as the dot on it, which I don't think I managed to capture in any of my pictures of him.

Curt joined in for a rockin' Doctor Worm in which Linnell replaced the "Good Morning how are you" chorus at the end with some random noises (similar to what you'd do if you had forgotten the words, though he was just being silly). Flans introduced him again for our"distraction and diversion"as he came center stage to do the Istanbul intro. I have probably mentioned this before but I love how Happy Flans gets watching other people do solos. He was just grinning at Curt from ear to ear. Continuing in the silly theme, Linnell replaced one of the "People just liked it better that way" lines with some of the Mr. Lips sound effects from the keyboard.

Flans introduced Marty on the electric kit. He said someone had given them the drums because they didn't want them anymore, to which Linnell added that someone had given them the songs they were going to play on them as well. Editor's note: I believe Roland actually gave them the drums if previous Flans statements can be assumed to be fact. They started with James K. Polk. Linnell did what would be the singing saw solo on the keyboard and commented afterward that they didn't have Ralph Carney with them which is exactly what I was thinking. On the fall tour Dan didn't play on Polk, instead they had Ralph come out and do the solo on his made up instrument. At Mohegan in November when they did it, Dan forgot that he needed to be on stage to do the solo with Ralph not there and ran out at the last minute. He wasn't on stage at all this time and I don't know if he forgot again or if Linnell had just forgotten that he needed to do the solo himself. He was certainly looking around the stage leading up to it as if he was trying to see if Dan was hiding somewhere but he led into it pretty seamlessly so I'm not sure.

After the song, Flans commented on Linnell's loud enunciation of "in" on "In four short years."
Flans: "27 years into it, it's nice to know that you still can be shook up."
Linnell: "The good old Tourettes never lets me down."

Flans asked Linnell how they were going to approach the next song in a new and surprising manner. Linnell thought they should have had that discussion at rehearsal but Flans said this was rehearsal. Linnell said they were going to be doing the whole show over again which got a lot of cheers. Flans suggested a few options, slow, medium, pirate. Pirate got a very positive response from the audience prompting Flans to note that there were some pirates in the crowd. Linnell decided they better do pirate so they didn't get beaten up in the parking lot but then had to ask how pirate style went. I had already figured out that they were dicussing Why Does the Sun Shine but in retrospect it must have been curious for the people in the crowd who haven't seen the show a bazillion times to not know what song they were discussing.

While Flans was thinking about how to explain pirate style to Linnell, Danny reappeared on stage, having left while they were talking. They all turned around to look at him and he explained, "I play on pirate." Linnell said it was the addition of the electric bass that makes it the pirate version. Then came my favorite line of the whole show.
Flans: "Danny was backstage smoking a menthol and was like, pirate style? I better get out there! I play on this one." It probably isn't as funny if you weren't there but I laughed pretty hard.

So, pirate version of WDTSS?, sung in pirate voices with pirate terms replacing the elements. The gases were scurvy, barnacles, parrots and Flans yelling "my thumb in your eye" while he squinted out at the audience miming pushing his thumb into someone's eye, to which Linnell responded, "ow, now I will wear an eye patch forever." Flans screwed up the next line and said hot again which really threw Linnell off. He scrambled for a second then came up with "If the sun were hollow a million earth's would be heated by the heat of the sun," but lost the pirate voice. Flans cried, "Character voices, John!" Linnell yelled "Arrrrrrrrrrrr" then said he was looking for large.
Flans: "Have it your way. The sun is large."
Linnell: "If the sun were hollow a million earth's would fit inside"
Flans: "Lies!"
Linnell: "and be made to walk the plank."
Flans: "Lies!"
Linnell had Flans do the nuclear reactions which were caused by dirty bandanas, the helmsman, and my thumb in your other eye. During this Marty had popped up from the electric kit to beat the bass drum behind him but he kind of tripped in his rush to get up and sort of fell into the drum for the first beat. Flans paused for a beat before finishing the song after the reactions to let Marty run back around and sit down again which was very cute and silly and made Danny laugh pretty much through to the end of the song. Linnell said after the song that he felt like he'd been keelhauled and Flans commented that he realized he sang in falsetto on the next song and perhaps the Popeye routine wasn't the best idea.

The next song turned out to be the answer song, Why Does the Sun Really Shine? I think I must have been focused on something, probably photography related during this song because I barely remember it. I think I was trying to get a shot of Dan's face as he sang "Plasma" but I wasn't successful. They followed with Upside Down Frown which Flans said was brand new. "I am three years younger than I actually am standing in front of you now." Curt rejoined them for Your Racist Friend.

TMBG 6/11/10 #16

Somewhere after the incident with the feedback Flans had hollered off stage to the sound guy, "Will, do you have a flashlight." Will must have said no because Flans followed with, "Well, could you get me one?" For some reason the tone of voice he used amused me. I can't exactly describe it. He was still having issues with some buzzing off the pedals and when he got the flashlight after Your Racist Friend he spent a minute with it down on the floor trying to fix them. I'm not sure he was that successful. But in the meantime Linnell made up a new song which consisted of "Microphone stand" sung twice while playing the accordion.

The played Museum of Idiots which is one of my favorite songs, but I think I spaced out again. I don't know what I was doing but again, I barely remember it, which makes me sad. I guess I may have been watching Flans try to fix his pedals which he continued to do throughout the song, but I am just not sure.

Flans did some pretty amusing bouncing around during Clap Your Hands. I managed to drop my phone while jumping the the air but it surprisingly managed to survive the surprise contact with the concrete floor without harm.

Withered Hope continues to be one of my very favorite songs to hear live. And with the combination of the keyboard chord riff, the horn and the killer bass line, musically it is pretty much on top of my list. It was followed by some great banter.

Flan: "I was having a psychedelic experience during that last song. I've never seen a disco ball in a rock context work so well. But that's the magic of The Stone Pony, ladies and gentleman."
Linnell: "The Stone (Magical) Pony" - making the parenthesis with his hands
Flans: "The Stone is disco, the Pony is rock and the The is the psychedelic experience. Put them together you get Stone Pony The and you need a ride home."
Linnell: "So here's a song, I don't know, was it from the Flood album? I think is was I think is WAS."
Flans: "I don't know I kinda stepped off after Lincoln. I'm more indie."
Linnell: "I like the early demos that no one's ever heard. Yaaaaay" (The last in response to someone in the crowd yelling.)
Flans: "I like the songs that they almost finished before they chickened out."

All of which led into Dead. I know this is a favorite song of a lot of my readers but I am sorry to say it has officially hit my list of songs I am sick of hearing. Apparently 24 was the magic number on that one.

TMBG 6/11/10 #41

Flans talked about their upcoming Bonnaroo appearance on Sunday and how impressed they were with the line-up. He improvised some mock conversations he'd have with the other musicians backstage. "Hey, Jay-Z, how's in going backstage. Good, good. I like the clothes you're wearing. Hello, Mr. Weezer."

Next up Memo to Human Resources. Again, not one of my favorites but it was followed by puppets which I always love. They used some prerecorded Jeopardy theme music to segue into the Avatars rather than Free Ride. Green Avatar complimented Blue Avatar on his new announcer voice and asked if he wanted to perform a song but Blue Avatar said no, he'd like to yak some more. He did some usual schtick about not being able to perform their songs because James Cameron wouldn't let them and then said that they would be more familiar to us if Cameron hadn't cut them out of the film Avatar.
Blue Avatar: "You would remember this scene: *sticks eye into camera* and who could forget this scene. *sticks other eye into camera* Then of course there was this scene. *pulls away from camera then back again several times to imitate 3D*" They sang What Is A Shooting Star? with some amusing bird-like acking noises from Green Avatar at the end. Then Blue Avatar said they were getting an encore and that he hadn't seen a reaction like this since Paul Stanley went out solo. "I'm talking about Paul Stanley of KISS not the other Paul Stanley." Blue Avatar stuck his eye in the camera some more and Green Avatar sang "Eyeball" in a rather silly voice, then they did Stalk of Wheat.

Band intros featured a particularly silly segment for Danny. In addition to getting the crowd to repeat "The bass, the bass, the bass is Danny Weinkauf" Flans also got everyone going on a repeat-after-me which included things like "He's not listening." "Danny's not listening." He's just grooving to himself now." There were a few others. It took a while for the audience to get that Flans wanted them to repeat something other than the standard line and even when they did not many people joined in. But it was pretty funny none the less. Then after we screamed for Marty, Flans yelled "We don't know why he wont show us his birth certificate!" God, I love jokes that run across multiple shows.

They led Spider straight into Birdhouse which is an odd transition really. Linnell goofed up the musical bit before the first "Blue canary" which is my favorite part. Curses! He was kind of laughing at himself as he did it though so I guess that's OK. He also yelled, "Instruments!" before the instrumental in the middle which amused me.

First intermission break was pretty short and Linnell ran back on stage ahead of the rest of the band like it was a race. He started playing the beginning of New York City before the rest of the guys were even on stage and they joined in gradually.

He was being silly at the beginning of Ana Ng too, running around the stage with his arms out and then fooling around with the Kaoss Pad and doing a little dance while the guys played the opening rhythm over and over, before he ever got around to singing. He fiddled with the Kaoss Pad again near the end and finished with some very flourishy keyboard notes. He was definitely in a particularly goofy mood tonight.

For the second encore it was Flans who ran out on stage first and started Older. He held out his guitar for the audience to play presenting it directly to my friends Megan and Stacy, totally making their day. Thanks Flans, for making my friends happy! :-D The pause to let the confetti machine blow was particularly epic. It was so long I had time to take individual pictures of all of the guys' poses and let my camera reset between each one. Not quite the best Older pause I have seen (the Lupo's show last January holds that honor) but very close. Linnell's face as he watched the confetti was pretty classic as well. Before he started singing again he said that if you just watched the confetti it looked like you were going that way (pointing right) really fast. We didn't get hit with any confetti because we were too far on the other side of the stage butI collected some afterward.

TMBG 6/11/10 #48

Flans made some stage announcements before the last song of the encore announcing their other shows this weekend and thanking everyone for coming. He also said "If you are still on MySpace....what's up with that? You can find us on Friendster." Day before yesterday, they posted a comment on my MySpace page telling me to come over to Facebook because they needed me. A number of people got the same message though I don't know how he picked people to post it to. Just people who have commented a lot I guess. I haven't been on MySpace since Flans' birthday to post a Happy Birthday comment so I didn't really need the reminder to move to Facebook but it's always nice to be needed.

They closed out this encore with Where Your Eyes Don't Go then left the stage again. There was an uncertain pause when it wasn't clear if they would come back but they did in fact return for the elusive third encore. Marty started up the Particle Man beat as the other guys came on stage. Dan was already clapping on the back beat as he walked on. Linnell went over to Flans and suggested they do something that Flans shot down. Flans suggested they do the thing with him and Danny on the keyboard which he indicated by moving his fingers around. I think he had to say it twice before Linnell knew what he meant and agreed to it. I'm really curious what it was that Linnell wanted to do. Then Flans went to tell Danny what they were going to do and had to tell him twice before he got it too. I think we really may have been there for the rehearsal. Linnell excused them and said they were having a band meeting.

Linnell asked us to clap over our heads. "I don't know why exactly. It shows commitment."
Flans: "This is like a miniature KISS at Wembley Stadium event."
Linnell: "Did anyone else see Miniature KISS at Wembley Stadium?"

This harked back to some of the very early performances of Particle Man I ever saw. Linnell inserted I Love to Sing in the bridge and conducted Flans on the keyboard and Danny of the Kaoss Pad in making weird sounds after each line. I laughed a little when Danny accidently hit the Kaoss Pad before he was supposed to and made a little blat sound while Linnell was still singing. But the whole effect was enormously entertaining and something I didn't even realize I had missed. Every time I think I have finally gotten utterly and seriously sick of Particle Man they find a new way to make me want to hear it again. Once he picked up the main song again, Linnell climbed out onto the apron for some final end of show accordion mashing ending the set on an incredible high note.

TMBG 6/11/10 #58

We hung out for a bit after the show collecting confetti, buying t-shirts and socializing with our other friends who hadn't traveled with us. I easily got my setlist from Victor. He picked them all up, looked out at me, indicated "do you want one?" then came over to hand it to me before passing the rest out down the line. As if I didn't want one.

It was a pretty spectacular show and it was great to see friends and finally meet others who we had only conversed with online. I would like to hardily thank those fans who recorded the show as those videos were very, very helpful in creating this write-up. For once my quotes are 100% accurate and I didn't forget anything. In fact the write-up seems pretty unnecessary since you could just go watch the whole show on YouTube but I know people enjoy them so I did it anyway. There are a pretty good batch of pictures on my Flickr page if you'd like to see the ones not included here.

I will have the write-up of the Baltimore show (which I secretly liked even more than this one....shhhhh) up shortly. In the meantime if you are on Twitter, please follow @tmbgfanpics. It's a spiffy new Twitter feed that TDK just started that will be posting a TMBG picture taken by a fan everyday. You can even submit your own. His inaugural picture is from the Stone Pony show and is absolutely mind blowing.