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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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?