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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.