Call me crazy, but I kind of love it when they screw up. False starts, forgotten lyrics, wrong chords, dropped verses, lost songs. I guess they all fall into the category of making the band seem more real and human. But they just make me smile and laugh. I like the jokes that come out of the mistakes. They are often the funniest off the cuff remarks of the show. I enjoy watching them crack each other up with ill-timed entrances and hilariously mixed up words.
The word "celebration" was the band's kid show safe version of "I fucked up," originated at some point last spring. I still occasionally hear Flans yell "celebration, celebration" after a bad start as a signal for everyone to stop playing. I find the word rather appropriate. Don't hide the fuck ups. Celebrate them.
I actually have a lot of respect for them being willing to stop a song part way in to try and get it right. Personally, I think it's braver to admit you messed up and try again than to play through a bad beginning.
I believe Linnell sums it up best. "We could wipe out on this and actually we might have so little pride that we would just start over again."
Little known fact, the two most screwed up shows I've seen (St. Louis last October and Charlotte this spring) are actually among my very favorite shows because they are the most memorable. I have a feeling that 20 years from now I wont have much more than a vague sense of why I loved my favorite perfect shows but I will still remember all the gory details of those two shows.
I include for you a video of one of my very favorite reactions to screwing up a song I have ever seen.
Edit: I feel like I need to clarify something. When I say I love it when they screw up, I mean the little things. A flubbed up line here, starting the wrong song there. Anything that makes them laugh, makes me laugh. I do not enjoy watching things go really wrong. That is painful and stressful and makes me feel awful. The reason the messed up shows are among my favorites is partly because they were still really good shows and partly because the fact that I can recognize what is going wrong (aside from big obvious things) makes me feel more a part of the show. More connected some how. It's war time camaraderie rather than schadenfreude. I just wanted to make that clear, that I'm not reveling in their failures or anything. Because in retrospect this entry seemed a bit callous.
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I, too usually find amusement in the mistakes, but I also feel a little bad about feeling amusement because Flansy once emphasized in an interview how much They positively HATE it when things go wrong, and how it's like a absolute nightmare for them. I'm sure that it's not so terrible for them like that every single time, like in the video you posted with the confetti hang-time, but I know that you've also seen Mr. Flansburgh in pissed-off mode. It's not fun.
ReplyDeleteWhen anything goes wrong at a show I immediately get these Vietnam-like flashbacks to Charlotte and Flansburgh glowering at everybody and refusing to sing the bride to Ana Ng. What a nightmare. I did love Towson, though:
ReplyDelete"John, do you want the puppet to sing it?"
"No, no. I do, but he'd fuck it up even worse than me, that creepy little sawed-off runt."
I should clarify, I am primarily referring to the little mistakes when I say I enjoy watching them screw up. Things like messed up lyrics and distracting confetti are funny. Watching things go REALLY wrong. Not funny.
ReplyDeleteWatching the Charlotte show was painful. I felt awful for them. I felt awful that I was watching them feel awful. I felt more awful later when Danny told me how awful they felt about the show. But I really do have a fondness for that show in my memory because, despite everything that went wrong, it was a good show. They played a good setlist. There was some really funny banter. I totally bonded with the trash can I was stuck next to. I think maybe my appreciation for the show comes out of a sense of camaraderie that was created by us all going through that disaster on wheels together. Sort of like old war buddies. (That is a totally over dramatic metaphor.)
The St. Louis show was a much more enjoyable screwed up show because all the mistakes were related to skipping songs when they were supposed to be playing Flood in order. Which just got funnier the more songs they realized they had missed, eventually resulting in Flans asking if they had forgotten to play all of Lincoln too. But as much fun as Danny and I were having cracking up about the ridiculousness of it on our side of the stage, I could tell that Flans was getting exasperated. And I did feel bad about finding it so funny when they came back for the first encore and got the distinct impression that Flans had probably yelled at Danny while they were off stage as he was much more subdued for the rest of the night.
So yes, anything that puts Flansburgh in pissed-off mode is not fun. It's Flans in silly "what the fuck just happened" mode like in the video and Megan's example that I enjoy.