Awesome Weekend Part One

September 24, 2010 - Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel - Providence, RI

OH MY GOD.

I am still reeling from last night's show. My face is actually sore from smiling so much. I think I watched most of the show with a stupid grin on my face. And for hours afterward we all just kept saying "oh my god, that show."

We seem plagued by bizarre travel issues getting to shows this fall. Due to another one, we didn't get to Lupo's until about an hour before doors. But our very awesome friends saved us spots in line which I will be forever grateful for as we wouldn't have been able to get in the front otherwise.

If you read blog reports from our spring shows you will actually get this joke. Getting into the club we were actually forced to wait for Scott. There were two rows to get in and Scott was talking to the ticket taker in our row and preventing her from taking tickets. So people that were behind in line got in first because they were in the other row. Curses, Scott!

It didn't actually matter once we got inside. There was still plenty of stage front room. There was a large speaker on the floor in front of the stage on the right hand side and we took spots around it. It was a little weird since it didn't seem to have much of a purpose but it did kind of give me an excuse to stand at an angle to the stage which proved to be an almost perfect view. The only person I couldn't see was Marty because he was behind Linnell.

There was an opener even though one hadn't been announced. They claimed not to have a name but for this show went by the name The Jess Powers Project. It was a woman in a very short black dress that was see through in the back. There were two guitar players in cool hats, a drummer who made ridiculous faces while he played and a guy with an upright bass. They did very free form jazzy style music but with bluesy vocals. They were OK. The music was actually pretty good but I could have done without the vocals. It seemed like an odd pairing with TMBG. The singer didn't even look like the sort of person who would ever even have heard of TMBG.

They have swapped out a lot of their regular crew for this tour. Iggy's still there of course but they had David with them as guitar tech, as Victor is, presumably, still out on tour with OK Go. They had Vince on sound, who was the guy they had with them on their fall tour. I don't even know who they had on monitors because it wasn't Will and I never identified which of the other guys wandering around was the other tech and which were the club employees.

There were people sitting in the balconey who had printed out a giant sign that said She's An Angel to hang on the railing. Apparently the band was feeling obliging because that was the first song they played when they came out, complete with excellently weird horn intro. Once I figured out they definitely weren't starting with a new song, I realized what they were playing immediately but I could tell that most of the people around me didn't identify the song until the lyrics started. Linnell had one of the fans pointing straight at him during this song so he was looking particularly windswept while playing the accordion.

They ripped right into Damn Good Times next, with a particularly excellent guitar solo from Dan.

Then Hey, Mr. DJ which was wonderful since our friends had heard it at soundcheck before we got there. It's been a while since I heard that one and I have missed it. It is one of my favorites to hear live.

Then Flans announced that they were going to play something brand new. He pulled out a copy of John Hershey's Hiroshima which had lyrics sheets in it for him to cheat off of. He said that we would have to forgive them for all the pauses and messed up lyrics because it was a new song. A woman it the audienced yelled, "It's cute." Flans replied, "It's not cute lady, it's fucking sad. We've been doing this for 25 years." This got a lot of cheers, though secretly I wanted to yell "28."

They played Duende, though Flans said that it is called Three Might Be Duende. I don't know how much to trust him, but regardless it is the song we got the teaser of on YouTube back in June. It's primarily a Flans song though Linnell also sings a verse. He put on these serious coke bottle lens glasses for the song so he could see the lyrics on his keyboard.The sound quality on the mics in Lupo's was pretty terrible so I could barely make out any of the lyrics. But my initial thought was that the song is going to be a bitch to deceifer for the wiki without a lyric sheet because there were so many words. I really liked it despite not being able to hear the lyrics. It sounds like a march, which is in fact mentioned in the opening lyrics. I am looking forward to hearing it again tonight, hopefully with better sound.



They played Museum of Idiots which is a great song to do with the full horn section (which they had btw). I was happy to hear it again since that was the song I spaced out on at The Stone Pony. And speaking of, they followed with Asbury Park. They seem to really enjoy doing that one. Then Meet the Elements.

Marty moved to the electric kit and gave a little sound demo. Flans said that while we were at the show there were guys at our house breaking into our bedroom windows and this was their soundtrack. Then he said the police were coming as Marty flashed the siren sound but he didn't leave it going and Flans was forced to retract his statement. Then Marty realized he had missed the cue and turned the siren back on for a second.

Flans had already mentioned their Grammy for 123s while Marty was setting up. Linnell announced that the next song was about polygons which meant they weren't saving Nonagon for the kids show. Loved it! Linnell drew the shapes of the polygons in the air as he sang them. He almost messed up a lyric near the beginning and made a cute little embarressed face. Oddly, this was the only song they used the electric drums for.

Back to familiar territory. Doctor Worm. Danny didn't do his leap. He seems to have injured himself as he was limping. At some point in the set he had Scott go on a beer run for him which amused me. The Guitar, which featured an awesome sax solo from Stan. So, so very good with the horns.

Then the Avatars. Green Avatar did some coughing. Blue Avatar asked him if he had just quite smoking. He said no, he was still on fire. Then there was the obligatory joke about menthol cigarettes. They flipped up the Meg Ryan cutout from the spring tour and announced she was in the house. Green Avatar moved around to the front of the camera to pose with her and asked someone to take his picture.

Blue Avatar was wearing a piece of black electrical tape as a soul patch which he pointed out to all of us. He told us the next song featured the disco ball of Lupo's. He then listed the things the ladies of Lupo's loved: soul patches, his right eye and the disco ball. Then they played Shooting Star with Danny sitting on the side of the drum platform while he played.

They left the camera on after the song while they went on to play Whistling in the Dark and the image on the screen shook with each bang Flans made on the bass drum. They had most of the lights turned off for the song and turned the lights on in Marty's drums for a flashy disco effect.

I don't know if it was right after that song or not but they did a little demo of the light show on the drums with multiple colored lights that was pretty cool.

They announced another never before played song that they were going to practice on us before the Town Hall shows on Sunday. They started How Many Planets? but Flans forgot to come in on Venus and he called a do over. I presume they have been rehearing it with Robin for Sunday and he forgot she wasn't there and he needed to do her part. The voices they used were awesome, especially when they were both imitating Robin's girl part. And most excellent Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.

Flans talked about the Cast Your Pod disc before they played We Live in a Dump. Then they did Au Contraire which I have never heard before and was very excited about. It was particularly funny as we had been talking about it in the car on the way down.

Then they announced another new song. Linnell told us to "Cool it with the YouTube shit. These songs are rough. I can't wait to watch myself saying cool it with the YouTube shit on YouTube tomorrow." They did Canajoharie which I only recognized because that was the chorus. I couldn't understand a single other lyric. But I liked the music. It has horns.

They followed with Memo to Human Resources. Then The Else section of the show with Withered Hope, Bee of the Bird of the Moth, and (hurrah!) With the Dark. Sweet!

Then Linnell said they were going to play a song from the Lincoln album. Flans said it was actually 1988 and told Linnell it was time to quit that job. Then we all just about DIED when they started playing Purple Toupee. One, because none of my group had ever heard it live before and two because it is the song our friend Stacy has been waiting for since she started following the band and she wasn't able to come to the show. I believe there was audible screaming from our side of the room. Now if I could just hear Man, It's So Loud in Here. Are you guys listening? Please?

I was still reeling all the way through Your Racist Friend. Then Flans asked Linnell to start playing Graveyard. Danny picked up his empty beer bottle and started using it as a slide on his bass. I hope someone somewhere has a picture of that.

Flans did band intros. We did the normal chant for Danny then Flans said "I say Weinkauf, you say Danny" and we did a little call and repeat bit. When it got to Marty's solo Flans went up and stopped him while he was wrecking his kit and told him to save some for later.

They finished with Birdhouse and a particularly good version at that.

When they came back there was obviously some confusion. Flans and Linnell went to do the puppets but everyone seemed to be expecting something else. Danny ended up having to walk over and ask what they were doing. Turned out they had flipped the order of the encores from the setlist. They did Stalk of Wheat with the puppets. After the segment Linnell made a comment about how one of the puppets never bathes and the other is a homosexual. I wonder which is which.

I was a little distracted for the encore because I got the sense that something had gone wrong on stage. I'm not sure if it was technical problems or what happened but the vibe definitely changed. Flans left the stage briefly at some point (possibly not even in the encore) telling Linnell to tell the crowd about their upcoming shows while he took care of some business backstage. Linnell told us they were playing at a casino the next day. Many people in the crowd made wolf howling noises. Linnell made some himself. Then he said they were playing at Town Hall but he couldn't remember when. I said Sunday but so did someone on stage so I don't know who he heard when he repeated it.

They did Istanbul with a nice horn introduction but without a second fake ending. There was one song where they did the confetti launch but Flans stopped it short, I can't remember if it was that one or not. There was a lot of confetti and people kept throwing it in the air.

They came back for the second encore and started Alphabet of Nations but Linnell didn't sing. He seemed to think his mic wasn't working even though he did sing the first Zimbabwe and it was working fine. He made Flans do all of the first two rounds then tried to steal Flans' mic for the bridge. Flans wouldn't let him have it and gestured for him to use his own. He did and proceeded to tip over with it standing on one leg. The whole thing was weird and funny and followed by an excellent Guatemala.



They did Twisting, a song that I am getting a little tired of thanks to all the Flood shows. Flans reminded us to come to the casino show the next day and said we could be there in a couple of hours if we drove very recklessly. They closed out the show with The Mesopotamians.



We weren't able to get a setlist after the show because, without Victor, we lost out hook up. David threw several of them out into the crowd and gave one more away to someone else. A couple of my friends managed to snag ones so I have pictures.

I only have a few pictures from the show. I had resolved not to use my camera at this show because I was tired of loosing whole songs to the camera lens. But there were a few shots I couldn't pass up. I'm not sure the no pictures thing was the best idea since it just meant I watched the whole show thinking "wow, that would make a great picture." I gave up during the encore and took a bunch. There are a couple of good ones.

This show is definitely going into my Top 5. It really was that good and the setlist was one of the best I have ever heard. It was a very successful start to the BEST WEEKEND EVER. Stay tuned for Awesome Weekend Part Two (which I have been standing in line for while I wrote this).

Edit: I added some pictures in and there are a few more on Flickr, almost all from the encore.