Life IS Good Part Two

September 12, 2010 - Life Is Good Festival - Canton, MA

Another fine, fine day at the Life is Good Festival. Well, ok, the weather wasn't quite as nice, kinda gloomy and windy, but other than that. Got there before they opened the gates this time thanks to not riding around on a shuttle bus for an hour. Only had to wait for about 20 minutes before we got to go in. TMBG played an earlier set today so we planned to go hang out in the Good Kids tent for the one earlier band (The Sippy Cups again) to get a decent spot. We wandered around a little bit before then because there was a giant piece of equipment in the tent hanging a balloon sculpture but we were still early enough to snag one of the squashy bean bag chairs so we didn't have to sit on the ground.

We saw the entirety of The Sippy Cups set this time. They are quite entertaining, I have to say. I suppose silly childish humor has to appeal to you in order to find them so as an adult but that is pretty much right up my alley. They did an almost identical set to yesterday. There was an interlude between songs that I had missed where Sippy Doug came out dressed in a Napoleon-esque costume with a stuffed horse attached to it and pretended the horse could talk. The comedy was weak but the costume was funny.



There was lots of good crew watching to be had. Victor turned up which surprised me since he wasn't there the day before and the other guitar tech (whose name, I have learned, is David) was still there. It looked like he was just there to say hi which confused me until I saw him later teching for OK Go. That explains that then. Their set-up routine was super quick since they only had a half hour to turn from one band to the next. (This seemed kind of cruel considering the bands on the rock stages all had an hour. Do they think that just because a band plays kids music, they need less set-up time?) There was a funny moment when the Life Is Good guy that was MCing the stage came out to make the pre-show announcement and started to use Dan's mic right where David was trying to tune guitars. It looked like David told the guy rather bluntly to get out of the way. The guy stopped mid sentence and was all flustered and went looking for his mic that he hadn't brought up with him until one of the other techs set him up on Linnell's mic. Whoops.

Saw all of the band wander by at one point or another before the set, except Linnell. Confirmed presence of red pants. Was happy. Right before the set Scott came out and set up tons of packages of foam fingers on the sides of the stage but then walked away. I assumed they couldn't be starting yet if they hadn't passed out the hands but then Hot Dog came blasting out of the speakers. And I mean BLASTING. It was loud and startling. In retrospect, in makes sense since the setlist says "Hot Dog! Loud!" The guys all came out on stage with Scott and David and everyone except Linnell and Marty started passing out foam fingers. Flans told us all to move closer to the front to get fingers and make friends. We ended up closer to the front than the day before and with a view slightly to the left but I still couldn't see Linnell thanks to a little girl on her dad's shoulders. Linnell looked like he wanted nothing to do with the finger distribution. He was just standing in the middle of the stage with his arms crossed. Typical Linnell.

Flans introduced everyone while they passed out fingers, including Scott and David (this is how I learned his name). Danny started flinging the last of the fingers on his side out into the crowd since he couldn't reach any more people who didn't have one. They then started Alphabet of Nations. Part way through, Danny noticed someone he knew in the front row and stopped playing to shake hands and was then trying to express his delight over seeing the person without using his hands when he went back to playing which was kind of funny. Throughout the set there were big balloons being bounced around the crowd and Flans had to bop one off the stage. There was a funny moment when a mom in front of us went to put her little girl on her shoulders and accidently bounced the girl's head into a balloon on her way up.

They did Particle Man and it seemed like they were just playing yesterday's set backwards but they changed it up quite a bit later. Linnell did a slow version of the lyrics in the bridge and made a comment about it being in a minor key because it had gotten all sad.  I believe whatever ad libbing that followed is what Flans was making this face about. (Side note: actually I just went and watching someone's video and I think the face is actually directed at the audience for not clapping loudly enough.)



Scott ran on stage and handed Flans a note. He looked at it and said "Oh right" and then made an announcement about a child named Leo who was at the front of the stage whose parents were looking for him. But then he couldn't understand what he was supposed to tell Leo to do, if his parents were going to meet him at the stage or if he was supposed to go to them. He told him that he should be free to be himself and that his parents loved him and he would really enjoy life as a circus performer. Or something to that effect. I wonder if his parents ever found him?

Next Flans told us we had to act like we were about to hear our favorite song and Danny stepped up to the mic for Paleontologist. Danny thought we could do better and Flans said that Danny was emotionally needy and needed our love. Danny agreed that he was needy and made us scream more. Then they started the song. Linnell used his trilobite pronunciation line again. He really is fond of that word.



We got our jumping instructions for The Guitar. Flans had us practice but then told us to stop so we didn't tire out too soon since it is a long song. The band bounced their way through the whole song. I was especially impressed with how lively Flansburgh was all weekend. He's usually spunky but he was bopping all around and jumping and making ridiculous faces and having a grand old time. When it came to Danny's bass solo Flans had a classic goof up.

"When I saw Weinkauf you say Danny.
Weinkauf. Danny. *without waiting for the audience to yell back*
I confused myself.
That's never happened before...in this song."

Then he did a brief "The bass is Danny Weinkauf" chant. We waved for the lion, did a tiny bit more hopping and then finished the very long song.

Next Flans started to instruct us on counting. He made some sort of joke about us knowing how to count because we were from Massachusetts but I don't remember what it was. Then he told us that we needed to follow Sherpa John and Sherpa Dan to know when to count. They were to be our Sherpa guides to lead us through the song. We practiced a few times then did the song. Our Sherpas did not lead us astray.



I don't remember why or what started it, but at some point Flans was saying something about leading us into the abyss and then commented that abyss probably wasn't a word you heard a lot at children's shows. I believe at some point when they were setting up for WDTSS they said they were going over the abyss. It may have come up one other time too. I don't remember.

Flans introduced himself as the laziest member of the band once again and Dan got confused about what song they were playing because he had been at the keyboard but then had to rush back over to his guitar for I Never Go to Work. Turned out it was because Seven was next on the setlist and they apparently skipped it without telling Dan. Poor Dan.



Flans did Marty's intro for Clap Your Hands and introduced him as the next lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. Scream. Clap, clap. Stomp, stomp. Jump, jump. Clap, clap.



Doctor Worm. I can not recall anything remarkable happening. Danny jumped off of the platform at the back but he was too far behind Linnell for an attempt at a photo. I think I mentioned that Marty had lights in his drums yesterday but they were on for the whole show this time. Flashy. Also, I never noticed before, but the 8-bit alien on his drum has little painted in eyeballs, unlike the black squares the ones on the other drum and the bumper stickers have.

Ok, Why Does The Sun Shine? This is going to be hard to describe to anyone who has never lived in Massachusetts. I had a video but all but 23 seconds of it got lost in the camera disaster that befell me after the show (my camera somehow deleted all the pictures from the show and I only got them back by spending $40 on some software that retrieved them from my memory card. Yikes.)

Flans explained they they do the song with voices and he was going to use a pirate voice and Linnell was going to use some other voice. He asked him if he wanted to do Garrison Keillor (the setlist said Garrison Keillor with a question mark) but Linnell said no. Flans tried to convince him but he said he's done that one and moved on. Flans asked if he wanted to do silver screen legend, Katharine Hepburn. Again no. Then Linnell got inspired. He asked if they were in Norwood (Massachusetts) and then realized no, they were in Canton. He said he was staying in Norwood so it had come to mind to do Ernie Boch. Flans thought this was fabulous and immediately started in on his own Ernie Boch impression. Linnell accused him of stealing his material but Flans claimed that he was Ernie Boch Jr.

To explain, Ernie Boch owned a chain of car dealships in Norwood, MA for years and years, that his son Ernie Boch Jr. now runs. You could not listen to the radio or watch television in Massachusetts for the last 30 years at least, without seeing or hearing a Boch car ad. And they are very distinctive because Ernie Boch Sr. had a thick Boston accent. Boch Jr.'s is less pronounced but still there. The minute Linnell mentioned his name, my brain started singing the jingle from the ads.

So they started playing the song and it got to the point where Linnell needed to do the voice and he had a brain cramp and couldn't come up with it. Flans did another sample for him and he launched into the spoken part with a terrific Boston accent (think Wicked Little Critta amped up a bit). He paused again when he got to the nuclear reactions, trying to think of something to use, until a girl in the audience yelled "hydrogen" and he went with that. Then nitrogen, cahbon, and finally "ask for the keys, it's your car." After they finished, Flans commented that probably nobody got the reference but Linnell said he got it, which was obviously all that mattered. I thought it would have been great if the band had managed to knock out the jingle but I'm not even sure they got it. Silly bunch of New Yorkers.

Flans introduced Marty embracing his boy band roots. Flans mentioned his burgeoning children's music career as part of the intro too which I thought was nice since, if you follow such things, Marty has been developing a bit of a presence for himself as a kids music producer. The music started and I realized it was Alphabet Lost in Found instead of High Five! and for a second I thought Linnell had put the wrong track on until I realized that really was what he was going to sing. Yay! Nothing against High Five! but Lost and Found is one of my favorites.

Marty turned in a wonderful, silly performance, getting some good shrugs from the band when he asked them where the words were going to go without their letters (and a total cold shoulder from Dan). Then he ended is by yelling "I think there's another Yankees championship in the back!" and running off the stage. I do not think this went over so well in the Boston crowd. Especially when no one made a joke about it.



Marty went back up to the mic after running of and said "This one's for you Violet." Then Flans explained that Marty's daughter, Violet was turning five years old today and we all needed to sing Happy Birthday to her. At the end of the song Marty collapsed on the stage like he usually does at the end of Lost and Found. It was like he couldn't not collapse when he finished singing even if it was Happy Birthday. By the time we had finished the song, Marty's wife had appeared with Violet at the side of the stage and Flans pointed her out to everyone. Marty went over to give her a hug and she latched on to him and didn't want to let go. The slightly panicked look that Marty gave his wife as he tried to free himself to run back up and play the next song was pretty priceless. And the whole thing was absolutely adorable. Mommy whisked Violet back off into the crowd and Marty got to go back to being a drummer once more.

They followed with Four of Two which was a nice surprise since I haven't heard that one in a while. After they finished Linnell said they had done it with no rehearsal. Not sure if he was being serious or making fun of himself for forgetting a line in the first verse.

Linnell introduced Broom. Broom had gotten a new face since yesterday though it appeared to be the same broom. Broom said something about there being something he had wanted and Linnell said, "Eyebrows?" He was, in fact, missing his eyebrows. Linnell also made a comment about how he kept waiting to feel bad but in never happened but I don't know what it was in reference to. Broom said he had been partying with Ozomatli the night before and was feeling kind of crunchy. Linnell said that the guys had told him about that and that Broom had made a mess of the dressing room. Broom said, "Whatever." And Linnell responded with a series of very forceful no's pointing emphatically at Broom and said, "Not whatever, not whatever." Broom said he was on a hit reality TV show. Linnell told him he had a job to do. Broom said he had a Twitter feed. Linnell told him he was in trouble and it was his job to clean up. Broom said he didn't know what he was talking about and "I've moved on in my life, John, it's time you moved on in yours." Flans broke voice for a second and said he was sounding just like his mother-in-law. Linnell agreed and said it might have been a direct quote. He started to try playing the song but Broom stopped to say "Get over it. Get over yourself." I assume this was another attempt at imitating his mother-in-law given the way Flans was grinning. Then they finally did get to the song. Broom closed it by saying "Don't forget my Twitter feed @thebroom." Someone seriously needs to make that happen by the way.



I have just remembered too, that there was a joke somewhere at the beginning of the Broom segment about the Broom appearing with OK Go. I would have really enjoyed that. They should have made that happen.

The band came back and Flans introduced Fibber Island with a funny line about an imaginary place in your head that I don't quite remember. They did a particularly good Zilch to follow it up. They were really trucking through the words before they gave it up at the end.



Flans thanked the band and the Life Is Good people and said he hoped they could do it again soon. Then they did Meet the Elements. They tossed The Famous Polka in at the end which seemed to surprise Linnell but it was on the setlist.



Despite running a little bit over time, they did come back for one encore, after only about 20 seconds off the stage. Flans told us that Dan had been practicing and we were about to see the results. Dan looked somewhat skeptical about this but launched into his Istanbul intro. It was awesome. I didn't mind that they skipped Istanbul yesterday but I did miss the opportunity to hear Dan's intro. I'm glad I didn't miss it entirely. When they were getting toward the fake ending, Flans made a big deal of running around to all the guys and yelling "we gotta go" and tapping his watch. Then he led them on into the fake ending. Then he did it again, saying "we really gotta go" and then led them all into a second fake ending. It was pretty funny.



Flans ripped half the strings off his guitar at the end looking crazed. A most fabulous end to the show.



My boyfriend easily got a setlist from Iggy afterward because they didn't do the stickers. As we were walking away, I saw Dan talking to someone in the crowd and then going over to Scott and asking if Ira Glass's people could come back. Scott said of course and opened the gate and, sure enough, Ira Glass and his group of young women walked right in front of me and went off back stage with Dan. Cool!

We went and got some food and moved over to another stage for the OK Go show. This was when I realized the camera had deleted all the pictures and I was not a happy camper. I thought I could probably get them back but it meant I couldn't take any pictures of the OK Go concert because I didn't have another SD card with me. Note to self. Carry a spare. A few minutes before the concert started I looked up and realized that Ira Glass and his party had walked up and taken a spot right next to me. Ira was having trouble with his phone. He was trying to text something to one of the Giants and it wasn't going even though they were just on the other side of the little pond between the stages. He was also telling some story about the conversation he had been having with Linnell about the use of the slang "yous" as in "yous people" in Philadelphia.

The OK Go concert was fantastic. There was another entertaining Sign Language interpreter who was so lively she was actually distracting. Ira Glass kept taking photos and video of her with his iPhone. They played all my favorite songs, including the handbell one which I wasn't sure they would do at a huge concert. Damian said fuck twice and apologized to the kids, the first time telling them it was some kind of boat and the second time claiming he had said truckers. He invited a guy in the audience to come up on stage to play his guitar for the end of a song and let the guy play the whole last minute of the song while he sang. It was pretty awesome. Probably the best day of that guy's life. He also invited a young Brazilian girl to come on stage and dance but all she did was wave her little Brazilian flag and take some pictures. Damian and Tim had a very humorous interchange about the quality of our singing when we were practicing for This Too Shall Pass. They told us our first attempt wasn't worthy of the Life is Good Festival, it was more like Life is Tolerable. Tim said it was like "I got out of bed in the morning but I'm not happy about it." We did better on our third pass. Damian came out to hold the mic out to the crowd while we were singing the song and climbed up to balance on the top of the parade barrier in front of the stage. He couldn't manage to balance himself upright but some fans helped hold him up while he leaned the mic over the crowd. Cool but scary. (Picture from my phone)

It really was an awesome and fantastic day. We didn't stick around for much longer after that because we weren't interested in any of the later bands. I was perfectly happy with two shows by bands I love and a generally excellent weekend (minus the shuttle bus incident). And now I can start counting down to my next TMBG weekend in two weeks. Lupo's here I come!

The rest of the pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mynameisbluecanary/sets/72157624819289117/
There are some Linnell shots if you are sad about the distinct lack of pictures of him in this entry. It was definitely a Flansburgh sort of photo day.

P.S. In case anyone was wonder you get this write-up in lieu of Audience Participation today. I just don't have time to do both.