Chaos Thy Name Is This Family Show

October 16, 2010 - Landmark on Main Street - Port Washington, NY - Family Show

Back on the road again and in Long Island for a double bill of family and rock shows. Landmark on Main Street is a community center built in an old school. The theater was about the size of a postage stamp and the band kept making jokes about having flashbacks to their high school auditorium. We were seated on the left side of the room for the family show but there couldn't have been a bad seat in the house as the place was so small.

When the band came out, Flans introduced everyone first. I particularly liked, "Over there, tuning his bass for the last time in this show, Danny Weinkauf." They started with Bed and set off the small confetti cannons. But the confetti shot up and hit the ceiling and then all dropped down into the open area before the front row of seats so only the first couple of rows got any.

Flans introduced Stan, the only horn player they brought for this jaunt, claiming that he was the laziest member of the band. They played I Never Go to Work with "saxophone" substituted for trumpet.



Then Flans had everybody stand up and come down to the front for Clap Your Hands and it started getting chaotic. Most of the theater behind us emptied into the front of the stage and the aisles. Flans kept telling the people in the balcony to come down and get a better view but I don't know how many of them did. Not very many people were jumping in the air for the song though. They led straight into Kids Go! and for once everyone remained standing for the whole song.

Flans said they were going to show us the result of really practicing your guitar every day and brought Dan down for the intro to Istanbul. Flans kept making little comments at him while he was playing, something about him running out of fingers. Then they set off the blizzard cannon at the end of the song and lost most of the kids for the rest of the show.

After that point there was constantly confetti being thrown into the air by the kids and they were running around and so completely not paying attention to the stage. It was definitely the most chaos I have ever seen in an audience even at a kids show. Most of the parents in the front ended up sitting down on the floor for a good portion of the show after that so at least we regained our view of the stage without having to stand.

Linnell had a funny intro to Doctor Worm which I mostly forget. They followed with The Famous Polka.



Flans introduced Marty and his love of boy bands for High Five! He had some mic trouble partway through his introduction and stopped mid-sentence to go grab a different mic then picked up where he had left off. Meanwhile, Marty was hanging behind the drum kit waiting for his big entrance. The mic troubles continued as the new one wasn't wireless or turned on quite right. Marty, at one point during the song, tried to take Flans' mic but Flans wouldn't let him, though that one wasn't wireless either so it wouldn't have been any better. Marty ended up putting his mic down on the stage to dance then running to pick it back up. And the mic cut out at one point so Linnell filled in one of the lines in the song. Marty did his best to still run back and forth to high five kids but he was definitely hampered by the wire. And it seemed like he almost forgot to high five all the guys at the end except they were all standing there with their hands up for him. After the song, Flans commented that the extra clarinet mic they had bought was already paying for itself. Then later a wireless mic was finally brought out from backstage and Marty looked a little like "you couldn't have brought that out earlier?"



Flans said he needed to ask us a rhetorical question, " How many of you can count to nine?" Lots of kids shouted that they could. Flans then asked, "How many of you know what the word rhetorical means?" He started to lead the counting then said we obviously weren't expecting it to be that fast. Then he tried to lead the balcony in counting but messed them up with a wonky start and had them do it again. I think we ran through it five or six times before they finally started Pirate Girls.

After the song, Flans started in on this whole story about how you could tell how old a pirate is by cutting them in half and counting the rings. Linnell then said the next song was about facts, unlike cutting a pirate open to count the rings. They introduced Meet the Elements and said it was too late to leave if you didn't want to hear a song about the periodic table because they had locked the doors.

The other slightly odd thing that added to the chaos of the audience was that the merch stand, which was just to the left of the stage, was lit and doing business throughout the show. There was a steady stream of people going over to buy t-shirts and CDs while the band was playing which wouldn't have been so weird if the merch hadn't been so close to the front. Flans even encouraged people to go visit Anna, the merch gal, at any point during the show. The band actually seemed to almost be enjoying the chaos in the crowd.

I am sorry but I don't remember anything unique about the Avatar segment from this show. I have a real mental block when it comes to the Avatars lately. They did the typical stuff, I think. Meg Ryan made a brief appearance. They sang Shooting Star. It was funny whatever else they did. It's always funny.



Particularly excellent performance of Seven. The look on Flansburgh's face as he said "I would like some cake" was so sincere it was hilarous.



Danny came down to do Paleontologist and said that he thought the kids had all had a few too many s'mores before bed the night before and they were all still a little sleepy. He told us he was emotionally unavailable and he needed all the kids to stand up to help him rock. And we did.



Flans had a great time with the little kids playing his guitar at the beginning of Older then drowned them all in confetti once again. Once again, there were chandeliers hanging from the ceiling of the venue that got loaded with confetti.



Flans introduced Stan and Linnell and their clarinets saying it was probably the only time kids would hear two clarinets at a rock show. Cowtown seems like a logical choice for a kids show. I'm surprised I haven't seen it at a family show before.



Then Flans directed Marty to the electric kit, saying that most bands are content with three drum kits but they settle for two. Flans made some jokes about New Wave and asymetrical hairdos and Marty gave a little drum demo and they took Nonagon out for another stroll. It's a short song but an excellent one.

They did the new style band intros on the electric kit then closed with Alphabet of Nations. There was a cute little kid next to us who knew all the words and was singing them with his dad. Awwww.

They barely left the stage before they returned for the encore. I think maybe they were worried the crowd wouldn't stick around since they were already in such disarray. They did 813 Mile Car Trip which never fails to make me rock.

They attempted to do another puppet segment but the screen wouldn't come down so they bagged it after a minute or so. Flans said they were going to do a really slow song instead. At some point he also mentioned stickers though I'm not sure when. They closed with Sleepwalkers which was wonderful but incongruous with the chaos in the crowd. So many kids playing with confetti.

The sticker distribution only continued the chaos and made setlist obtaining absolutely impossible. Oh well.



EDIT: I completely forgot the part that goes with the above picture. The lights were shining far too brightly in the guys faces and Flans and Stan and I think Linnell were all shielding their eyes. Flans joked that it looked like they were hiding some disturbingly disfiguring eye condition or something of the like. Haha.

There will be more recaps to follow when ever I get more time. And I'll be back from vacation on Saturday night and I'll make pictures my first priority.

Apologies for the lack of detail in this recap. Combination of too much time lag and too many shows from the weekend blurring my memory.