High School Auditorium Flashbacks

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

This show started off a polite, subdued affair at least on the part of the audience. After milling about outside (where we saw Iggy zip by on a razor scooter) and in the lobby (where Marty passed through with his family) we all filed into our seats. We fully expected Flans to invite everyone to the front of the stage immediately when the show started and were ready to bolt but no one made a move when the band hit the stage and it looked to be that very rarest of beasts, a seated rock show where everyone kept their seats.

As they have at the last few rock shows, the band started with She's an Angel and all it's funky weird intro music/noises.

After, Flans introduced Stan and said he had two words for us seldom heard on a rock stage: "two clarinets". Cowtown! I think this was the show where Linnell had a little bit of issue with the initial notes but it's also possible it was the next day. Whenever, I laughed.

Linnell commented that he was having flashbacks to his high school auditorium. The room did have a very school feel to it but the acoustics weren't bad. Flans said in was great to play in Port Washington and not just because it was so close to where they live. I think I forgot to mention from the earlier show, that when Flans had introduced Danny for Paleontologist, he said that he was from Long Island and had only had to drive about ten minutes to get here. Danny had to point out that he was a south shore guy (and we were on the north shore).

Flans started talking about what great shopping opportunities Port Washington offered in it's local malls and how he had just purchased the shirt he was wearing at the Gap. He said it made him feel more connected to the audience to know that he was wearing the same shirt that some of us had also bought even though he couldn't see us. It would have been cool if someone there actually had had the shirt on but I didn't see anyone.



They led straight into two songs that are both on my list of songs I'm getting a little tired off: Memo to Human Resources and Dead. Both great songs that I could just use a break from.

The Johns started talking about how the next song was from their new album that they were working on which would be out as soon as the people finished with it. They then started joking that the people weren't them, that they had farmed out the production of the album to sweatshops and that those people were hard at work finishing it while they got to sit back and do nothing. Linnell said the next song was written by one of the people in those sweatshops and that it was apparently called Canajoharie. I've heard this a few times now and this wasn't the best version of it, Linnell kept kind of fudging the words. But it is one of my new favorite songs. I did get a video of it for audio purposes only (the visual is absolute crap) to try to help decipher the last few missing lyrics but the lines in question are virtually unintelligible. Hopefully, I can try again next weekend.

They did a rousing rendition of New York City, which always sounds better in New York in my personal opinion.

Flans made some more jokes about new wave and asymmetrical haircuts as Marty went to the electric kit for Nonagon. He started to play but they quickly stopped as Linnell had missed his cue and the pick-up was all wrong. They tried again and it still wasn't working but Linnell said "Keep going, wrong and strong!" They called a halt anyway. Danny started saying "celebration" in the background which Linnell picked up on and said that was their word for situations like this. They finally got it going on the third try and successfully made it through the song without too much more incident.

Flans told us that Here Comes Science has made the pre-nomination rounds for this year's Grammy Awards and that their competition is weak. He asked that any current members of NARAS please show their support and said that if your membership had lapsed it was very easy to re-enroll. Linnell contributed something about record executives being forgiven that I didn't quite get. Then they played Meet the Elements. This actually answered a lot of questions for me about what was going on with HCS and the Grammys since I had thought it was technically eligible for last year's awards thanks to that day early iTunes release but it didn't get submitted. I was wondering if they were saving it for this year or just not going for it at all and this answered that question. Woohoo! Something else for me to be excited about. I hope.

They played We Live in a Dump, which I barely recall and Whistling in the Dark which I think I spent the entirety off watching the lights on Marty's drums. They are very transfixing.

The Avatars came out for their first appearance and did some pretty typical schtick. Blue Avatar is still very proud of his soul patch. They sang Shooting Star, again with some typical ad-libbing at the end. It was definitely their second appearance at this show which was the stand out. After the song, they left the camera pointed out at the audience for the rest of the show.

Then Flans asked everyone to stand up for Clap Your Hands and FINALLY invited everyone down to the front of the stage, including the balcony. We made the mad dash from our sixth row seats and ended up right in front of Dan. This was an excellent position to view the rest of the show from, but it did also mean that the camera on the drum was displaying our every move to the entire audience for the remainder of the show. Oh well. I couldn't see it through Dan most of the time anyway and the view of the stage was spectacular. I think I was actually a little dumb struck at the sudden improvement of my view and I stopped taking pictures for a while to just enjoy the music.

They blew through Birdhouse, a superb rendition of The Guitar and Withered Hope. Somewhere in there, I think at the end of Withered Hope though it might have been earlier, Flans kind of wrecked the shit out of his guitar. He had taken it off to hold it in a funny position and the strap came unhooked on one end and was dragging all the sound stuff attached to the strap on the floor. At the end of the song David appeared at the side of the stage with his red guitar to exchange with him but then they couldn't seem to get that one hooked up to play. They were both frantically plugging things in and twisting this knob and that, without much success. The rest of the band started Doctor Worm without him, whether by design or because they didn't realize he was having trouble, I don't know, but it was a Flans-less version. You could tell Flans was desperately trying to get the guitar working by the time his solo hit in the song, but it rapidly became obvious that they weren't going to make it. Danny covered it for him quite nicely, with a brief "crap, they are not ready for this" look over his shoulder at Flans and David beforehand and you could see Linnell look around for a second as the solo started as if realizing for the first time that Flans wasn't there.

Flans finally got his guitar working and went to start Damn Good Times, only to find that his mic was no longer on so the band had to keep playing the intro until it got fixed and he could actually sing. At some point in the evening, and I really don't remember where, Dan was also having some guitar issues which caused a delayed start to a song which I only recall because I heard Danny talking to a friend about it after the show. Not a good night for guitars apparently. (If you look at the side of this picture of Flans, just above where Meg Ryan is poking her head into the video screen, you can see all of us on screen and me taking the picture. Weird.)



They did Ana Ng, skipping Take Out the Trash, which was on the setlist, which made me sad because I do not see that one very often and I really enjoy it. But I also love Ana Ng, especially live because the bass part sounds so extremely kick ass.

Flans did the traditional old Graveyard version of band intros instead of the new version. He did the "The bass, the bass, the bass is Danny Weinkauf" chant with the amusing exclamation that he could only hear the shy people. I can't remember at what point in the show it was, but Flans at one point yelled at someone in the balcony saying "what are you, writing a review of the concert?" I think it was while he was once again encouraging people upstairs to come down to the front. The funny thing was, the person really WAS writing a review which got posted a day or two later with some pictures. Hehe.

They closed the initial set with Istanbul with Stan doing the intro. Lots of confetti. Lots and lots.

For the first encore they did Drink!, "drink, drink," and Alphabet of Nations with some excellent silly arm movements from Linnell. I think he looks like he is trying to take flight in this picture.



They came back for the second encore, straight into the return of the Avatars. Blue Avatar announced that they were going to be performing the next song in the nude. He said they were provocateurs and then Flans reached up and started stripping the puppet off his hand as if he was undressing. I think I just about died laughing. They did Stalk of Wheat, then Meg Ryan made a brief appearance, actually on the puppet side of the camera this time, and said hello to everyone in a lovely high pitched voice.

Flans told Linnell that he had a great idea for a riff to do with the puppets and Linnell wanted to know what it was but Flans wouldn't tell him because he said it wouldn't work without working out some details first. I hope he remembers to do it someday.



They played Where Your Eyes Don't Go, then finished the night off with the rock version of Why Does the Sun Shine? which I haven't heard in quite a while. I thought it was funny that almost as soon as they released the rock version on Science they went back to playing the slow version (or the pirate/celebrity impression version) at shows. Flans did the nuclear reactions and I do not recall at all what they were because they were either words he made up or which I had never heard before.

After the show, it actually seemed like David was purposefully collecting up all the setlists on stage to bring to the back just so no one could have them. Not cool dude. He tossed a guitar pick out into the crowd which people were then digging for in the mountains of confetti.

Fun show all around. I feel like I was stage side for the rockin'-est portion of the show which was awesome. And I got to see a lot of my friends that I don't see outside New York which was very cool. There are a few more pictures on Flickr but not many.

Next up, the double header kids shows in Morristown. I might do those together in one post. We'll see.