The Tale of Accordion John and Dinosaur John

October 17, 2010 - Mayo Center - Morristown, NJ - Family Shows

Second double header of this weekend, this time both family shows. I'm going to recap them together because the setlists were identical, thus the shows were pretty similar. Apologies if I mix up what happened at which show. The only thing I can use to tell them apart in my head is where I was sitting, otherwise they are blended together.

Very nice theater, all velvet lined with a large orchestra section and a balcony set far back in the room. Our friends were all scattered around the room as the shows had ticketed seats and we hadn't bought together. At the early show, the boyfriend and I were in Row S which was almost at the back of the room. I have no idea how I ended up with seats so far back as I bought them really early. I realized part way through the show, I was sitting only two rows in front of where Iggy and Vince were stationed. I don't think I have been that far back in a non-outdoor venue since my balcony seat in Boston last summer. The view of the stage wasn't actually that bad, just very distant.

I noticed while we were waiting for the show to start that they had the confetti cannons mounted up in what used to be some old theater boxes, way up in the wall, to the left and right of the stage. I figured that was guaranteed to surprise everyone since know one would see the confetti coming.

I don't have pictures from the first show because I gave my camera to Megan since she was way up front and had a much better view. You can see her pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fouroftwo/with/5109471457/

The setlist for both shows: Bed Bed Bed - I Never Go to Work - Doctor Worm - Pirate Girls Nine - Particle Man - The Famous Polka - Nonagon - High Five! - Roy G. Biv - Meet the Elements - Older - Seven - What is a Shooting Star? - Clap Your Hands - I Am A Paleontologist - Cowtown - Istanbul - Alphabet of Nations   Encore - Stalk of Wheat - 813 Mile Car Trip

The band came out and Flans introduced everyone. He made some jokes about it being very early in the morning for them and they would usually just be getting up. They did Bed Bed Bed. Flans was wandering around the stage with his guitar. At the line "practiced my guitar" he stopped right in front of the keyboard and faced the audience and gave a nice twang on the guitar which was very funny. They launched the very high in the air confetti cannons on "go" and two giants clumps of confetti flew out into the crowd. One of them hit a small child sitting in front of us right on the top of the head. He was fine, just startled and it was pretty funny.

Flans said a favorite theme in their songs is laziness and then introduced Stan for I Never Go to Work. He said the song described what they do everyday. Linnell introduced Doctor Worm as a song about a worm. Many people cheered.

Flans gave us some counting instructions for Pirate Girls but then kept berating us for counting poorly. He eventually decided we had done well enough to do the song. We got some clapping instructions for Particle Man. Linnell had some great ad lib in the bridge. "Minor key. Minor key. It's sad. Triangle Man. Triangle Man. Triangle Man hates Person Man. That's why it's sad."

They slammed right into The Famous Polka. Flans missed doing his kick at the beginning so Dan did it more him. Then Linnell and Danny kicked out in unison on the other side. It was cute.

Flans did some more schtick about New Wave and asymmetrical hairdos introducing Nonagon, this time talking about digging out your congealed tube of some French hair gel from the 80s that I wasn't familiar with from your garage.

Flans gave Marty the most awkward introduction for High Five! that I have ever heard. It was like he was distracted by something and couldn't remember what he was trying to say. He was talking about Marty taking us back to 2000 and 1999 when he was in the boy band "Color Me......Marty." It was painfully funny. Marty had his wireless mic back so he got to properly run around the stage. His first pass on high fiving the audience, there was no one there and he substituted "no five" for "low five." Flans did a lovely chant of "Mr. Marty Beller, Mr. Marty Beller" while Marty was dancing. It was marvelous.

Flans tried to introduce Roy G. Biv, saying it was a mnemonic device but he said mnematic device by mistake and Linnell made fun of him. Iggy has set up a great light show in Marty's clear drums changing them all the different colors of the rainbow while he played. It was one of my favorite parts of the whole show.

Before Meet the Elements Flans yelled "I say periodic table, you say periodic table" and led the not very successful call and repeat for a minute. Then he yelled, "Well, that didn't work. That's the last time we do that in this show."

Flans had a great time with the kids playing his guitar and they did a massive confetti blizzard during Older. Not much of that confetti got back to where we were sitting but we did get a little.

They did Seven and Flans was copying all of Linnell's hand movements at the back of the stage. So funny. The faces and tone of voice Dan uses while doing his lines in the song have become a favorite thing in our group. I think someone is getting a "It's the green house at the end of the block" tattoo.

Then they pulled out the puppets. There was some talk of the soul patch.  They talked about James Cameron but pronounced it "Cam-er-on" and one of them made fun of the other saying that was how it was really pronounced. They did a 3D demonstration and talked about their song that had been cut from the film. I think it was the Love Song of the Na'vi or something like that. They did a lot of "sea of hands." They did eventually get around to singing Shooting Star. I can't remember which show it was but at one of them Dan's guitar wasn't turned of when he went to do the intro and Blue Avatar had to introduce him twice. Meg Ryan said hello as they were departing.

We all stood up for Clap Your Hands. That was the point at which I finally turned around and realized Iggy and Vince were right behind me. Hi, guys! We remained standing for our favorite song Paleontologist.

Flans introduced the two clarinets of Mr. Linnell and Mr. Harrison for Cowtown. Dan did the intro for Istanbul, showing off what happens when you practice your guitar everyday. I am sorry to say that I think his acoustic was every so slightly out of tune for this one. It didn't sound as good as it usually does.

They did the Graveyard band intro. Flans briefly had us actually chant "Danny, Danny, Danny" which I quite enjoyed. I toned down my screaming for Marty a bit since there were very small children near me.

They did an even more ridiculous confetti launch at the end of the song. Confetti everywhere. Then they closed out the set with Alphabet of Nations.

They came back for the encore straight into the Avatars. Green Avatar posed with Meg Ryan, then Meg basically took over the bit. Linnell picked her up (she's on a little stick) and brought her around in front of the camera with the puppets. Blue Avatar commented on her wireless mic that she is holding in the picture. He asked her how things were going and she said she was talking improv classes at the UCB. Linnell started doing this ridiculous voice for her that made her sound like an old TV host and she started thanking the puppets for coming on her show and talking about how she had gotten them their start in show business. The whole thing was hilariously bizarre and awkward. And somewhere in their they did Stalk of Wheat too.

They finished the first show with 813 Mile Car Trip. Story of my life.

We went to go get ice cream between shows. We did end up with a setlist but only because TDK was very nice and gave me the one he had gotten from Iggy. I went back into the theater before everyone else for the second show to use the bathroom and then got caught in the lobby talking to this strange older woman who claimed to be a childhood friend of Linnell's from Lincoln who was completely unfamiliar with their music and was asking all sorts of questions about it but then not waiting for the answers. Very odd.

We had much better seats for the second show, something like the fifth row. But all the seats in front of us were down in a little section in front of the stage, a little lower from where we were and there was a large aisle in front of us, so my view was practically perfect. And I got an absolute ton of pictures.

I'm just going to run down the stuff that was different at the second show.

Flans did his little guitar pose in front of Linnell again during Bed Bed Bed. I hope he does that forever now because it was one of my favorite parts.

Flans mentioned Stan coming down from his ice cream castle for I Never Go to Work. We wondered if he lived in the castle with Curt since that is usually Flans' line for Curt.



When Linnell went to get his accordion for Doctor Worm, Flans and Linnell exchanged some of the world's best banter.

Flans: "It's Accordion John, ladies and gentlemen."

Linnell: "You know when my parents named me Accordion John they had no idea I'd grow up to be an accordion player. It's quite a coincidence."

Flans: "When my parents named me Dinosaur John, they had no idea..."

Linnell: "...that you'd be a dinosaur."

Flans: "Exactly. So, what's the next song about?"

Linnell: "It's about a doctor. I mean, it's about a worm who wishes this song were about a doctor but it's actually about a worm."

Flans: "What's it called?"

Linnell: "Dinosaur John."

And they crash into the song. I laughed so hard. I am still laughing.



More counting. Flans said something funny about us following Linnell and Dan instead of him because he does not actually count in the song but I don't fully recall what it was. He also mentioned the thumb in his eye but did not actually demonstrate so it was all out of context.

Flans started giving clapping instructions for Particle Man but just kept saying to clap on the back beat without demonstrating so the audience wasn't really getting it. So Danny started clapping above his head at the back of the stage to help everybody out. Linnell mentioned the sad minor key again.

The bass wasn't turned on properly for Famous Polka so Danny could not properly do his solo part. He made an attempt but only about every fourth note was audible and he was shaking his head at Flans and Dan afterward like, well that didn't work.

Linnell did his first crazy run of accordion notes and then blew on his hand like it was smoking. I got an awesome picture of it completely by accident because I was trying to get a picture of him playing and wasn't fast enough but ended up with this instead. I also got a great one of Flans and Dan where Flans is really into his part and Dan is all perplexed about what is wrong with the bass.





Flans mentioned French hair gel again, introducing Nonagon, talking about ordering it online. He had Marty do the electric drum demo and was talking about you waking up in the middle of the night wondering what that noise was outside and then hearing the police siren and realizing you didn't have to worry. "It's just Marty Beller breaking in to steal your electronic drums." Here are Dan and Danny laughing at this.



Flans gave Marty a more cohesive introduction for High Five! this time and Marty went kind of nuts on the dancing. When he ran around to smack hands with all the guys at the end, he missed on Danny and smacked his wrist and Danny kept standing there with his hand up waiting for his proper high five. Marty ended the song on a screeching yell and then tripped backward over some part of Flans' pedal arrangement. Whatever he tripped on messed up something on Flans' guitar which Flans and David were then trying to correct for the next song or two.



Iggy didn't turn on the light show in the drums at first for Roy G. Biv but he got it going eventually which made me very happy. It's the little things.



Meet the Elements. Older. Lots of tiny guitar players. When they launched the blizzard cannon this time we got buried. I've never been seated right under the thing before, only standing and I didn't take into account how much confetti can accumulate in your lap when you are sitting down.



When they did Seven, Flans was standing at the back of the stage with his arms raised in the air for the whole beginning of the song, until he finally got to his line. My boyfriend said it looked like he had arrived and the party and seen there was cake and he really wanted some but he thought it would be rude to ask. So he was just waiting for someone to offer him some and when they finally did he was a little over enthusiastic about it. It was pretty adorable.



The puppets returned. Blue Avatar asked Green Avatar if he was back in school. Green Avatar said yes, and Blue Avatar asked what kind of school he was in. Green Avatar said puppet school and that he was practicing his frown. He then made his sad little squashed up frown face. Green Avatar posed with Meg Ryan and she said he was dreamy. We did lots more "sea of hands." Blue Avatar stuck his eyeball in the lens again and showed off his hat and soul patch. They sand Shooting Star. It was all good.



We got up and clapped and stomped for Clap Your Hands. We stayed up for Paleontologist because Danny said that his friend Flans liked everyone to stand up and rock to his favorite song or something of that nature. Linnell ad libbed something like, "Is it a stegosaurus? I really don't know what this fossil is." I sang along like a groupie. Danny grinned at me. It rocked.



When they pulled out the clarinets for Cowtown, Flans said that the industry standard was now three clarinets on stage. He said they had two but they would be getting a third clarinet in the future even if it was just sitting on the stage and not being played. Linnell chimed in: "Ladies and gentlemen, the 2010 Blue Book on rock shows has come out and it stipulates two clarinets on stage at every show." Linnell was cradling his clarinet in his arms when he wasn't playing it in a fashion that made it look like he was strumming it like a guitar.



Stan did the Istanbul intro at the second show at I got a slew of good pictures of him doing it. They launched the blizzard cannon again, this time waving it around so the confetti went everywhere. I had confetti on every part of me.



There was a little girl, about one and a half, who was walking down our aisle picking up little piles of confetti and dropping them on each person's lap like a gift. She got to the little boy about her age sitting one seat over for me and fell in love with him. She just kept bringing more and more and more confetti over to drop on him, going all the way down to the end of the row to collect it and bring it back to him even though there was plenty right in front of him. By the end of the show, the little boy's lap was barely visible under all the confetti and he had it all over his head too. It was pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen. She even came back to give him more during the encore. Awwww.

Flans did the "They say we have to go, but we don't want to go" thing at the end of Istanbul to get another fake ending out of it and it was pretty hysterical because he looked crazed.

They did band intros and we did a more traditional "The bass is Danny Weinkauf" chant and I screamed good and proper for Marty who wrecked some excellent shit on his glowing drums. Then they finished out with Alphabet of Nations again.



The encore puppet segment was all about Meg Ryan. Linnell brought her straight to the front and was entirely voicing her in the silly male TV announcer voice (think a kind of Ed Sullivan sort of thing) going on and on about how she had gotten the puppets their start in show biz and her TV show and the improv classes she was talking. He switched voices slightly part way through. Flans was trying so hard not to completely lose it and mostly failing. He was actually laughing to the point where he started talking in his normal voice instead of the puppet voice toward the end because he couldn't keep it up while laughing. Blue Avatar brought out one of the bumper stickers and said they had meant to print 500 but ended up with 500,000 so everyone was going to get one after the show. They did eventually get around to Stalk of Wheat but Flans had to reign Linnell in from his Meg Ryan schtick to do it. The whole thing was so awkward and so over the heads of the small children but so incredibly funny.

They ended on 813 Mile Car Trip once more and that was it for the four show weekend. Flans tried to get everyone to move across the stage for stickers from left to right so it would be organized but a few people didn't listen and we got caught moving against the flow of people moving down for stickers when we were moving out because we have more than enough already.

Only two more shows this year, both this Saturday in Connecticut. Then for the first time since I started following the band, I don't know when my next show is. Just thinking about it puts me in a panic. The next time I know they are performing is in March. That is an awfully long way away. I am sure as hell going to make the most of this weekend.

There are a bunch more pictures on Flickr. As I said, I took a ton.