Berkshires Rock

September 9, 2011 - Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center - Great Barrington, MA

Day two of the tour is in the bag! This was a seated show so we were able to avoid the hours waiting in line. We got to the venue about an hour before the doors opened. Our GPS got super confused and kept wanting us to take a road that did not exist and we circled around a residential neighborhood on a hill above the venue for a few minutes until we gave up on it and just followed instinct since we could see the venue at the bottom of the hill. As we drove past the theater to the parking lot, Danny was strolling down the sidewalk. Always nice to know we are in the right place. We helped Kathy find parking for her car then wandered back over to the theater, where Marty was now standing out front on his cell phone.

Fortunately, the lobby was open early as we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes outside. We were able to collect our tickets at will call and hang out in a bug free zone for the last hour before they opened the doors. I spent a little time talking to a couple of nice guys who were completely clueless about the band (they had only heard Apollo 18 and Flood and didn't even remember the Johns names) which was entertaining.

This was a proper theater, carved ceilings, fancy boxes, a nice balcony. We had front row seats, thanks to Megan's excellent ticket purchasing mojo. There was a little railing in front of us, between us and the stage and we were assured by a chatty security guard that we would have the best view in the house because they didn't let anyone in front of the railing to dance. I admit I was skeptical about how they would prevent this if Flansburgh did one of his typical calls to the front but I held my tongue.

Jonathan Coulton did the exact same setlist tonight as at Toad's except this time he actually played Alone At Home too. There was a funny little moment when the directer of the theater announced him and then this employee came out on stage to adjust the mic, so it briefly looked like he had come on instead of Jonathan. Then Jonathan came out and made a crack about dramatic entrances.

He gave us a little test before playing Artificial Heart to see if we could figure out the name of the song after he told us it was the title track off of his album, Artificial Heart. I think we passed. Before Alone at Home, he said the song was about shopping and got a few cheers. Then he said the song was really about arguing while shopping and he recommended Ikea, for arguing while shopping because you will blend in with all the other people arguing.

I quite liked the line he used to introduce, I Feel Fantastic at the end. "My name is Jonathan Coulton, and this is how you make me feel." I also like how, each night when he announces it's his last song, he tells us it's ok because TMBG are coming on in just a few minutes and each time he sounds as genuinely excited about that as we are. And this particular I Feel Fantastic was very rockin'.

The techs busied themselves resetting the stage. The keyboard seemed a little too far off to the left this evening, making the room to pass between it and the drum riser pretty narrow but it was manageable. They also didn't have the bass drum on stage the whole time, but rather, rolled it out especially for the Avatars. Gary had gleaned while outside earlier, that the sound guy who seems to have replaced Will on monitors is called John. How confusing.

Thus far, this tour is running like clockwork as TMBG hit the stage almost exactly at 9:00. And of course the very first thing Flansburgh did was tell everyone to flood the aisles and come down front. We didn't move because I thought the security guard was going to prevent people from moving in front of the railing (that was what we had been told after all). But the guard on the left seemed to recognize that he was powerless to prevents the hoard of people from going where ever they wished and by that point it was too late for us. But there were only about three rows of people standing in front of us, and either due to short people or a sloped floor, I could still clearly see over their heads so I wasn't too concerned about it.

Flansburgh had a single signed vinyl copy of Join Us that he gave away to a girl in the audience. It was in fact the same girl who had recognized me in the lobby from last year's Boston show because she remembered my "50th Show" T-Shirt.

TMBG's setlist was identical to the previous night, except for the final encore. They didn't play Three Might Be Duende and they flopped Istanbul and Dead. But other than that, the same. Which makes the recapping easier, because I'm only going to cover the stuff that was different.

Flans appeared to be wearing the exact same outfit as last night, except for his shoes. I assume it was probably a different white shirt. And he had on the silver sneakers. Linnell went basic in a plain black tee. Danny was also wearing the same shirt as last night, except without the T-Shirt under it this time. That's one way to delay needing to do laundry on tour. And Marty had on my favorite T-shirt with the inexplicable floating silos on it. Dan had on an orange tee under a button-up and looked very Dan like. He was also wearing shoes I had not seen before. Some sort of sneakers with stripes.

Even, four rows back, I got my "hello" smile from Danny during Racist Friend. That always gives me warm fuzzies. And I had a rare and odd moment of eye contact with Dan during one of the early songs. Otherwise, this was a stand back and enjoy the show, kind of show. There was a kid in front of me dancing like crazy which was entertaining to watch but I almost feared for the safety of those around him.

Flans commented on the people sitting in the fancy box seats and whether or not those people had had to pay extra to get those seats. I didn't realize it at the time, but this was an especially silly comment as the boxes turned out to be full of family members of the band, including Flans' own wife. Silly Flans.

A couple of songs in, Linnell ran off to the side of the stage to say something to the sound guy and then ran back. I was really curious why until I saw Victor come out on stage and tape a setlist to his keyboard after the next song. Apparently, he hadn't gotten one. Whoops. Flans introduced Victor and we got to cheer for him. He looked very confused.

Flans commented that they were still trying to figure out how to pronounce the name of the theater. He said they had been trying to get online all day and it seemed that the password for the wi-fi was just the name of the theater but the name was impossible to spell. 

As Danny settled into the keyboard for Cloisonné, Flans said he wanted to tell us a story. He said a couple of weeks back on the day we were having Hurricane Irene, he had been trying to figure out how Google Maps got their traffic information. And it turns out that they get it mostly from cell phones. Which was creepy enough. But then he was driving by Bear Mountain and he was on the phone with a friend and his friend said that it looked on Google Maps like the Thruway was pretty clear. So Flans went to get on the Thruway. But the Thruway was pretty clear because the Thruway was closed. And when you get on the Thruway at Bear Mountain and are forced to go north because the southbound in closed, it is 30 miles before the next exit. He said he thought he had discovered a flaw in Google Maps that needed to be addressed. He dramatic telling of this story was fantastic.

Flans introduced "two words rarely heard on a theater stage: Danny Weinkauf on the keyboards!" Our assumption is that he was going to say bass clarinet and then realized that that wasn't actually that rare on a theater stage. Danny took a little bow, then Flans made another comment about how exciting this was. Danny leaned over and stuck his elbow on the keyboard and swiped his whole arm across the keys. Flans said that had taken weeks of preparation. Then he introduced Linnell on the bass clarinet and away they went.

Somewhere mid song, Linnell had moved to the back of the stage to play clarinet and Flans was rocking around on guitar, walking backwards and smacked right into Linnell. It was one of those awful moments I saw coming but was powerless to prevent. They both recovered quickly and finished the song with Flans, Dan and Linnell in a cute little improve circle off to one side of the stage while Danny bopped at the keyboard with just one shoulder popping in time to the chords.

After the song, Flans started to riff on some other topic, then turned to Linnell to ask if he was all right. Linnell said he was fine and that he had been worried about Flans. He joked the he was concerned that Flans had somehow injured himself on him. This prompted my absolutely favorite line of the night from Flans. "I punctured myself with Linnell." Linnell said that he was reminded of the scene in Pulp Fiction where the guys are going "Are you all right? I'm all right. Are you all right?" Flans then had another great line: "That's the first physical contact we've had in 20 years." He said in was a little known fact that they were not actually in the same band. None of the guys on the stage were in the same band. They were all emotionally unavailable. 

This show had a lot of amusing side conversations going on between Dan and Danny and Marty in the background of the stage, none of which I could determine the nature of. But they kept completely cracking each other up. At one point Danny said something to Marty in reference to something on the setlist which really made them laugh and Dan kept starring at Danny trying to get him to tell him what was so funny but he wouldn't do it. There was another moment when Dan climbed up behind Marty on the drum riser and said something to him which he got very animated about but I couldn't quite tell if it was concern or excitement (it looked like concern but I can't be sure). But whatever it was Dan seemed to indicate that it wasn't a big deal and they ended up laughing. There were others of these moments too, that were just kind of fun to watch because they got some really good smiles out of the guys.

I realized today that the video projection was a lot more extensive than I had previously thought. Most of the songs in the set have video projection to go with them that I hadn't noticed the previous night. It's mostly perplexing imagery and I often don't notice it because I'm watching the band but it's intriguing when I do notice. My personal favorite continues to be the picture of a stuffed sheep that is part of the Never Knew Love montage. It's just cute and random.

Before Whistling in the Dark, the sound tech, John, and another guy wheeled the bass drum onto the stage and Flans introduced him to the crowd. And I'll be damned, if it isn't John Carter, the old glockenspiel tech from about a decade ago. I may very well have been the only person in the theater who was excited about the return of an old sound tech, but I did actually find this information very exciting.

The dialogue accompanying this Avatar segment was some of the most ridiculous I have seen. Blue introduced himself as Rupert Murdoch this time and Green as Rebecca. But Green tossed in that he was Rebecca de Mornay. I don't remember what the early section of their dialogue was but Blue eventually started talking about how he like new music, especially African drummed techno indie music (or something along those lines) performed by people with 28 inch waists. At this point Dan, who was standing behind Marty on the drum riser, pointed at Marty, obviously as a gibe about Marty being so skinny. Marty was oblivious but I thought it was pretty funny. Then Blue went off on this thing about having a 28 inch leg. A crispy 28 inch leg. And it just got bizarre and hilarious. And then Green interrupted to try to introduce the song and Blue teased him for wanting to actually sing. And Green apologized for interrupting him and told him to continue and they got in a little mock argument about whether he should continue or not and whether he could get back on topic and he did finally come back around to more discussion of his crispy 28 inch leg. It was completely bizarre and the band was in virtual hysterics on the other side of the stage by the end of it.

Before Shoehorn, Blue went on a riff pretending he was on Saturday Night Live and started thanking Lorne Michaels. Dan was providing a few notes of patter music for them and Linnell insisted he had to provide appropriate music. So Dan started playing some nice classical chords while Blue thanked their musical guest George Michaels and they pretended they were closing out their television show.

After the puppets Flans commented to Linnell how it was funny how different the Avatars sounded from their own voices. Linnell dead panned something along the lines of "you mean, not at all?" Flans said they used to so that whole Frank Oz thing and Linnell said they had gotten lazy. Flans also made a joke about needed to educate the band on who Ozzy Osborne was before the show, in reference to their Crazy Train cover (which they really stretched out tonight).

Flans made some very amusing lyrical mistakes in Old Pine Box. I can't remember exactly what they were without looking at the lyrics, but it was in the verses.

Cool sounding Withered Hope, but not as cool as the previous night, because the bass wasn't as over cranked.

Our Battle For The Planet Of The Apes, ran fairly smoothly tonight. We ended up divided with Gary and Kathy on the ape side and myself on the people side. The only thing Flans continues to fail to mention is that each side is supposed to stop chanting when their half of the band stops playing. In fact, tonight he didn't even match us up with halves on the band. He just kind of pointed at us. When the people were declared the winners, Flans led the apes in a revolt but then stopped them and said it was no good.

There were lots more people in this crowd familiar with the "drink, drink" participation. Or at least lots more that I heard.

I am now really hoping they keep Sapphire Bullets in the set because Gary pointed out that it is a fantastic song to watch Marty play because he spots himself on the cowbell and the wooden block. He plays along and then a beat before he needs to do the run on the blocks and the cowbell he turns his head and looks at them and then hits them each in sequence perfectly. It's like a precisely choreographed dance. It's fantastic and also kind of adorable.

I got to enjoy Celebration even more tonight, because I could see the entire stage and I realized that Dan is also singing the "singing" keyboard part after the chorus with Linnell and he has the most adorably ridiculous "ooo, ooo, ooo" face while he does it. He is truly the master of silly singing faces. And dear god, I love that song.

After Celebration, Flans said that lots of parents get their kids piano lessons and guitar lessons and clarinet lessons, but it takes a special kind of parent to let your child learn to play the drums and then he thanked Marty's parents who were in one of the boxes. Well said, Flans.

When Flans and Linnell started the intro to Alphabet of Nations, Linnell just yelled "Alph" in the mic and it echoed a bit opposite Flans' "The". Then Flans said "Hey, John" into the mic. And Linnell did another "alph" and then replied "yes, John? What were you going to say?" And Flans stopped right there to tell this fantastic story, right in the middle of the intro. He asked Linnell if he had ever told him about the time when he was working for some publishing house. Linnell said yes, he thought so and asked if that was when he was working for Scholastic. Flans said no, this was the three months he spent working for Macmillan Educational. He started to say it was the worst job he ever had, but then corrected himself and said the Scholastic job was the worst he ever had but this was close. He said he spent three months removing Alf's wart. Apparently, they were publishing workbooks featuring Alf, the puppet from the television show and that the puppet had a wart which had been drawn into the illustrations. But while the wart looked fine in foam and felt, it was deemed too gruesome in the illustrations and he was to paint it out in all the pictures. And he had been reminded of that because Linnell said "Alph." And that was the story. And then they went back to the song.

Before Careful What You Pack, Flans told the story of the woman shouting "No!" the night before. He is still really entertained by that. He said they were used to being in bars with drunk guys just yelling and covering their ears, so I think he found the single act of defiance refreshing.

Somewhere near the end, Flans brought out a vinyl 7" copy of The Other Thing EP and announced that it was sale at the Merch Stand. He asked the girl he had given the record to if he could borrow it back. He held it up and said when they first brought back vinyl people had asked them if it was a calendar and they just didn't know how to respond to that. But now if you bought both you could have an instant vinyl collection. He handed both records back to the girl and told her she could now post on Facebook that she was "officially into vinyl"

Linnell pretty royally screwed up the lyrics at the end of Judy, which in turn screwed Flans up. Linnell just couldn't get himself back on track after missing a line and eventually gave up, just shaking his head.

I have decided that the only thing better than watching Marty drum Judy Is Your Viet Nam, is watching Marty's dad watch Marty drum Judy. He was trying to get pictures of him and their was such pride in his eyes. It was beautiful. I was sort of wishing I'd had the opportunity to run into Marty's parents after the show, just so I could thank them for indulging their son's desire to bang on things. And just say, good job with that one. He's a one in a million.

They did Particle Man with no bridge again. Just a slightly more rockin' chorus than normal, and about three accordion notes for a bridge. Dan tore threw the Damn Good times solo with some of his finest shredding.

Lie Still, Little Bottle, still nifty with bass clarinet and stylophone. I am really liking this arrangement. The Dans returned for an especially dragged out and rocking Istanbul. I didn't notice but Gary said that Marty's parents were dancing to the song in their box. I do believe it had two if not three fake endings on it. And they actually did close with Dead tonight.

No band intros in this show at all. I guess Flans figured we know who they are by now. Marty came out after and handed a signed drum head to the kids who had been sitting behind us before we started. He stood out on stage and did a "who wants it" first, but I kind of feel like I need to wait a reasonable amount of time before collecting anything else from Marty after my super personalized drums stick experience. So I didn't even raise my hand even though I wanted it too. But I got my setlist from Victor. It was the one off the keyboard, which turns out to be the original. Only the second original setlist in my collection.

Only a couple pictures from this show as photography wasn't allowed. I snuck four pictures, only 2 of which came out. I'll add them in later.

And then home again. Concord, NH tonight. Only an hour away. How refreshing! And seated again so no need to go early at all. And since this recap only took me two hours to write instead of five, like yesterday, I've got some time to kill. *twiddles thumbs*