I have to confess that I remember extremely little from the shows on this February tour. By this point I was so far behind on doing recaps that I had pretty much given up and I started watching the shows differently. More focused on enjoying them in the moment and less on remembering them for posterity. I actually remember a lot more details of things that happened before and after the shows than I do of the shows themselves.
As such, I am going to try to write recaps from this trip, but they are going to be pretty short and will probably contain more personal stories than actual summaries of the shows. And I promise that I will do a better job recounting the shows this year, assuming that I get caught up.
The most newsworthy thing that I recall from the day of this show, other than how utterly exhausted I was from driving from MA to FL within 24 hours, had nothing to do with the show itself. I got pulled over somewhere in North Carolina and had one of the weirdest experiences with the police officer that I have ever had. Totally threw off my whole day. Not to mention taking about about 20 minutes of my time when I was already worried about running late. As it turned out, I needn't have worried. When I arrived at the venue, the only other person there was my friend, Katie. And even by the time they opened the doors, there were only about 20-30 people waiting. Most of the crowd showed up after doors. Totally not what I am used to.
I have always said that being at a TMBG show is like coming home. And that has rarely been more true than at this show. For a number of reasons, the exhaustion and the experience with the police included, I just felt off and in need of comfort. And I found it at this show. Being back by the stage, talking to other fans settled me. Victor and Mr. Brunette both greeted me warmly. And when the band hit the stage, nearly all of them acknowledged my presence with a "yay, you're back!" vibe. I got the regal nod from Marty, a big grin from Danny, and Dan waved at me, which totally impressed the guy standing next to me. And to my shock, I even got a big beaming smile from Linnell. And just like that, I felt centered again and like I was where I was supposed to be. (Also Linnell was wearing my favorite shirt, which seemed fitting.)
The most notable thing in my memory about Jonathan Coulton's set was his shirt. Very flashy and probably new. And I felt like his set was a little longer than usual which was nice. Oh, and my pictures tell me he must have broken a string and had to switch guitars.
JoCo set: Code Monkey - Sticking It To Myself - Shop Vac - Skullcrusher Mountain - Je Suis Rick Springfield - Sucker Punch - Still Alive - Mandelbrot Set - Re: You Brains - I Feel Fantastic
TMBG set: Cowtown - Doctor Worm - Can't Keep Johnny Down - Celebration - Don't Let's Start - Snowball In Hell - James K. Polk - Judy Is Your Viet Nam - Battle for the Planet of the Apes - Old Pine Box - Marty Beller Mask - Careful What You Pack - Pandor Jingle - Paranoid - Spoiler Alert - Cloisonné - You Probably Get That A Lot - The Guitar - Birdhouse In Your Soul - Damn Good Times - Ana Ng - We Live In A Dump - Fingertips - When Will You Die Encore - How Can I Sing Like A Girl? - Particle Man - The Famous Polka Encore 2 - Alphabet of Nations - Clap Your Hands - Istanbul
I know I've mentioned my favorite Doctor Worm moment from this show before. Danny climbed up on the drum riser to do his jump and just before he went he looked over and caught my eye for just a second and gestured up with just his eyebrows as if to say "I'm going that way. You ready?" And then up he went. I loved that. So rock and roll.
I remember thinking later that this was probably the funniest Avatar bridge to Snowball in Hell I've seen. Before he ever got to the "Not back on it, still on it" line, Green went off on this whole tangent about how he had been watching Blue through the window of his house and he had been trying to watch TV but the TV was turned the other way so he couldn't see it through the window. And the whole time he was getting angrier and angrier and going on and on. I nearly died laughing.
I don't actually remember if it was this show or one of the later ones, but I am going to mention it here before I forget. There was one of these shows where Linnell riffed for so long in this segment, that Flans forgot that he had not yet said the "Back on that old time is money kick" line. He had taken off the puppet and walked back out to the front of the stage before he remembered and had to run back, put the puppet back on and do the line so Linnell could finish it. Like I said, I don't know that it was actually this show, but since I could even begin to tell you which one it was, you can enjoy the story here.
The only bit of banter I recall was Flansburgh talking about Tiger Woods who supposedly lives in the area. I know there were some other wonderful bits, but they are totally lost in my memory.
Linnell was testing out a new wireless accordion mic that Victor constructed for him. It had, apparently, stopped working at the previous show he had tested it on, but it worked wonderfully at this one and meant he was completely untethered to do some explosive accordion action over my head as he seems to enjoy doing.
This rendition of Alphabet of Nations featured a particularly good "Guatemala."
I am a little confused about the very end of this setlist. I always keep a running setlist on my phone at shows and that one says that they did Clap Your Hands after Alphabet of Nations. But I neglected to write down Istanbul. But the physical setlist only says Istanbul with no Clap Your Hands. I am inclined to think they must have done both but I can't be sure.
And that, sadly, is all I remember from this show. But I took some great pictures, if I do say so myself, so I'll share some of my favorites.
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