#7-Music Videos

I already did my Audience Participation entry on music videos so I almost forgot that I hadn't yet included them in this countdown.

The TMBG music videos are alternately bizarre, funny, bouncy, clever and highly entertaining. I love watching the Johns dance and bounce around, especially Linnell. I appreciate that the videos don't try to tell a story to go along with the songs like some videos do. I prefer to imagine the story myself and just enjoy the Johns being silly.

Sometimes I wish I went to shows in an era when people still did the Ana Ng dance in the audience. For some reason I find the idea of choreographed dance routines to TMBG hilarious. Thus my idea of flash mobbing the Birdhouse video at my wedding.

Believe it or not, I was actually kind of a hard sell on the videos. I didn't love any of them the first time around. They had to grow on me. I think initially I found them too weird. But then eventually I realized that was why I liked them.

I would love it if they made some new videos for newer songs with the band. That would make me very happy. Though I enjoy the more recent animated ones they put out I miss the real live rock videos. Maybe for the new album, though somehow I doubt it.

#8 - The Crew

This is my shout out to the men who keep the show going behind the scenes. I've seen a fair amount of crew turn over in the last (almost) three years but there have also been a lot of consistent faces, especially over the last year. I may only see a fraction of what goes on before, during and after a show but I think these guys do a pretty bang up job.

There have probably been a dozen guys working on stage whose names I never knew but these are the ones I do know.

Aside from Iggy (and I'll get there in a minute), the first crew member I ever knew was Lala and it was only for a very brief time. He kindly gave me permission to yoink Linnell's setlist in Worcester and had a disastrous turn on the monitors at LPR and then I never saw him again. I've always hoped those last two things weren't related. I've read several other people's stories involving him and he always sounded like he was a nice guy and a lovely TLA dancer.

Let's see, there is Adam who has done sound off and on for as long as I've been following the band and was responsible for a few of the live recordings I have. Kudos.

There is Vince, who did sound on the fall tour. Danny said he did a hell of a good job which is gotta count for something (unfortunately he said it at a kid show and learned that you probably aren't supposed to say hell in front of children.)

Then in to the current crew. Will, who has been on several tours with the band over the years and has been with them consistently since last June. That first show I saw him in Portland, did not go well for him, with monitor problems left and right, not to mention the tropical heat but things seem to have improved. He saved the show in Pittsburgh by fixing Linnell's keyboard and got a really good laugh out of me jumping out of my skin when the confetti canon went off in my face in Charlotte.

Scott, tour manager extraordinaire. The rest of the guys may technically keep the show going but Scott, literally keeps the show going. It may on the surface look like his job just involves laying out water and towels on stage but I am pretty damn sure the wheels might actually fall off the tour bus without him. One of the funniest things I've ever seen behind the scenes at a show was Scott's impression of himself running through the theater that he was giving to Will after the puppet disaster in Charlotte. Remember, before you end the show....wait for Scott.

Victor, my setlist hook-up. He keeps a, frankly, silly number of guitars tuned and seems to chip in on getting everything else up and running to. He's the guy they bring when they only bring one guy because he seems to be able to do a little of everything. He's also a master tambourine holder. Anytime you get dumped with confetti by that monster blower, that was Victor too. And, I shouldn't say this because I will jinx myself, but thanks to him I am running on a 100% show to setlist ratio this year. I don't even have to ask anymore. He finds me.

And finally, Iggy. Who doesn't love Iggy? He's like the ultimate fan friendly crew member. Lighting god, confetti cannon master. Keeper of rock pigeons. I've seen him shimmy up lighting poles like a monkey which would scare the crap out of me (heights...bad). He never fails to give me a smile and a wave when he sees me, even when I'm at another band's show. Iggy is a legend. I don't know if any of you have played Lego Rock Band, but Iggy is who I think of when I look at the Lego Roadie in that game.

Next time you're at a show, watch the crew. Appreciate how hard they work to give you a great show. Say hi to them. Give them a good whoop when Flans thanks them on stage. Those guys are champions in my book.

#9 - Celebration

Call me crazy, but I kind of love it when they screw up. False starts, forgotten lyrics, wrong chords, dropped verses, lost songs. I guess they all fall into the category of making the band seem more real and human. But they just make me smile and laugh. I like the jokes that come out of the mistakes. They are often the funniest off the cuff remarks of the show. I enjoy watching them crack each other up with ill-timed entrances and hilariously mixed up words.

The word "celebration" was the band's kid show safe version of "I fucked up," originated at some point last spring. I still occasionally hear Flans yell "celebration, celebration" after a bad start as a signal for everyone to stop playing. I find the word rather appropriate. Don't hide the fuck ups. Celebrate them.

I actually have a lot of respect for them being willing to stop a song part way in to try and get it right. Personally, I think it's braver to admit you messed up and try again than to play through a bad beginning.

I believe Linnell sums it up best. "We could wipe out on this and actually we might have so little pride that we would just start over again."

Little known fact, the two most screwed up shows I've seen (St. Louis last October and Charlotte this spring) are actually among my very favorite shows because they are the most memorable. I have a feeling that 20 years from now I wont have much more than a vague sense of why I loved my favorite perfect shows but I will still remember all the gory details of those two shows.

I include for you a video of one of my very favorite reactions to screwing up a song I have ever seen.




Edit: I feel like I need to clarify something. When I say I love it when they screw up, I mean the little things. A flubbed up line here, starting the wrong song there. Anything that makes them laugh, makes me laugh. I do not enjoy watching things go really wrong. That is painful and stressful and makes me feel awful. The reason the messed up shows are among my favorites is partly because they were still really good shows and partly because the fact that I can recognize what is going wrong (aside from big obvious things) makes me feel more a part of the show. More connected some how. It's war time camaraderie rather than schadenfreude. I just wanted to make that clear, that I'm not reveling in their failures or anything. Because in retrospect this entry seemed a bit callous.

Stage Announcements - 9/3/10

You've all seen this video by now right? Because this is the only thing of any real note to come out of this week. It's funny even if you have never seen The Avatars of They but funnier if you have because they do all the same little jokes with the camera that they do on stage. Like flipping the back of the coffee cup around for the audience to read and sticking their eyeballs in the camera. I was watching it last night and laughing so hard I cried, until I realized I wasn't quite sure I was crying because I was laughing or because I've been so miserable lately and I really miss the band.  Which I guess is neither here nor there.

The video.




Mt favorite part is when the Green Avatar appears to pass out after the gloriously long Guatemala and the Blue Avatar glances down at him as if to check that he is going to get back up. Kills me.

#10 - Danny's Red Pants

Ah, the red pants. I am no more in a position now to explain why I like them so much than I ever was. They are a trademark, inseparable from the man himself. Elvis had his flipped up collars. Elton John has his enormous glasses. Slash has the top hat. Danny Weinkauf has the red pants.



For me, the red pants are often the first signal that it is going to be a good show. They are happy and energy lifting and impossible to miss. And, hell with it, Danny looks really good in them!



One of my dreams is to someday get a kick-ass, epic picture of Danny, in the red pants, leaping into the air at the end of Doctor Worm in the same fashion that he did in front of us in Richmond. For it is that image, blazed on my memory, that comes to mind when anyone mentions the pants. So far this is as near as I have come and it isn't even close.



I know there has been a fair amount of debate in the fandom over whether Danny has been wearing the same pair of red pants for the last 12 years. As TDK already mentioned in the comments of the Stripes, Plaids and Geeky T-Shirts post, he was among a group of fans who witnessed Danny purchasing a pair of red pants in Philadelphia in October of 1998. I can't say one way or another if he's been wearing that same pair ever since but I can prove that there was at least one other pair that he had prior to that point.

I will submit three pieces of evidence. The first is this photo from the liner notes of the Lincoln album (the self-titled by Lincoln as opposed to Lincoln by TMBG) released in 1997. Please note the pants on the 3rd gentleman from the left. (Apologies for the poor photo quality. I don't have a scanner and the picture really is that blurry in real life.)

The second is this footage from a show in Atlanta, in May of 1998, which (correct me if I'm wrong) has to be among Mr. Weinkauf's earliest appearances with the band. It's hard to see in the beginning, but if you stick around until Danny's bass solo at about 2:45, the red pants are in the spotlight. And even if you don't care what color pants he's wearing, stick around for the bass solo. Seriously, trust me on this one. Danny kicks some serious ass. 

And finally, there is this video. I am not sure of the exact date in 1998 of this one. It is possible that it is actually post-October and thus could be a complete failure of an example. I am making an assumption on timeframe based on the lack of Dan Miller. But it really doesn't matter because it's just a cool video.



Totally not related to red pants but on the subject of band members wearing the same clothes for 12 years, I do believe that Dan Levine is wearing the same shirt in that video that he is wearing in this picture that was taken at the show just this past New Year's Eve. Huh.



(See, I managed to work the pants in there after all :-) And with my favorite pants/shirt combo too!)

#11 - The Many Amusing Faces Of Dan Miller

Marty does not hold the monopoly on silly faces in this band. Dan regularly gives him a run for his money, usually while singing back-up. I shall let these pictures speak for themselves.



















And my absolute favorite.




Side note: I have realized while looking for these pictures that I have disturbingly few pictures of Dan, at least compared to how many I have of the rest of the guys. I have something like 1,300 pictures of this band (and that's just the ones that were good enough to post online) and I'd say maybe 100 of them are of Dan. I know I've been at a lot of shows where I either couldn't see him or he was so right on top of me that I felt self conscious taking pictures of him but this ratio is unforgivable. I shall be making a point this fall of getting much better shots of Dan into my portfolio.

There's A Picture Opposite Me - 9/1/10

"What words rhyme with buried alive?" - Drink! - They Might Be Giants


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