September 11, 2010 - Life Is Good Festival - Canton, MA
Well, I'll say this for the band, they sure know how to make a long wait between shows worth it!
The day did not start off on the right foot. I overslept so ended up leaving about a half hour later than I had intended. Parking for the festival was available at two different lots in Canton and shuttle buses were running from both to Prowse Farm, where the festival was being held. We parked at the MBTA station, which was about a mile from the farm. Shuttle buses were scheduled to start running at 10:30 but we got on the first bus which left at 10:15. Then things got worse.
I was a little curious why the bus driver took the turn onto I-95S since I was pretty sure the farm was off of I-93 but I figured she knew where she was going. Apparently that was a silly assumption. I started getting seriously concerned about 10 minutes later when we still weren't showing any signs of even exiting the highway. I looked up the directions on Google Maps and they indicated pretty clearly that we were now about 12 miles south of our destination traveling the wrong way. I kept hoping someone else on the bus would speak up and say something. I did hear the guy in from of me muttering. But it wasn't until we passed the sign indicating that we were 2 miles from Rhode Island that we all collectively spoke up. Turned out the festival organizers had told the drivers that they were to take exit 2B off of 95 instead of 93. By that point we were 30 minutes away from where we were supposed to be (yes, I realize I should have spoke up sooner). Then of course we had to turn around and drive the 30 minutes back. So we spent an hour on what was supposed to be our 5 minute shuttle bus ride. Instead of being among the first people at the festival grounds before they even opened the gates, we didn't get there until after they had opened. Thank god, TMBG weren't on first!
The part I found most frustrating was that, though the bus driver apologized (it wasn't her fault after all), the festival people did absolutely nothing about the fact that one of their buses had driven us almost to another state. They didn't even acknowledge that it happened when we all got off the bus. Not cool Life Is Good. Not cool at all.
On the bright side, when we finally did get in to the festival I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the place was not crowded at all. I guess a lot of people came later in the day and I didn't get the impression that they were sold out (which would have been 20,000 people) so it wasn't the nut house I was expecting. Plus the place was huge so there was plenty of space for people to be.
We wandered around the grounds for a bit first. There were lots of booths and activities set up but most seemed either to be advertising something or geared towards kids. We did see someone in a Goldfish costume. And I do mean the snack food, not the type of fish. It was advertising the Pepperidge Farms booth. The Children's Museum in Easton had a Dino Dig tent set up and I really wanted to see Danny over there proving that he is, in fact, a paleontologist (if he ever did visit, I didn't see it).
The Good Kids stage where TMBG performed was the only stage in a tent. We went in and found a spot on the grass part way through the first band of the day, The Sippy Cups. The ground was covered with small plastic chairs, some kind of giant bean bag things that were also being sold, and the Rodys that Flans tweeted the picture of this morning. We sat next to a girl recklessly riding a green Rody and almost got bounced over.
I quite liked The Sippy Cups. They are on the sillier side of children's music with wacky costumes, goofy names for everyone in the band (they all use Sippy before their name, as in Sippy Paul, Sippy Doug, etc), juggling and songs about brushing your teeth and learning new things. They also did some covers of popular tunes like the Jackson 5 ABCs song and the like. Sippy Paul had a never ending series of silly hats. Sippy Doug seemed to be there largely for comic relief and kept coming out as different characters and provided the juggling. I initially found the female singer, Sippy Lala's voice to be a little grating (mocked up baby voice) but I got used to it and she played the sitar which was pretty cool. Their guitar player had an awesome jacket and a pink Fender and their bass player was a girl which is always cool. Their grand finale involved juggling a stuffed alligator, monkey and penguin. I approved.
The next act was the Big Apple Circus - Circus to Go. We moved a bit farther forward for their show, prepping ourselves for TMBG. The circus had brought a few of their most mobile acts to entertain us. There was a woman who twirled hula hoops. There was a woman who spun plates and did some impressive balancing and acrobatics. The MC was a clown named Bucky who did some mediocre comedy and some somewhat more impressive ball spinning. There was a contortionist who seemed to have no spine. The contortionist and the hula hoop lady (who were mother and daughter, I think) joined with a younger daughter for a performing poodle act which was pretty cute but hard to see because they were so low to the stage and everyone stood up in front to see them. I think this is probably the only time TMBG had been preceded by performing poodles. They closed with a cowboy with a lasso routine.
I started spotting TMBG crew getting ready on the side lines during the circus. Iggy was getting the lighting program set up and Will came out to watch the circus for a bit. They didn't have Victor with them, but rather another guitar tech I've seen with them before, but whose name I don't know. I don't know if our setlist failure was due to not being there to recognize us or if they were just saving them for tomorrow's show. I suspect the later as I don't think they gave out any but I'm not sure. I'll tell you tomorrow.
There is something so wonderfully familiar about watching the crew set up for a show. They had the standard pre-family show house music playing. As soon as the circus was done, a whole bunch of crew came out and helped wheel all the already set up pieces of the TMBG stage into place from behind a curtain at the back. Danny came out to tune his bass. Iggy went around with a checklist checking sound levels on all the various mics and instruments. I Love Rock and Roll was playing when he sat down to test the drums and he was actually beating out the rhythm of the song on the kick drum and the toms. The funniest was watching him test the accordion without picking it up. He just kind of pulled it up and down a little and then used one of the drum sticks to push some of the buttons.
Scott came out to hand out foam fingers. They had orange and green and while I have plenty of fingers I've been coveting a green one. I sent to boy up to retrieve one and he got one of each. Woohoo!
Just before the band came on stage there was a fight between some people in front of us over a couple of the bean bags. Two of the women were standing directly in front of us arguing when the Stompy Intro came on and I was about ready to start yelling too when one of them walked away and the other sat down. The whole argument was rather pointless since Flans immediately had us stand up. It didn't take much encouragement from him to get me to move farther forward in front of the bean bags either.
This was definitely a "less talk, more rock" show, I assume to make the most of their one hour time slot. They started with 813 Mile Car Trip. Flans mentioned Here Comes Science and they played Meet the Elements. Marty was appropriately dressed for this in his periodic table T-shirt. There was some bit of dialogue in here that I completely missed, but which my boyfriend caught, about eating imaginary donuts. Flans told everyone to pretend they were eating imaginary donuts and then complained that his was stale.
They didn't instruct us on counting for Pirate Girls Nine but we counted anyway. Flansburgh told us it was accordion time which the crowd got very excited about. There was another funny accordion related comment that I've forgotten. I took a lot of pictures at this show since I wasn't in the front and the outdoor setting provided decent lighting. Unfortunately, that always means I occasionally tune out to the actual music and I think I lost Pirate Girls in one of those moments (I don't know what I was doing for the donut thing). I remember watching Dan count, because I had resolved to get more pictures of Dan since my collection is lacking. I also, couldn't see Linnell for large portions of the show, which is unusual since usually I can't see someone else through Linnell and his keyboard. There was first a tall man and then a man with a kid on his shoulders between me and Linnell and I only really saw him when he stepped to one side or the other of the guy bent down.
Excellent Doctor Worm. I continued my quest to get a picture of Danny jumping and ended up with a funny shot of him leaping out of Flansburgh's back. They didn't have the confetti cannons with them. I think they would be discouraged at an outdoor festival that was, among other things, celebrating conservation.
The Famous Polka. I could finally see Linnell for a bit, since he moved to the left to play. Then he rushed back over to his mic to yell "hey", before returning to the left. He really needs his second accordion playing mic back. Danny played the bass solo and in the little one second break in the middle of it looked off to the left with his hysterical expression on his face, like he was saying "who was that, was that me?" and then looked back at the crowd with a "hey, look what I can do" before continuing to play.
All the guys seemed to be in a really silly mood. They kept making each other laugh over little things and who knows what. They must have been having a good day.
Next started the jumping portion of the show. Well, first Linnell stopped to drink some coffee and Flans commented that "in the future all music will be accompanied by on stage coffee drinking." Then he told us that we needed to jump up and down for the next song but not until he said go. They started playing The Guitar. Flans told us to jump when the band usually starts jumping. We jumped. Then stopped for the lion parts. Then jumped again and again and again. To be fair so did the band so we were all tired. Linnell fiddled with the Kaoss pad. Flans twiddled with something down on his end of the keyboard. We jumped some more. I never realized how long that song is (though Flans had warned us that it was a five minute song).
They he started introducing Marty and I thought, "shit, more jumping." I screamed. They played Clap Your Hands. We clapped. We stomped. Then we jumped some more. So very tired now. And then, what did they play? Birdhouse. More jumping. I gave up after the first beats. My legs were done. When it was time for the guitar solo, Linnell called "John, Dan playing something!" Then, "More!" This made Dan laugh really hard. He was positively chortling.
By the time they hit Older, I was just happy for a slow song. Flans let the kiddos play his guitar and made some very funny faces at them. They did the freeze pause even though there wasn't any confetti. Dan did some funny poses with his guitar. Afterwards Flans thank all the guest guitarists of Canton, MA.
Flans started talking about 123s and Danny looked at Marty and mouthed "Seven?" There were a few moments where they seemed confused about the setlist. It seemed like maybe they didn't all have one. There was a weird moment of Dan and Linnell communicating with hand signals at one point with Dan pointing at the keyboard and then his mic and seemed to be indicating switching something. Who knows what. Flans told us they had won a Grammy for this album. "I know what you're thinking. Yes, the check cleared." When Linnell got to the first line about "who would like some cake?" a ton of the kids raised their hands and yelled "me!" Very cute.
Then one of them, I think maybe Linnell, said that they got complaints that they didn't have enough guest stars at their shows. So they brought out Broom. Linnell contributed this bit of dialogue with humorous results. "Broom, I know your eyebrows are tilted up but you sound kind of angry." Broom (sounding affronted and slightly confused): "No, I'm not angry." Then Broom told us that he would be doing a special late night set later with Buckethead who is currently on tour with Axl Rose. Linnell said that he hated to bring up sensitive stuff on stage but their tour bus was really messy, "I don't know who made the mess. I'm not pointing any fingers." Broom: "Well it wasn't me. Not my problem if you guys are slobs." Linnell asked him is he could, in his capacity as a broom, clean up the bus. Broom did an incredible version of an incredulous look considering he has no facial expressions and said, "Au contraire, mon frere. That's French for, no way, Jose." Then they sang the song.
The band came back and Flans introduced the song about the laziest member of They Might Be Giants. He spun around pointing his finger as if he was going to label one of the guys then ended up pointing at his own head. Since Dan was going the trumpet part, Flans forgot to change the line to "practice guitar everyday" until the second go round.
Flans announced accordion time again and Linnell told us to set our watches. Then Flans said it would be awesome if they could have total darkness on stage for the next song but he was sure there was no one at the lights. But sure enough the lights all turned off. But the lights inside Marty's clear drum set all went on, giving them a shiny glow, like they were lit up with Christmas lights. Linnell said it was weird because he usually can't even see Marty's drums, he can just see Marty's legs through them. But the lights made the invisible drums visible. They played Whistling in the Dark which is indeed a good song to play without lights. Unusual choice for a family show but it works. Linnell messed up the line "hit my head on the wall of the jail." I can't remember what he said but it wasn't that.
Marty came down to embrace his boy band routes with High Five! Many, many children and adults got high fives, as did all of the band at the end. They were all ready this time. Continuing in the guest artists, Danny went next with Paleontologist. The woman in front of me was VERY excited. Linnell included his old favorite, trilobite in the dinosaurs he listed then asked how you pronounced that fossil anyway. He also asked if it was a stegamasarous, then turned and asked Danny, "Danny, do you know?" Danny gave a comical shrug, like "I have no idea what it is, dude?"
Flans went to the back of the stage and picked up a straw cowboy hat and plunked it on his head and continued to wear it for the rest of the show. He picked up a pack of the 8-bit rock bumper stickers and said that they had meant to have 50 of them printed but they accidently printed 50,000 so he was going to hold one out very slowly and hand it to someone (it actually took a second for someone to reach up and grab it) and then continue to do that for the next 17 hours until everyone at the festival had one. He went to hand out another but played like he couldn't reach any of the kids but then said it seemed like they were getting taller, as one of them jumped for it. He handed a few more out while he gave instructions about clapping on the back beat, I think because he realized he couldn't clap with them in his hand. They finished with Particle Man. Lovely accordion mashing, nothing in the bridge.
They took only a minute or so for the encore (they'd left themselves about 10 minutes), then came back out and did Alphabet of Nations. The echoing scat at the beginning was awesome. Linnell did some more monkey playing a thermin and then both made some really funny sounds. Throughout the day there was an interpreter doing sign language on the side of the stage to all the songs. We were amused by their struggle to both keep up with and interpret lyrics while they were being sung and had been particularly looking forward to seeing them tackle Alphabet of Nations because I thought the spelling would be her undoing. But she totally cheated and just signed the ABCs. No fair.
Flans thanked the band and reminded us that he and Marty would be giving out the stickers. He also thanked his mom who was in the audience. He told us we should go check out a band called Ozomatli that was going to be playing on one of the other stages soon. Then they closed with New York City.
I wasn't going to make any attempt at stickers since I already have so many and I was hanging back while the crowd went forward to see what the situation might be with the setlists. My boyfriend ventured forward to be in a better position to get one. Marty had his kids with him on stage while he handed out stickers. The little boy had on a T-shirt that said My Dad Rocks. Awwwwwww. Then Flans' mom came out on stage and started passing out stickers and we had to get a sticker from Flans' mom. I've labeled it so I'll always know which one came from her. It was a real family affair on the stickers today. They took away the keyboard with the setlist still on it, which was part of what made me think they might be reusing it, and that was the only one that was visible on the stage. We hung around for a while longer, just to see what could be seen. Marty signed stuff for people off beside the stage for a few minutes and waved at us on the way out.
We wandered around and listened to a little of a few other bands including Ozomatli, Dr. Dog and Dan Zanes (great hair on that guy) before deciding there wasn't any point in staying for the other bands we had no interest in and heading home. No troubles with the shuttle on the way back.
So a very wonderful return to Giant land. Oddly, no Istanbul. I think that is only the 3rd show I've seen where they didn't play it. I wouldn't complain except, since they had no horn player I've missed a chance at Miller Time. Also no Sun. Interesting. We had a great time and are ready to do it all again tomorrow whether it's the same setlist or not. Whee!
The rest of the pictures are on Flickr. There are a bunch.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mynameisbluecanary/sets/72157624811425565/
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