Notable items of the week:
A lovely gallery of photos from the Life Is Good Festival from They Will Rock You. Pictures of our guys are at the end.
http://theywillrockyou.com/2010/09/concert-gallery-life-good-festival-canton-ma/
Some pictures of John, John and Marty in the studio at WBUR in Providence, RI last Friday before the show at Lupo's. If anyone knows where I can find the interview that goes with these, please let me know.
http://blog.wbru.com/2010/09/25/they-might-be-giants-in-wbru-studio/
John Linnell sat down for this interview with The Settler. There is some great insight into their work on Coraline. I would LOVE to hear all the other songs that didn't make it into the film.
http://media.www.settleronline.com/media/storage/paper1223/news/2010/09/27/Entertainment/They-Might.Be.Giants.John.Linnell.Talks.To.The.Settler-3937403.shtml
A columnist for the Cornell Daily Sun contributed this beautiful essay on being a They Might Be Giants fan. This girl put into words things that I so often try to explain to people and fail. And I tried to tell her so but the website wont let me comment. I did have to snicker a little at her being embarrassed by attending five shows though.
http://www.cornellsun.com/section/arts/content/2010/09/29/they-might-be-fanatic
And finally, the band has just released this new video for We Live In A Dump which is pretty much the best thing ever.
If you are attending the show in DC tomorrow have fun and be sure to bring back lots of pictures and stories for those of us stuck at home. Oh, and enjoy Canajoharie. It rocks.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Awesome Weekend Part Three
September 26, 2010 - Town Hall - New York, NY - Early show
The nice thing about shows at venues with assigned seats is not having to wait outside for hours before the show to secure a spot in front. We got to Town Hall a little before doors opened where most people were just milling around on the sidewalk. We saw both Dan and Stan come outside for a bit and wander around looking like they were looking for friends or family. There always seems to be a pretty good turn out of band family members at New York City kid shows. I was amused that Stan still had the neck strap for his sax hanging around his neck. Always prepared. Danny came out just as we were going in and spent some time talking to someone with Dan and then I also spotted him talking to some little kids in the box office later when I went out to the restroom.
Town Hall is a very nice theater with wonderful acoustics. We had seats in the third row on the right side with Megan and Stacy and Steve were a couple rows back since we hadn't bought our tickets together. The show definitely wasn't sold out at many of the seats in the large balcony were empty when the show began.
Apologies if I mix up what stuff happened at which show. The setlists were identical except for the encore and our seats were almost the same so there is very little in my mind to distinguish the two.
The show started with very little fanfare and I have to say this was one of the lowest vibe shows I have ever been to. The audience seemed like they were all still asleep and then there was some weirdness with security that I'll get into later, but it all made for a very odd feel to the show. Not by any fault of the band though. They still rocked their darndest even though I'm sure they weren't fully awake since the show was at noon.
Flans introduced everyone in the band first, the most amusing being Danny who was back to the audience tuning his bass, which Flans pointed out to everyone and Danny waved without turning around.
They started right off with How Many Planets? and I guess we were wrong about Flans messing up because Robin wasn't there because they did it without her. It really does come off well live. Flans and Linnell do the lip flubber thing that they use on Fibber Island to make the watery sound on Neptune.
We did some back beat clapping for Particle Man and Flans was really making an effort to keep everyone clapping with a look of mock consternation on his face. Linnell mentioned the minor key on the bridge again, not that little kids even know what that means.
Then Flans brought Dan Levine down from the horn platform and asked all the dads in the audience to take out a $20 bill. When nobody did he started ribbing them, saying something about "do it for your kids" and telling them that he would hold the show until they all did. Then he held up his own $20 bill next to Dan and told everyone that Dan Levine's face is on the $20 bill. Dan smiled next to the picture and nodded to assure everyone that this was fact. Flans said that Dan was actually a time traveler. I suppose he does look a little bit like Jackson.
Flans introduced Pirate Girls Nine but forgot to give us counting instructions so we were pretty much the only ones counting.
Next, Flans brought out Robin and introduced her to everyone. She told us she was going to sing us two songs about cars. The first was In the Middle and the second was Electric Car. The later was particularly fantastic as both Johns and Robin imitated driving around in cars with very large steering wheels (and a horn in Linnell's case) while singing the chorus at the end. Good song. Robin strolled off the stage before the guys were even finished playing the last of the music.
Somewhere very early on in the show, the guys lost all the sound from the monitors which was right about the point I finally realized that Scott was on monitors because I could see him backstage trying to fix it. There were some other miscellaneous sound issues too which all just contributed to the odd vibe.
Flans asked for a volunteer from the band to be "the laziest member of They Might Be Giants" and Curt came down to fill that role for I Never Go to Work.
I think we did the scream for Marty part before Clap Your Hands since he did the band intros on the electric kit. I know Flans said "He's come all the way from Brooklyn to hear you scream" which got a good chuckle out of the NYC parents whenever it was. I remember consciously not screaming as loud as I usually do so as not to hurt small children's ears. We clapped and jumped etc, but there was a little boy in front of me who refused to participate even when his dad tried to encourage him to. It was kinda cute.
And of course the silly audience all sat back down right as Linnell sang "Get on your feet and Go, GO, GO!" in Kids Go. Why do people always do that?
Puppets! The screen wasn't immediately working when they went to start the puppet segment and Flans asked the guys to play Frankenstein again while Scott got it up and running. I remember there being some bit of humor in the puppet segment that I thought didn't go over particularly well with the kids because they just didn't get it, but I've of course forgotten what it was. I know it was something the Blue one was saying. Flans reached up into the camera view to adjust Blue Avatar's soul patch and Green Avatar commented that that must be his assistant's hand. Blue Avatar said yes, it was his intern's. Unpaid. They told the kids that there was this movie called Avatar that they were probably too young to see but that they, the Avatars, had been the stars and were going to re-enact a scene for us. They proceeded to do their 3D impression pulling away from and then back into the camera. They also, of course, sang Shooting Star and Stalk of Wheat. One of the shows had some really silly ad lib at the end of Shooting Star where Green Avatar looked like he was trying to eat the camera.
Flans once again left the camera on, pointed at the audience for Whistling in the Dark. This time, instead of just letting the beating of the drum vibrate the image on the screen he was purposefully shaking the drum with his hand on each beat to make the image wobble. Linnell commented afterwards that he liked it because it looked like an earthquake. Both times they played this song today Flans played most of it without his glasses on which was a little odd. I think he just took the opportunity of only needing one hand to play the drum to remove them so he could wipe his face but both times he took them off as he was walking over and didn't put them back on until just before he needed to sing. Odd.
Flans came down to let the little kids play his guitar on Older. He had a little trouble convincing the kids it was all right to come down and play. He gave his guitar pick to one little girl to play with but then she thought everyone needed it and was trying to pass it on to the next kid. It was pretty adorable. They did the big monster confetti launch with the guys all freezing but Dan was the only one who really managed to keep his pose the whole time.
At some point during the show, Stacy texted me to point out that the chandelier hanging from the ceiling was full of confetti. Sure enough, inside the lovely old chandelier you could see piles of colored paper. Whoops. Not too long after that (it might have even been during Older) Dan noticed this and pointed it out to Danny who gave a very amused "Oh Shit" face and then proceeded to point it out to Marty who had a very similar reaction. It was like a combination of amused and "oh, crap, somebody's gonna be mad." It actually looked like at least one of them really did say "Oh, shit." I really do wonder how the venue people were gonna get the confetti out. I hope they have a REALLY tall ladder.
They played Seven, but this was when the weirdness started happening with security so I got very distracted. The horns came down to the front and were bopping around while they played which was fun. But meanwhile, a security guy came down to the other end of our row and asked a man to get up and come with him. At the same time other security guards came to the front and started making all the people who were standing in by the front of the stage (mostly kids who had gone up to play Flans' guitar during Older) go back to their seats. The guy in our row couldn't get out because of all the confusion but even after the aisle was cleared the security people still took him out into the lobby. He was gone for a few minutes then eventually returned. I have no idea what was going on. At first I thought they were busting him for taking pictures because there had been a No Cameras sign on the door and he was using one, but Megan asked at the second show and they said non-flash photography was fine. So I have no clue what the trouble was. I guess they cleared the aisles for safety purposes. But the whole thing really stressed me out, probably way more than it should have. I was surprised that Flans didn't say anything about it since he was obviously watching what was going on from the stage, but maybe he just didn't feel like causing mayhem with security at a family show.
I was still pretty distracted by the time they started Doctor Worm but it did have a very funny beginning. Flans said that it was a song about a doctor who thinks he's a worm and Linnell immediately cried that it was called "Worm Doctor." But then the guys smashed into the song before he was ready and Linnell, had to stop them because he NEEDED to tell us that the song was actually called Doctor Worm and Flans apologized for misleading us. Then they smashed into it again.
Flans made a joke about Marty being in 98 Degrees as he was coming down for High Five! Marty did some of the most spectacularly energetic and spastic dancing I have seen him do, spinning and jumping and expending more energy in a three minute song that I do in a week. I kept being afraid as he was running back and forth to high five people that he was going to trip on all the stuff at the front of the stage because he was moving so fast but he didn't. People in the front rows were a little slow on the uptake on the high five thing but a few kids eventually came down. When Marty got up on the edge of the drum platform for his dance break, Flans started doing a chant that went "M to the A to the R to the T to the Y to the Y to the Y." It was the best thing ever. Marty came over and slug his arm around Flans for the "all your friends" line. And everybody was ready for him at the end of the song, standing there with their hands in the air for him to slap as he ran by. I think they are finally getting the hang of this one.
Dan stopped to tune the acoustic guitar before Fibber Island. Flans started ribbing him. "Oh now he's tuning his guitar. Mr. Fancy Pants. You wont see me tuning my guitar. Don't want it. Don't like it. Don't need it." I love that Flans has started doing this thing when he sings the line about hiding mittens in our hair when he crouches down at the front of the stage pointing at his head as if we could spot hidden mittens. Flubber, flubber, flubber, flubber. Zilch. Dan makes the best faces while singing Zilch. What am I saying? Dan makes the best faces while singing anything.
Flans introduced Danny for Paleontologist telling us we were about to hear our favorite song. Then he started chanting "Danny, Danny, Danny." Sadly, the audience did not pick up on this quickly enough and he dropped it. Danny asked everyone to stand up to help him rock. He dedicated the song to a little boy named Julian that he had been talking to before the show who had told him it was his favorite song. I don't remember what dinosaurs Linnell subbed in but he had a funny one and a made up one that he used at both shows.
Marty moved over to the electric kit for Nonagon. Flans said how they were bring back New Wave and making everyone nostalgic for the asymmetrical haircuts of the 80s. Marty realized the electric drums weren't on and was trying to enlist help from Scott. He told Flans the drums weren't on. Flans said that put a crimp in the New Wave. He looked back at Linnell like he was trying to quickly think of a back-up plan but Scott got the drums running and all was well. Let the polygon party commence!
They did the new band intro again. I like Marty's electric drum beat. I miss him wrecking his kit. Dan actually got a part this time.
They closed out with Istanbul with the usual amount of fake endings and more confetti. There also was no intro at all but the horns did get to do a great outro. And they didn't do an encore at all. Either they were short on time or the mood just wasn't right.
They didn't give out any of the setlists because they reused them for the second show. Except for the one Marty gave to someone who asked when he came out to turn off the electric drums. I settled for a smile and a wave from him.
We made our way out to the sidewalk to figure out what to do before the next show. Dan and Danny were both outside once again. I would have kind of liked to go talk to Dan since I have only spoken to him once and very briefly but I didn't have anything to get signed and I've kind of taken up a policy of not bugging the guys unless they talk to me first except when I'm getting them to sign something.
Danny was much closer to where we were standing and was signing stuff and posing for pictures with little kids which was pretty adorable. There was a little boy in an astronaut jumpsuit who was super cute. And I'm standing there watching this, when Danny looks over and sees me and mouths "Do you have a Sharpie?" while making the writing motion with his hand. He was trying to sign a kid's foam finger and the pen he was using just didn't work. I don't know if he just turned to me out of desperation or if he actually remembered my idiotic comment in March about bringing my own marker. But of course I had a Sharpie! I always have a Sharpie. So I walked over and gave it to him and walked away again and he went back to signing things for small children with my marker. I have been useful! He brought it back over when he was done (which I felt a little bad about since he was still limping) and said thank you. And he remembered my name. :-) It's the little things.
And I shall close this re-cap on that terribly fangirlish moment (Psst, secretly that was the best part of my day.) Stay tuned for the continued adventures of that Sharpie, as it's going to make another appearance in the recap of the second show, this time flying at my head.
The nice thing about shows at venues with assigned seats is not having to wait outside for hours before the show to secure a spot in front. We got to Town Hall a little before doors opened where most people were just milling around on the sidewalk. We saw both Dan and Stan come outside for a bit and wander around looking like they were looking for friends or family. There always seems to be a pretty good turn out of band family members at New York City kid shows. I was amused that Stan still had the neck strap for his sax hanging around his neck. Always prepared. Danny came out just as we were going in and spent some time talking to someone with Dan and then I also spotted him talking to some little kids in the box office later when I went out to the restroom.
Town Hall is a very nice theater with wonderful acoustics. We had seats in the third row on the right side with Megan and Stacy and Steve were a couple rows back since we hadn't bought our tickets together. The show definitely wasn't sold out at many of the seats in the large balcony were empty when the show began.
Apologies if I mix up what stuff happened at which show. The setlists were identical except for the encore and our seats were almost the same so there is very little in my mind to distinguish the two.
The show started with very little fanfare and I have to say this was one of the lowest vibe shows I have ever been to. The audience seemed like they were all still asleep and then there was some weirdness with security that I'll get into later, but it all made for a very odd feel to the show. Not by any fault of the band though. They still rocked their darndest even though I'm sure they weren't fully awake since the show was at noon.
Flans introduced everyone in the band first, the most amusing being Danny who was back to the audience tuning his bass, which Flans pointed out to everyone and Danny waved without turning around.
They started right off with How Many Planets? and I guess we were wrong about Flans messing up because Robin wasn't there because they did it without her. It really does come off well live. Flans and Linnell do the lip flubber thing that they use on Fibber Island to make the watery sound on Neptune.
We did some back beat clapping for Particle Man and Flans was really making an effort to keep everyone clapping with a look of mock consternation on his face. Linnell mentioned the minor key on the bridge again, not that little kids even know what that means.
Then Flans brought Dan Levine down from the horn platform and asked all the dads in the audience to take out a $20 bill. When nobody did he started ribbing them, saying something about "do it for your kids" and telling them that he would hold the show until they all did. Then he held up his own $20 bill next to Dan and told everyone that Dan Levine's face is on the $20 bill. Dan smiled next to the picture and nodded to assure everyone that this was fact. Flans said that Dan was actually a time traveler. I suppose he does look a little bit like Jackson.
Flans introduced Pirate Girls Nine but forgot to give us counting instructions so we were pretty much the only ones counting.
Next, Flans brought out Robin and introduced her to everyone. She told us she was going to sing us two songs about cars. The first was In the Middle and the second was Electric Car. The later was particularly fantastic as both Johns and Robin imitated driving around in cars with very large steering wheels (and a horn in Linnell's case) while singing the chorus at the end. Good song. Robin strolled off the stage before the guys were even finished playing the last of the music.
Somewhere very early on in the show, the guys lost all the sound from the monitors which was right about the point I finally realized that Scott was on monitors because I could see him backstage trying to fix it. There were some other miscellaneous sound issues too which all just contributed to the odd vibe.
Flans asked for a volunteer from the band to be "the laziest member of They Might Be Giants" and Curt came down to fill that role for I Never Go to Work.
I think we did the scream for Marty part before Clap Your Hands since he did the band intros on the electric kit. I know Flans said "He's come all the way from Brooklyn to hear you scream" which got a good chuckle out of the NYC parents whenever it was. I remember consciously not screaming as loud as I usually do so as not to hurt small children's ears. We clapped and jumped etc, but there was a little boy in front of me who refused to participate even when his dad tried to encourage him to. It was kinda cute.
And of course the silly audience all sat back down right as Linnell sang "Get on your feet and Go, GO, GO!" in Kids Go. Why do people always do that?
Puppets! The screen wasn't immediately working when they went to start the puppet segment and Flans asked the guys to play Frankenstein again while Scott got it up and running. I remember there being some bit of humor in the puppet segment that I thought didn't go over particularly well with the kids because they just didn't get it, but I've of course forgotten what it was. I know it was something the Blue one was saying. Flans reached up into the camera view to adjust Blue Avatar's soul patch and Green Avatar commented that that must be his assistant's hand. Blue Avatar said yes, it was his intern's. Unpaid. They told the kids that there was this movie called Avatar that they were probably too young to see but that they, the Avatars, had been the stars and were going to re-enact a scene for us. They proceeded to do their 3D impression pulling away from and then back into the camera. They also, of course, sang Shooting Star and Stalk of Wheat. One of the shows had some really silly ad lib at the end of Shooting Star where Green Avatar looked like he was trying to eat the camera.
Flans once again left the camera on, pointed at the audience for Whistling in the Dark. This time, instead of just letting the beating of the drum vibrate the image on the screen he was purposefully shaking the drum with his hand on each beat to make the image wobble. Linnell commented afterwards that he liked it because it looked like an earthquake. Both times they played this song today Flans played most of it without his glasses on which was a little odd. I think he just took the opportunity of only needing one hand to play the drum to remove them so he could wipe his face but both times he took them off as he was walking over and didn't put them back on until just before he needed to sing. Odd.
Flans came down to let the little kids play his guitar on Older. He had a little trouble convincing the kids it was all right to come down and play. He gave his guitar pick to one little girl to play with but then she thought everyone needed it and was trying to pass it on to the next kid. It was pretty adorable. They did the big monster confetti launch with the guys all freezing but Dan was the only one who really managed to keep his pose the whole time.
At some point during the show, Stacy texted me to point out that the chandelier hanging from the ceiling was full of confetti. Sure enough, inside the lovely old chandelier you could see piles of colored paper. Whoops. Not too long after that (it might have even been during Older) Dan noticed this and pointed it out to Danny who gave a very amused "Oh Shit" face and then proceeded to point it out to Marty who had a very similar reaction. It was like a combination of amused and "oh, crap, somebody's gonna be mad." It actually looked like at least one of them really did say "Oh, shit." I really do wonder how the venue people were gonna get the confetti out. I hope they have a REALLY tall ladder.
They played Seven, but this was when the weirdness started happening with security so I got very distracted. The horns came down to the front and were bopping around while they played which was fun. But meanwhile, a security guy came down to the other end of our row and asked a man to get up and come with him. At the same time other security guards came to the front and started making all the people who were standing in by the front of the stage (mostly kids who had gone up to play Flans' guitar during Older) go back to their seats. The guy in our row couldn't get out because of all the confusion but even after the aisle was cleared the security people still took him out into the lobby. He was gone for a few minutes then eventually returned. I have no idea what was going on. At first I thought they were busting him for taking pictures because there had been a No Cameras sign on the door and he was using one, but Megan asked at the second show and they said non-flash photography was fine. So I have no clue what the trouble was. I guess they cleared the aisles for safety purposes. But the whole thing really stressed me out, probably way more than it should have. I was surprised that Flans didn't say anything about it since he was obviously watching what was going on from the stage, but maybe he just didn't feel like causing mayhem with security at a family show.
I was still pretty distracted by the time they started Doctor Worm but it did have a very funny beginning. Flans said that it was a song about a doctor who thinks he's a worm and Linnell immediately cried that it was called "Worm Doctor." But then the guys smashed into the song before he was ready and Linnell, had to stop them because he NEEDED to tell us that the song was actually called Doctor Worm and Flans apologized for misleading us. Then they smashed into it again.
Flans made a joke about Marty being in 98 Degrees as he was coming down for High Five! Marty did some of the most spectacularly energetic and spastic dancing I have seen him do, spinning and jumping and expending more energy in a three minute song that I do in a week. I kept being afraid as he was running back and forth to high five people that he was going to trip on all the stuff at the front of the stage because he was moving so fast but he didn't. People in the front rows were a little slow on the uptake on the high five thing but a few kids eventually came down. When Marty got up on the edge of the drum platform for his dance break, Flans started doing a chant that went "M to the A to the R to the T to the Y to the Y to the Y." It was the best thing ever. Marty came over and slug his arm around Flans for the "all your friends" line. And everybody was ready for him at the end of the song, standing there with their hands in the air for him to slap as he ran by. I think they are finally getting the hang of this one.
Dan stopped to tune the acoustic guitar before Fibber Island. Flans started ribbing him. "Oh now he's tuning his guitar. Mr. Fancy Pants. You wont see me tuning my guitar. Don't want it. Don't like it. Don't need it." I love that Flans has started doing this thing when he sings the line about hiding mittens in our hair when he crouches down at the front of the stage pointing at his head as if we could spot hidden mittens. Flubber, flubber, flubber, flubber. Zilch. Dan makes the best faces while singing Zilch. What am I saying? Dan makes the best faces while singing anything.
Flans introduced Danny for Paleontologist telling us we were about to hear our favorite song. Then he started chanting "Danny, Danny, Danny." Sadly, the audience did not pick up on this quickly enough and he dropped it. Danny asked everyone to stand up to help him rock. He dedicated the song to a little boy named Julian that he had been talking to before the show who had told him it was his favorite song. I don't remember what dinosaurs Linnell subbed in but he had a funny one and a made up one that he used at both shows.
Marty moved over to the electric kit for Nonagon. Flans said how they were bring back New Wave and making everyone nostalgic for the asymmetrical haircuts of the 80s. Marty realized the electric drums weren't on and was trying to enlist help from Scott. He told Flans the drums weren't on. Flans said that put a crimp in the New Wave. He looked back at Linnell like he was trying to quickly think of a back-up plan but Scott got the drums running and all was well. Let the polygon party commence!
They did the new band intro again. I like Marty's electric drum beat. I miss him wrecking his kit. Dan actually got a part this time.
They closed out with Istanbul with the usual amount of fake endings and more confetti. There also was no intro at all but the horns did get to do a great outro. And they didn't do an encore at all. Either they were short on time or the mood just wasn't right.
They didn't give out any of the setlists because they reused them for the second show. Except for the one Marty gave to someone who asked when he came out to turn off the electric drums. I settled for a smile and a wave from him.
We made our way out to the sidewalk to figure out what to do before the next show. Dan and Danny were both outside once again. I would have kind of liked to go talk to Dan since I have only spoken to him once and very briefly but I didn't have anything to get signed and I've kind of taken up a policy of not bugging the guys unless they talk to me first except when I'm getting them to sign something.
Danny was much closer to where we were standing and was signing stuff and posing for pictures with little kids which was pretty adorable. There was a little boy in an astronaut jumpsuit who was super cute. And I'm standing there watching this, when Danny looks over and sees me and mouths "Do you have a Sharpie?" while making the writing motion with his hand. He was trying to sign a kid's foam finger and the pen he was using just didn't work. I don't know if he just turned to me out of desperation or if he actually remembered my idiotic comment in March about bringing my own marker. But of course I had a Sharpie! I always have a Sharpie. So I walked over and gave it to him and walked away again and he went back to signing things for small children with my marker. I have been useful! He brought it back over when he was done (which I felt a little bad about since he was still limping) and said thank you. And he remembered my name. :-) It's the little things.
And I shall close this re-cap on that terribly fangirlish moment (Psst, secretly that was the best part of my day.) Stay tuned for the continued adventures of that Sharpie, as it's going to make another appearance in the recap of the second show, this time flying at my head.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Awesome Weekend Part Two
September 25, 2010 - Mohegan Sun - Wolf Den - 5th Annual Audience Appreciation Show
"Rock, Rinse, Repeat" is the theme of this whole weekend. I want a t-shirt with that printed on it.
Damn, I don't think this weekend could get any better.
This recap is going to have a large pre-show section, as one of my favorite things about the Mohegan shows is that you line up on a little ramp leading into the club, hours before the show and thus get to watch sound check and all of the comings and goings onstage and off. It's going to be very speculative on my part as, though I could see what was going on, I couldn't hear any of what was said so I'm basically making up what it looked like was happening.
We got to Mohegan at about 2:30 for 6:30 doors. There was only one group and a couple of our friends already in line so that timing seemed to work pretty well. Marty was on stage when we arrived, putting together pieces of the drum kit and testing everything out. I was amused watching him repeatedly move the bongo until it was in exactly the right spot. He's nothing if not a perfectionist.
I spent the next couple of hours writing the re-cap of Friday's show, occasionally looking up to check on the activity on the stage. I watched Vince and Scott spend about 15 minutes trying to get the accordion mic'd up properly. They seemed to be having issues. At one point David came out holding something that was either a small mic or a piece of wire or connector and they all stared at it for a bit like they were either trying to figure out what it was and where it went or if it would help fix the accordion problem. I'm obviously speculating, but it made me want to write a bad joke about how many techs it takes to mic an accordion.
I was very surprised to see Scott going around and doing all the sound level checks on all the mics and instruments. Usually I just see him talking to people and laying out towels and water, but this trip he was much more active in the actual sound work. Turns out there was a reason for that, which I didn't realize until Sunday. But with Will not there, Scott was on monitors all weekend. How odd. Last time I saw the tour manager on monitors (different guy, back at LPR) it did not go well. This seemed to go much better, though he was getting a lot of direction from the stage. My favorite part of his sound check was that he kept saying the word "sibilance" into the microphones. I wanted to get a picture of him testing the drums to add to my collection of people other than Marty playing the drums but I wasn't fast enough.
As time went on, I saw lots of the band wander in. Both Flans and Linnell snuck in through the side at different times. Curt and Dan Levine wandered in the front with horns in tow. Danny came in past us still limping pretty badly. Marty reappeared from somewhere. Dan and Stan must have snuck in while I wasn't looking.
Sound check got going slowly. At first it was just Dan and Danny on the stage tuning up. Danny futzed around with Linnell's keyboard a bit. Then for a while the two of them were just chilling, sitting on the side of the drum platform while Dan practiced a little tune. I quite liked the image of them sitting side by side, hanging out while all the techs worked around them.
Eventually, the rest of the band came out. Linnell went over to his keyboard and started recreating the ever present casino noise with the Kaoss pad and the sound effects, with the ambient G note and the bells and ringing of the slot machines. It was remarkably accurate. Megan pointed out that Flans sampled a bit of the riff from Hotel Detective, which I didn't notice until she said it. Flans also turned on the camera for the Avatars to get it set at the right height and focus and was holding his bare hand in front of the camera as if it was in the sock puppet. This naked puppet was of course displayed on the giant screen above the club for all to see. Totally indecent.
To my surprise, they sound checked Canajoharie and Duende. I guess I don't really get to count those performances in the total number of times I've heard the new songs but it was still cool. They actually did part of Canajoharie twice. They all milled around for a bit while Marty tested out the electric drums. Danny attempted to play something on Linnell's keyboard for Dan but it didn't come out very well. It wasn't anything I recognized but they seemed entertained by it. At Flans', instruction Marty started playing a pretty groovy little beat on the electric kit that seemed to meet Flans' approval. Then they all started to wander off. Linnell went exploring up to the top of the rocks that look down over the club and surveyed his surroundings.
Eventually, Marty was left all alone on the stage, still working out something on the electric drums. He plugged away at it for a while before Danny came out to check on him. It looked like he was waiting for him to go do something, probably get food, as he kept checking his watch. After a few more minutes, Marty finally left with him.
We were the highly entertained witnesses to Iggy trying to walk through the swinging half door that led into the sound and lighting station and accidently walking into the solid panel next to it. I'm sorry to say we got a good laugh at his expense but he was laughing too so I don't feel too bad. It really was quite funny.
Doors opened pretty promptly at 6:30. The stage in the Wolf Den is a half circle surrounded on all sides (well, except the back) by rows of tables. There is a ring of booths around the tables and then a second level with more tables above that. We were seated, with Megan, Stacy and Steve at table almost all the way over on the left side so we were looking across the stage rather than at the front. Unfortunately, all our other friends got seated at tables on the other side so we were about as far away from them as we could be. We also had one solo fan seated with us in our sixth seat, who seemed like a pretty nice guy but I never got his name.
It seemed like we were going to be at an unusual angle to the stage but with a pretty good view of everything on the left, namely, Linnell, Danny and Marty. It actually seemed like, from my seated view at the table, I might be able to actually see Marty without a cymbal obscuring his face for once. However, this was not to be the case. I'll get to that in a minute.
I finally bought one of the red 8 bit rock tote bags that I've been wanting. I'm not 100% sure what I am going to carry in it but I just knew I wanted one.
Somewhere in the hour and a half we waited inside the club before the show started, Danny walked past our table and said hey and asked how I was. I said, "Good. How are you?" "I've been better," he said as he hobbled up the stairs to the door to the stage. I said, "I can tell," which in retrospect is kind of a creepy thing to say but I only meant I could see that he was limping. Poor Danny. The man was hurting.
Before the show started, I went to go to the restroom which is just outside the back of the club. The employees give you a little pass to get back in as you leave. Curt was walking out just in front of me and the employee tried to stop him to give him a pass. He looked at her very confused and said, "Um, I'm in the band." She didn't seem to know what to make of that and let him go to the bathroom without a pass. I thought it was kind of funny.
Just before the band came on, David came out and started piling green foams fingers on the front of the stage and the drum platform. We were pretty surprised, given that the free fingers had been advertised for the Town Hall shows not Mohegan and have been largely reserved for family shows lately. The show started with the horns coming down some steps in the rock face at the back of the stage and playing a fanfare. The band came out on stage and unlike at Life is Good, Flans and Linnell both went immediately to the piles of foam fingers and started tossing them out into the crowd. David also came out and started passing out the piles on our side of the stage and I think someone was doing the same on the other side. This became kind of a cluster fuck as everyone got up from their tables and flooded in from the side to get fingers. Many of them were just thrown at random.
There was gradually a group of people who remained standing around the front edge of the stage rather than returning to their seats. Typical practice at Mohegan has been for everyone to remain seated. My first year there, there were a few people who stood at the first show but they were in the minority. The second night I think I did end up standing up because someone stood in front of me but most people stayed put. Last year no one stood around the stage. Personally, I am always for standing (and there were tables missing from right in front of the stage as if they had been removed for this purpose), but I was afraid that the people coming in from the back to get fingers were going to take advantage and stand in front of our table before we got up and block our view. I couldn't decide what to do.
Finger distribution on our side continued while the band started She's An Angel. Same wonderfully weird horn intro played from the steps and then the horns descended to the stage.
Flans ended my debate on standing versus not standing by calling everyone to stand up, come forward and get a better spot. We popped right up next to the stage in front of us. I found out later that our friend Emily, who had been among the first to remain standing at the stage after getting her finger, had been about to head back to her seat when she realized no one else was standing when Flans mouthed "don't leave" to her and she stayed put, basically starting the stage standing trend. Obviously, Flans was having none of this sit down show nonsense.
We did Clap Your Hands. I discovered that it is somewhat more embarrassing to be hopping up and down right next to the stage when you also happen to make eye contact with Danny while doing so. To quote Megan, "Don't look at me. I'm being undignified!"
Stage side, I ended up with a somewhat different view that I expected. I couldn't see Marty after all, except the front of his shirt because he was, once again, behind a cymbal. My view was dominated by Danny and Linnell's pants. I could see the rest of Linnell if I craned my neck up. I also had a pretty clear view to Dan when he was behind his keyboard but not when he moved forward. Flans moved in and out and I could see the horns only really when Danny moved out of the way. But I have definitely had worse. Far worse.
I don't remember the exact placement of the banter at the beginning of the show, but Flans did a very early mini round of introduce the band. He welcomed us all to the 5th Annual Audience Appreciation show at the Wolf Den and commented that they had only just realized they had been incorrectly calling it the Wolf's Den for years. There was some howling. He yelled, "I say Connecticut, you say Connecticut. Connecticut. Connecticut." He obviously wasn't satisfied with the amount of call back he got as he then yelled, "I don't think you people know where you are."
Linnell asked if the stuffed wolves outside the club had been moving last year because he was finding them distracting. (They were animatronic and their tails wagged.) Flans yelled, "No, they were real!" Linnell said, "No. When we were here last year," or something to that effect. To which Flans replied, "No. They were real. And I was winning!" So funny.
Flans gave kudos to David, their stage manager. He said that there were a lot of types of rock stage set-ups and theirs was known as the "too much shit to fit" configuration and that David did an excellent job cramming it all onto the very round stage.
They played The Guitar, Hey Mr. Dj, Birdhouse, Fingertips and Particle Man. If there was any notable banter in that run I've forgotten it. Linnell commented on the bridge of Particle Man moving to a minor key but just re-sang the verse slowly rather than inserting a song. He did mess up a Triangle Man and a Particle Man at the beginning though and was shaking his head at himself. Throughout the show Flans kept kneeling down at the front of the stage to play guitar and to sing, so he was right in the faces of the people in the front row. He did it during a number of songs but I know Birdhouse was one of them. He also did a spectacular ad lib in I'm Having A Heart Attack, that had me cackling like a looney.
They started using bits of Frankenstein to intro the Avatars segment this weekend. And I was repeatedly amused by Linnell using his hand with the puppet on it to adjust his mic so the puppets mouth was wrapped around it. For some reason though, the puppet segment at Mohegan is mostly a void in my mind. I know Blue Avatar mentioned his soul patch again. I'm pretty sure there was a joke about their 2013 album and possibly about Avatar the movie. Meg Ryan reappeared. Megan has just reminded me that Blue Avatar said that he and his soul patch would be hanging out in the poker room after the show. There was definite recitation of "It is our pleasure to serve you." I know there was at least one other thing in there that I laughed pretty hard at but unless one of you remembers what it was, it's probably lost in the bowels on my memory. They did Shooting Star. Danny took what looked like a welcome opportunity to sit down while he played. They did the Odd Couple music as the outro.
Flans left the camera on, pointed at the crowd while they played Whistling in the Dark. The image vibrated with each bang on the drum until the camera wobbled out of place and was pointed down at Flans. Scott popped up on stage and reset it.
I think I forgot to mention that the whole show was actually displayed on the giant screen above the club. So if you were in the back you could actually watch it on JumboTron. They used it for the puppets too, making them much larger than usual.
For reasons I don't remember, Flans at one point asked Iggy to turn the house lights on so he could see everyone in the crowd. But he had to ask several times before they actually went on. I guess Iggy was busy.
They did We Live in a Dump, which I am realizing is a wonderful song live. Then Flans said that the next song was from their upcoming album and they played Canajoharie. The sound quality was much better tonight and I could understand more of the lyrics. I found myself intently listening while Linnell sang trying to catch them. I still couldn't get a lot of them. But it is a pretty typical Linnell song. It's rather State Songs esque. And it's a total earworm. Even though I don't know the words and have only heard it the 2/3 times (plus the very poor audio quality YouTube video that has sparked so much controversy) I have had it lodged in my head ever since. Every second I am not actively thinking about something that tune is playing in my head. I laid down to go to sleep last night and it was blaring in my ears as if I was actually listening to it. I guess that is the mark of a good song, if it can get that driven into my brain. At this point I would pretty much kill for a version with better audio so I could at least hear the lyrics and stop driving myself crazy trying to figure them out. Oh, and Linnell sang the majority of the song while standing on his toes leaning into the mic which I thought was cute. The live performances did not help answer the debate over live or synthed accordion that arose after the clip video was posted because he played it on keyboard.
Memo to Human Resources. Withered Hope. Keyboard riff. Whee! Then they played Duende without even mentioning that it was a new song. At first I was impressed that Flans was doing it without his lyrics sheet, but then I realized that he was singing all crouched down again and he had the lyrics taped to the back side of one of the speakers on the front of the stage. Linnell had his glasses on again. I was so close to him that he was towering over me the whole show. Duende is less easy to compare to any of their other songs. It really is a march. Flans sings the first verse, then Linnell, then it's back to Flans with Linnell doing some harmony. I went back and rewatched the little clips of both songs that Flans posted on YouTube and they are both pretty instantly recognizable once you have heard the songs. Without weighing in on Canajohariegate, I will say I am sorry not to have a recording of Duende to listen to myself, because, while it did not make as much of an impression on me as Canajoharie, I did quite like it.
Finally, to our everlasting relief, they played Purple Toupee and Stacy finally, FINALLY, got to hear her song. Ok, now it's my turn, right? Yeah, I know. Keep dreaming.
Your Racist Friend. Horn crazy! Doctor Worm. Yup, still love that song. Ana Ng. Seriously, next to the keyboard part of Withered Hope, the bass part in Ana Ng is pretty much my most favorite thing ever played by a musician. Damn Good Times. Killer guitar solo. Dan nailed that one down.
Marty moved over to the electric kit for Nonagon. Flans said that this was almost the first performance of the song, that they had played it the night before but that didn't really count. He said they were reviving New Wave with a song about polygons. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but this song it actually one of my favorites from 123s but I always forget about it. I'm glad they've started playing it live.
Marty stayed at the electric kit after the song and started playing the beat he had been doing at sound check. They launched a whole new band intro thing with Marty kickin' it on the electric drums the whole time. I actually kind of missed Graveyard a little because I didn't feel like the guys got as much of a chance to show off but I really liked the rhythm Marty was playing. It would appear that that was what he was working on for so long after sound check; working out the rhythm and programming the effects in the electric drums. We cheered for Marty first instead of last. Then Danny, who was then joined by Dan Levine. Then Stan and lastly Curt. Dan Miller didn't get a go at all. Flans just introduced him with Linnell and then they played The Mesopotamians.
For the encore, the Avatars came back out and did Stalk of Wheat. They thanked TMBG for opening the show for them and made some comment about them eating all the food back stage. There were some particularly great puppet facial expressions during the song. Afterward, they pointed the camera back at Meg Ryan and Flans yelled, "I say Meg, you say Ryan" and we did some ridiculous call and repeat while he spun the camera back and forth between the Avatars and the cutout. It was kind of insane.
And very lastly, they did Istanbul, which is, probably, one of the most spectacular versions of it that I have seen. Flans made a last minute decision, on stage, to have Dan do the intro instead of the horns which he was indicating to them all just before they started. I don't know if he felt bad about skipping Dan in the band intros and wanted to give him some time to shine or what. Maybe he was just really digging Dan's guitar playing tonight. Dan seemed a little surprised but was game and turned out a fantastic performance. Most of the time he was playing, Flans stood with his back to the audience watching Dan on the giant screen, like he was watching from the audience instead of the stage.
The horns still got their chance to show off at the end with some phenomenal improv, particularly from Curt. And they did not one, not two, but THREE fake endings. Flans did his "we gotta go, we gotta go schtick" but just kept revving the guys up for another round. By the third go round, Curt had to briefly defer to Dan and Stan to take point for a minute while he took a second to breath. One thing is for certain, Flans certainly knows how to drive the guys to end a show on a high note. Literally. Wow!
We once again flunked at setlist obtaining. Megan got one though. David's really kind of a tease with the things, swooping them past people's hands while he picks someone to hand it to. I've been totally spoiled.
Damn, really good show.
Now I'll get to work on the Town Hall recaps. I think I remember those a bit more clearly, but we'll see.
The rest of the pictures are up in the usual spot. I've unofficially dubbed this album 1001 pictures of Danny Weinkauf. I also went back and added some pictures in to the Lupo's recap so go back and check those out too if you already read that one.
"Rock, Rinse, Repeat" is the theme of this whole weekend. I want a t-shirt with that printed on it.
Damn, I don't think this weekend could get any better.
This recap is going to have a large pre-show section, as one of my favorite things about the Mohegan shows is that you line up on a little ramp leading into the club, hours before the show and thus get to watch sound check and all of the comings and goings onstage and off. It's going to be very speculative on my part as, though I could see what was going on, I couldn't hear any of what was said so I'm basically making up what it looked like was happening.
We got to Mohegan at about 2:30 for 6:30 doors. There was only one group and a couple of our friends already in line so that timing seemed to work pretty well. Marty was on stage when we arrived, putting together pieces of the drum kit and testing everything out. I was amused watching him repeatedly move the bongo until it was in exactly the right spot. He's nothing if not a perfectionist.
I spent the next couple of hours writing the re-cap of Friday's show, occasionally looking up to check on the activity on the stage. I watched Vince and Scott spend about 15 minutes trying to get the accordion mic'd up properly. They seemed to be having issues. At one point David came out holding something that was either a small mic or a piece of wire or connector and they all stared at it for a bit like they were either trying to figure out what it was and where it went or if it would help fix the accordion problem. I'm obviously speculating, but it made me want to write a bad joke about how many techs it takes to mic an accordion.
I was very surprised to see Scott going around and doing all the sound level checks on all the mics and instruments. Usually I just see him talking to people and laying out towels and water, but this trip he was much more active in the actual sound work. Turns out there was a reason for that, which I didn't realize until Sunday. But with Will not there, Scott was on monitors all weekend. How odd. Last time I saw the tour manager on monitors (different guy, back at LPR) it did not go well. This seemed to go much better, though he was getting a lot of direction from the stage. My favorite part of his sound check was that he kept saying the word "sibilance" into the microphones. I wanted to get a picture of him testing the drums to add to my collection of people other than Marty playing the drums but I wasn't fast enough.
As time went on, I saw lots of the band wander in. Both Flans and Linnell snuck in through the side at different times. Curt and Dan Levine wandered in the front with horns in tow. Danny came in past us still limping pretty badly. Marty reappeared from somewhere. Dan and Stan must have snuck in while I wasn't looking.
Sound check got going slowly. At first it was just Dan and Danny on the stage tuning up. Danny futzed around with Linnell's keyboard a bit. Then for a while the two of them were just chilling, sitting on the side of the drum platform while Dan practiced a little tune. I quite liked the image of them sitting side by side, hanging out while all the techs worked around them.
Eventually, the rest of the band came out. Linnell went over to his keyboard and started recreating the ever present casino noise with the Kaoss pad and the sound effects, with the ambient G note and the bells and ringing of the slot machines. It was remarkably accurate. Megan pointed out that Flans sampled a bit of the riff from Hotel Detective, which I didn't notice until she said it. Flans also turned on the camera for the Avatars to get it set at the right height and focus and was holding his bare hand in front of the camera as if it was in the sock puppet. This naked puppet was of course displayed on the giant screen above the club for all to see. Totally indecent.
To my surprise, they sound checked Canajoharie and Duende. I guess I don't really get to count those performances in the total number of times I've heard the new songs but it was still cool. They actually did part of Canajoharie twice. They all milled around for a bit while Marty tested out the electric drums. Danny attempted to play something on Linnell's keyboard for Dan but it didn't come out very well. It wasn't anything I recognized but they seemed entertained by it. At Flans', instruction Marty started playing a pretty groovy little beat on the electric kit that seemed to meet Flans' approval. Then they all started to wander off. Linnell went exploring up to the top of the rocks that look down over the club and surveyed his surroundings.
Eventually, Marty was left all alone on the stage, still working out something on the electric drums. He plugged away at it for a while before Danny came out to check on him. It looked like he was waiting for him to go do something, probably get food, as he kept checking his watch. After a few more minutes, Marty finally left with him.
We were the highly entertained witnesses to Iggy trying to walk through the swinging half door that led into the sound and lighting station and accidently walking into the solid panel next to it. I'm sorry to say we got a good laugh at his expense but he was laughing too so I don't feel too bad. It really was quite funny.
Doors opened pretty promptly at 6:30. The stage in the Wolf Den is a half circle surrounded on all sides (well, except the back) by rows of tables. There is a ring of booths around the tables and then a second level with more tables above that. We were seated, with Megan, Stacy and Steve at table almost all the way over on the left side so we were looking across the stage rather than at the front. Unfortunately, all our other friends got seated at tables on the other side so we were about as far away from them as we could be. We also had one solo fan seated with us in our sixth seat, who seemed like a pretty nice guy but I never got his name.
It seemed like we were going to be at an unusual angle to the stage but with a pretty good view of everything on the left, namely, Linnell, Danny and Marty. It actually seemed like, from my seated view at the table, I might be able to actually see Marty without a cymbal obscuring his face for once. However, this was not to be the case. I'll get to that in a minute.
I finally bought one of the red 8 bit rock tote bags that I've been wanting. I'm not 100% sure what I am going to carry in it but I just knew I wanted one.
Somewhere in the hour and a half we waited inside the club before the show started, Danny walked past our table and said hey and asked how I was. I said, "Good. How are you?" "I've been better," he said as he hobbled up the stairs to the door to the stage. I said, "I can tell," which in retrospect is kind of a creepy thing to say but I only meant I could see that he was limping. Poor Danny. The man was hurting.
Before the show started, I went to go to the restroom which is just outside the back of the club. The employees give you a little pass to get back in as you leave. Curt was walking out just in front of me and the employee tried to stop him to give him a pass. He looked at her very confused and said, "Um, I'm in the band." She didn't seem to know what to make of that and let him go to the bathroom without a pass. I thought it was kind of funny.
Just before the band came on, David came out and started piling green foams fingers on the front of the stage and the drum platform. We were pretty surprised, given that the free fingers had been advertised for the Town Hall shows not Mohegan and have been largely reserved for family shows lately. The show started with the horns coming down some steps in the rock face at the back of the stage and playing a fanfare. The band came out on stage and unlike at Life is Good, Flans and Linnell both went immediately to the piles of foam fingers and started tossing them out into the crowd. David also came out and started passing out the piles on our side of the stage and I think someone was doing the same on the other side. This became kind of a cluster fuck as everyone got up from their tables and flooded in from the side to get fingers. Many of them were just thrown at random.
There was gradually a group of people who remained standing around the front edge of the stage rather than returning to their seats. Typical practice at Mohegan has been for everyone to remain seated. My first year there, there were a few people who stood at the first show but they were in the minority. The second night I think I did end up standing up because someone stood in front of me but most people stayed put. Last year no one stood around the stage. Personally, I am always for standing (and there were tables missing from right in front of the stage as if they had been removed for this purpose), but I was afraid that the people coming in from the back to get fingers were going to take advantage and stand in front of our table before we got up and block our view. I couldn't decide what to do.
Finger distribution on our side continued while the band started She's An Angel. Same wonderfully weird horn intro played from the steps and then the horns descended to the stage.
Flans ended my debate on standing versus not standing by calling everyone to stand up, come forward and get a better spot. We popped right up next to the stage in front of us. I found out later that our friend Emily, who had been among the first to remain standing at the stage after getting her finger, had been about to head back to her seat when she realized no one else was standing when Flans mouthed "don't leave" to her and she stayed put, basically starting the stage standing trend. Obviously, Flans was having none of this sit down show nonsense.
We did Clap Your Hands. I discovered that it is somewhat more embarrassing to be hopping up and down right next to the stage when you also happen to make eye contact with Danny while doing so. To quote Megan, "Don't look at me. I'm being undignified!"
Stage side, I ended up with a somewhat different view that I expected. I couldn't see Marty after all, except the front of his shirt because he was, once again, behind a cymbal. My view was dominated by Danny and Linnell's pants. I could see the rest of Linnell if I craned my neck up. I also had a pretty clear view to Dan when he was behind his keyboard but not when he moved forward. Flans moved in and out and I could see the horns only really when Danny moved out of the way. But I have definitely had worse. Far worse.
I don't remember the exact placement of the banter at the beginning of the show, but Flans did a very early mini round of introduce the band. He welcomed us all to the 5th Annual Audience Appreciation show at the Wolf Den and commented that they had only just realized they had been incorrectly calling it the Wolf's Den for years. There was some howling. He yelled, "I say Connecticut, you say Connecticut. Connecticut. Connecticut." He obviously wasn't satisfied with the amount of call back he got as he then yelled, "I don't think you people know where you are."
Linnell asked if the stuffed wolves outside the club had been moving last year because he was finding them distracting. (They were animatronic and their tails wagged.) Flans yelled, "No, they were real!" Linnell said, "No. When we were here last year," or something to that effect. To which Flans replied, "No. They were real. And I was winning!" So funny.
Flans gave kudos to David, their stage manager. He said that there were a lot of types of rock stage set-ups and theirs was known as the "too much shit to fit" configuration and that David did an excellent job cramming it all onto the very round stage.
They played The Guitar, Hey Mr. Dj, Birdhouse, Fingertips and Particle Man. If there was any notable banter in that run I've forgotten it. Linnell commented on the bridge of Particle Man moving to a minor key but just re-sang the verse slowly rather than inserting a song. He did mess up a Triangle Man and a Particle Man at the beginning though and was shaking his head at himself. Throughout the show Flans kept kneeling down at the front of the stage to play guitar and to sing, so he was right in the faces of the people in the front row. He did it during a number of songs but I know Birdhouse was one of them. He also did a spectacular ad lib in I'm Having A Heart Attack, that had me cackling like a looney.
They started using bits of Frankenstein to intro the Avatars segment this weekend. And I was repeatedly amused by Linnell using his hand with the puppet on it to adjust his mic so the puppets mouth was wrapped around it. For some reason though, the puppet segment at Mohegan is mostly a void in my mind. I know Blue Avatar mentioned his soul patch again. I'm pretty sure there was a joke about their 2013 album and possibly about Avatar the movie. Meg Ryan reappeared. Megan has just reminded me that Blue Avatar said that he and his soul patch would be hanging out in the poker room after the show. There was definite recitation of "It is our pleasure to serve you." I know there was at least one other thing in there that I laughed pretty hard at but unless one of you remembers what it was, it's probably lost in the bowels on my memory. They did Shooting Star. Danny took what looked like a welcome opportunity to sit down while he played. They did the Odd Couple music as the outro.
Flans left the camera on, pointed at the crowd while they played Whistling in the Dark. The image vibrated with each bang on the drum until the camera wobbled out of place and was pointed down at Flans. Scott popped up on stage and reset it.
I think I forgot to mention that the whole show was actually displayed on the giant screen above the club. So if you were in the back you could actually watch it on JumboTron. They used it for the puppets too, making them much larger than usual.
For reasons I don't remember, Flans at one point asked Iggy to turn the house lights on so he could see everyone in the crowd. But he had to ask several times before they actually went on. I guess Iggy was busy.
They did We Live in a Dump, which I am realizing is a wonderful song live. Then Flans said that the next song was from their upcoming album and they played Canajoharie. The sound quality was much better tonight and I could understand more of the lyrics. I found myself intently listening while Linnell sang trying to catch them. I still couldn't get a lot of them. But it is a pretty typical Linnell song. It's rather State Songs esque. And it's a total earworm. Even though I don't know the words and have only heard it the 2/3 times (plus the very poor audio quality YouTube video that has sparked so much controversy) I have had it lodged in my head ever since. Every second I am not actively thinking about something that tune is playing in my head. I laid down to go to sleep last night and it was blaring in my ears as if I was actually listening to it. I guess that is the mark of a good song, if it can get that driven into my brain. At this point I would pretty much kill for a version with better audio so I could at least hear the lyrics and stop driving myself crazy trying to figure them out. Oh, and Linnell sang the majority of the song while standing on his toes leaning into the mic which I thought was cute. The live performances did not help answer the debate over live or synthed accordion that arose after the clip video was posted because he played it on keyboard.
Memo to Human Resources. Withered Hope. Keyboard riff. Whee! Then they played Duende without even mentioning that it was a new song. At first I was impressed that Flans was doing it without his lyrics sheet, but then I realized that he was singing all crouched down again and he had the lyrics taped to the back side of one of the speakers on the front of the stage. Linnell had his glasses on again. I was so close to him that he was towering over me the whole show. Duende is less easy to compare to any of their other songs. It really is a march. Flans sings the first verse, then Linnell, then it's back to Flans with Linnell doing some harmony. I went back and rewatched the little clips of both songs that Flans posted on YouTube and they are both pretty instantly recognizable once you have heard the songs. Without weighing in on Canajohariegate, I will say I am sorry not to have a recording of Duende to listen to myself, because, while it did not make as much of an impression on me as Canajoharie, I did quite like it.
Finally, to our everlasting relief, they played Purple Toupee and Stacy finally, FINALLY, got to hear her song. Ok, now it's my turn, right? Yeah, I know. Keep dreaming.
Your Racist Friend. Horn crazy! Doctor Worm. Yup, still love that song. Ana Ng. Seriously, next to the keyboard part of Withered Hope, the bass part in Ana Ng is pretty much my most favorite thing ever played by a musician. Damn Good Times. Killer guitar solo. Dan nailed that one down.
Marty moved over to the electric kit for Nonagon. Flans said that this was almost the first performance of the song, that they had played it the night before but that didn't really count. He said they were reviving New Wave with a song about polygons. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but this song it actually one of my favorites from 123s but I always forget about it. I'm glad they've started playing it live.
Marty stayed at the electric kit after the song and started playing the beat he had been doing at sound check. They launched a whole new band intro thing with Marty kickin' it on the electric drums the whole time. I actually kind of missed Graveyard a little because I didn't feel like the guys got as much of a chance to show off but I really liked the rhythm Marty was playing. It would appear that that was what he was working on for so long after sound check; working out the rhythm and programming the effects in the electric drums. We cheered for Marty first instead of last. Then Danny, who was then joined by Dan Levine. Then Stan and lastly Curt. Dan Miller didn't get a go at all. Flans just introduced him with Linnell and then they played The Mesopotamians.
For the encore, the Avatars came back out and did Stalk of Wheat. They thanked TMBG for opening the show for them and made some comment about them eating all the food back stage. There were some particularly great puppet facial expressions during the song. Afterward, they pointed the camera back at Meg Ryan and Flans yelled, "I say Meg, you say Ryan" and we did some ridiculous call and repeat while he spun the camera back and forth between the Avatars and the cutout. It was kind of insane.
And very lastly, they did Istanbul, which is, probably, one of the most spectacular versions of it that I have seen. Flans made a last minute decision, on stage, to have Dan do the intro instead of the horns which he was indicating to them all just before they started. I don't know if he felt bad about skipping Dan in the band intros and wanted to give him some time to shine or what. Maybe he was just really digging Dan's guitar playing tonight. Dan seemed a little surprised but was game and turned out a fantastic performance. Most of the time he was playing, Flans stood with his back to the audience watching Dan on the giant screen, like he was watching from the audience instead of the stage.
The horns still got their chance to show off at the end with some phenomenal improv, particularly from Curt. And they did not one, not two, but THREE fake endings. Flans did his "we gotta go, we gotta go schtick" but just kept revving the guys up for another round. By the third go round, Curt had to briefly defer to Dan and Stan to take point for a minute while he took a second to breath. One thing is for certain, Flans certainly knows how to drive the guys to end a show on a high note. Literally. Wow!
We once again flunked at setlist obtaining. Megan got one though. David's really kind of a tease with the things, swooping them past people's hands while he picks someone to hand it to. I've been totally spoiled.
Damn, really good show.
Now I'll get to work on the Town Hall recaps. I think I remember those a bit more clearly, but we'll see.
The rest of the pictures are up in the usual spot. I've unofficially dubbed this album 1001 pictures of Danny Weinkauf. I also went back and added some pictures in to the Lupo's recap so go back and check those out too if you already read that one.
There's A Picture Opposite Me - 9/29/10
Jamie strikes again.
"He wants a shoehorn, the kind with teeth." Shoehorn with Teeth - They Might Be Giants
Please send submissions to theroommustlistentome@gmail.com
"He wants a shoehorn, the kind with teeth." Shoehorn with Teeth - They Might Be Giants
Please send submissions to theroommustlistentome@gmail.com
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Awesome Weekend Part One
September 24, 2010 - Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel - Providence, RI
OH MY GOD.
I am still reeling from last night's show. My face is actually sore from smiling so much. I think I watched most of the show with a stupid grin on my face. And for hours afterward we all just kept saying "oh my god, that show."
We seem plagued by bizarre travel issues getting to shows this fall. Due to another one, we didn't get to Lupo's until about an hour before doors. But our very awesome friends saved us spots in line which I will be forever grateful for as we wouldn't have been able to get in the front otherwise.
If you read blog reports from our spring shows you will actually get this joke. Getting into the club we were actually forced to wait for Scott. There were two rows to get in and Scott was talking to the ticket taker in our row and preventing her from taking tickets. So people that were behind in line got in first because they were in the other row. Curses, Scott!
It didn't actually matter once we got inside. There was still plenty of stage front room. There was a large speaker on the floor in front of the stage on the right hand side and we took spots around it. It was a little weird since it didn't seem to have much of a purpose but it did kind of give me an excuse to stand at an angle to the stage which proved to be an almost perfect view. The only person I couldn't see was Marty because he was behind Linnell.
There was an opener even though one hadn't been announced. They claimed not to have a name but for this show went by the name The Jess Powers Project. It was a woman in a very short black dress that was see through in the back. There were two guitar players in cool hats, a drummer who made ridiculous faces while he played and a guy with an upright bass. They did very free form jazzy style music but with bluesy vocals. They were OK. The music was actually pretty good but I could have done without the vocals. It seemed like an odd pairing with TMBG. The singer didn't even look like the sort of person who would ever even have heard of TMBG.
They have swapped out a lot of their regular crew for this tour. Iggy's still there of course but they had David with them as guitar tech, as Victor is, presumably, still out on tour with OK Go. They had Vince on sound, who was the guy they had with them on their fall tour. I don't even know who they had on monitors because it wasn't Will and I never identified which of the other guys wandering around was the other tech and which were the club employees.
There were people sitting in the balconey who had printed out a giant sign that said She's An Angel to hang on the railing. Apparently the band was feeling obliging because that was the first song they played when they came out, complete with excellently weird horn intro. Once I figured out they definitely weren't starting with a new song, I realized what they were playing immediately but I could tell that most of the people around me didn't identify the song until the lyrics started. Linnell had one of the fans pointing straight at him during this song so he was looking particularly windswept while playing the accordion.
They ripped right into Damn Good Times next, with a particularly excellent guitar solo from Dan.
Then Hey, Mr. DJ which was wonderful since our friends had heard it at soundcheck before we got there. It's been a while since I heard that one and I have missed it. It is one of my favorites to hear live.
Then Flans announced that they were going to play something brand new. He pulled out a copy of John Hershey's Hiroshima which had lyrics sheets in it for him to cheat off of. He said that we would have to forgive them for all the pauses and messed up lyrics because it was a new song. A woman it the audienced yelled, "It's cute." Flans replied, "It's not cute lady, it's fucking sad. We've been doing this for 25 years." This got a lot of cheers, though secretly I wanted to yell "28."
They played Duende, though Flans said that it is called Three Might Be Duende. I don't know how much to trust him, but regardless it is the song we got the teaser of on YouTube back in June. It's primarily a Flans song though Linnell also sings a verse. He put on these serious coke bottle lens glasses for the song so he could see the lyrics on his keyboard.The sound quality on the mics in Lupo's was pretty terrible so I could barely make out any of the lyrics. But my initial thought was that the song is going to be a bitch to deceifer for the wiki without a lyric sheet because there were so many words. I really liked it despite not being able to hear the lyrics. It sounds like a march, which is in fact mentioned in the opening lyrics. I am looking forward to hearing it again tonight, hopefully with better sound.
They played Museum of Idiots which is a great song to do with the full horn section (which they had btw). I was happy to hear it again since that was the song I spaced out on at The Stone Pony. And speaking of, they followed with Asbury Park. They seem to really enjoy doing that one. Then Meet the Elements.
Marty moved to the electric kit and gave a little sound demo. Flans said that while we were at the show there were guys at our house breaking into our bedroom windows and this was their soundtrack. Then he said the police were coming as Marty flashed the siren sound but he didn't leave it going and Flans was forced to retract his statement. Then Marty realized he had missed the cue and turned the siren back on for a second.
Flans had already mentioned their Grammy for 123s while Marty was setting up. Linnell announced that the next song was about polygons which meant they weren't saving Nonagon for the kids show. Loved it! Linnell drew the shapes of the polygons in the air as he sang them. He almost messed up a lyric near the beginning and made a cute little embarressed face. Oddly, this was the only song they used the electric drums for.
Back to familiar territory. Doctor Worm. Danny didn't do his leap. He seems to have injured himself as he was limping. At some point in the set he had Scott go on a beer run for him which amused me. The Guitar, which featured an awesome sax solo from Stan. So, so very good with the horns.
Then the Avatars. Green Avatar did some coughing. Blue Avatar asked him if he had just quite smoking. He said no, he was still on fire. Then there was the obligatory joke about menthol cigarettes. They flipped up the Meg Ryan cutout from the spring tour and announced she was in the house. Green Avatar moved around to the front of the camera to pose with her and asked someone to take his picture.
Blue Avatar was wearing a piece of black electrical tape as a soul patch which he pointed out to all of us. He told us the next song featured the disco ball of Lupo's. He then listed the things the ladies of Lupo's loved: soul patches, his right eye and the disco ball. Then they played Shooting Star with Danny sitting on the side of the drum platform while he played.
They left the camera on after the song while they went on to play Whistling in the Dark and the image on the screen shook with each bang Flans made on the bass drum. They had most of the lights turned off for the song and turned the lights on in Marty's drums for a flashy disco effect.
I don't know if it was right after that song or not but they did a little demo of the light show on the drums with multiple colored lights that was pretty cool.
They announced another never before played song that they were going to practice on us before the Town Hall shows on Sunday. They started How Many Planets? but Flans forgot to come in on Venus and he called a do over. I presume they have been rehearing it with Robin for Sunday and he forgot she wasn't there and he needed to do her part. The voices they used were awesome, especially when they were both imitating Robin's girl part. And most excellent Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.
Flans talked about the Cast Your Pod disc before they played We Live in a Dump. Then they did Au Contraire which I have never heard before and was very excited about. It was particularly funny as we had been talking about it in the car on the way down.
Then they announced another new song. Linnell told us to "Cool it with the YouTube shit. These songs are rough. I can't wait to watch myself saying cool it with the YouTube shit on YouTube tomorrow." They did Canajoharie which I only recognized because that was the chorus. I couldn't understand a single other lyric. But I liked the music. It has horns.
They followed with Memo to Human Resources. Then The Else section of the show with Withered Hope, Bee of the Bird of the Moth, and (hurrah!) With the Dark. Sweet!
Then Linnell said they were going to play a song from the Lincoln album. Flans said it was actually 1988 and told Linnell it was time to quit that job. Then we all just about DIED when they started playing Purple Toupee. One, because none of my group had ever heard it live before and two because it is the song our friend Stacy has been waiting for since she started following the band and she wasn't able to come to the show. I believe there was audible screaming from our side of the room. Now if I could just hear Man, It's So Loud in Here. Are you guys listening? Please?
I was still reeling all the way through Your Racist Friend. Then Flans asked Linnell to start playing Graveyard. Danny picked up his empty beer bottle and started using it as a slide on his bass. I hope someone somewhere has a picture of that.
Flans did band intros. We did the normal chant for Danny then Flans said "I say Weinkauf, you say Danny" and we did a little call and repeat bit. When it got to Marty's solo Flans went up and stopped him while he was wrecking his kit and told him to save some for later.
They finished with Birdhouse and a particularly good version at that.
When they came back there was obviously some confusion. Flans and Linnell went to do the puppets but everyone seemed to be expecting something else. Danny ended up having to walk over and ask what they were doing. Turned out they had flipped the order of the encores from the setlist. They did Stalk of Wheat with the puppets. After the segment Linnell made a comment about how one of the puppets never bathes and the other is a homosexual. I wonder which is which.
I was a little distracted for the encore because I got the sense that something had gone wrong on stage. I'm not sure if it was technical problems or what happened but the vibe definitely changed. Flans left the stage briefly at some point (possibly not even in the encore) telling Linnell to tell the crowd about their upcoming shows while he took care of some business backstage. Linnell told us they were playing at a casino the next day. Many people in the crowd made wolf howling noises. Linnell made some himself. Then he said they were playing at Town Hall but he couldn't remember when. I said Sunday but so did someone on stage so I don't know who he heard when he repeated it.
They did Istanbul with a nice horn introduction but without a second fake ending. There was one song where they did the confetti launch but Flans stopped it short, I can't remember if it was that one or not. There was a lot of confetti and people kept throwing it in the air.
They came back for the second encore and started Alphabet of Nations but Linnell didn't sing. He seemed to think his mic wasn't working even though he did sing the first Zimbabwe and it was working fine. He made Flans do all of the first two rounds then tried to steal Flans' mic for the bridge. Flans wouldn't let him have it and gestured for him to use his own. He did and proceeded to tip over with it standing on one leg. The whole thing was weird and funny and followed by an excellent Guatemala.
They did Twisting, a song that I am getting a little tired of thanks to all the Flood shows. Flans reminded us to come to the casino show the next day and said we could be there in a couple of hours if we drove very recklessly. They closed out the show with The Mesopotamians.
We weren't able to get a setlist after the show because, without Victor, we lost out hook up. David threw several of them out into the crowd and gave one more away to someone else. A couple of my friends managed to snag ones so I have pictures.
I only have a few pictures from the show. I had resolved not to use my camera at this show because I was tired of loosing whole songs to the camera lens. But there were a few shots I couldn't pass up. I'm not sure the no pictures thing was the best idea since it just meant I watched the whole show thinking "wow, that would make a great picture." I gave up during the encore and took a bunch. There are a couple of good ones.
This show is definitely going into my Top 5. It really was that good and the setlist was one of the best I have ever heard. It was a very successful start to the BEST WEEKEND EVER. Stay tuned for Awesome Weekend Part Two (which I have been standing in line for while I wrote this).
Edit: I added some pictures in and there are a few more on Flickr, almost all from the encore.
OH MY GOD.
I am still reeling from last night's show. My face is actually sore from smiling so much. I think I watched most of the show with a stupid grin on my face. And for hours afterward we all just kept saying "oh my god, that show."
We seem plagued by bizarre travel issues getting to shows this fall. Due to another one, we didn't get to Lupo's until about an hour before doors. But our very awesome friends saved us spots in line which I will be forever grateful for as we wouldn't have been able to get in the front otherwise.
If you read blog reports from our spring shows you will actually get this joke. Getting into the club we were actually forced to wait for Scott. There were two rows to get in and Scott was talking to the ticket taker in our row and preventing her from taking tickets. So people that were behind in line got in first because they were in the other row. Curses, Scott!
It didn't actually matter once we got inside. There was still plenty of stage front room. There was a large speaker on the floor in front of the stage on the right hand side and we took spots around it. It was a little weird since it didn't seem to have much of a purpose but it did kind of give me an excuse to stand at an angle to the stage which proved to be an almost perfect view. The only person I couldn't see was Marty because he was behind Linnell.
There was an opener even though one hadn't been announced. They claimed not to have a name but for this show went by the name The Jess Powers Project. It was a woman in a very short black dress that was see through in the back. There were two guitar players in cool hats, a drummer who made ridiculous faces while he played and a guy with an upright bass. They did very free form jazzy style music but with bluesy vocals. They were OK. The music was actually pretty good but I could have done without the vocals. It seemed like an odd pairing with TMBG. The singer didn't even look like the sort of person who would ever even have heard of TMBG.
They have swapped out a lot of their regular crew for this tour. Iggy's still there of course but they had David with them as guitar tech, as Victor is, presumably, still out on tour with OK Go. They had Vince on sound, who was the guy they had with them on their fall tour. I don't even know who they had on monitors because it wasn't Will and I never identified which of the other guys wandering around was the other tech and which were the club employees.
There were people sitting in the balconey who had printed out a giant sign that said She's An Angel to hang on the railing. Apparently the band was feeling obliging because that was the first song they played when they came out, complete with excellently weird horn intro. Once I figured out they definitely weren't starting with a new song, I realized what they were playing immediately but I could tell that most of the people around me didn't identify the song until the lyrics started. Linnell had one of the fans pointing straight at him during this song so he was looking particularly windswept while playing the accordion.
They ripped right into Damn Good Times next, with a particularly excellent guitar solo from Dan.
Then Hey, Mr. DJ which was wonderful since our friends had heard it at soundcheck before we got there. It's been a while since I heard that one and I have missed it. It is one of my favorites to hear live.
Then Flans announced that they were going to play something brand new. He pulled out a copy of John Hershey's Hiroshima which had lyrics sheets in it for him to cheat off of. He said that we would have to forgive them for all the pauses and messed up lyrics because it was a new song. A woman it the audienced yelled, "It's cute." Flans replied, "It's not cute lady, it's fucking sad. We've been doing this for 25 years." This got a lot of cheers, though secretly I wanted to yell "28."
They played Duende, though Flans said that it is called Three Might Be Duende. I don't know how much to trust him, but regardless it is the song we got the teaser of on YouTube back in June. It's primarily a Flans song though Linnell also sings a verse. He put on these serious coke bottle lens glasses for the song so he could see the lyrics on his keyboard.The sound quality on the mics in Lupo's was pretty terrible so I could barely make out any of the lyrics. But my initial thought was that the song is going to be a bitch to deceifer for the wiki without a lyric sheet because there were so many words. I really liked it despite not being able to hear the lyrics. It sounds like a march, which is in fact mentioned in the opening lyrics. I am looking forward to hearing it again tonight, hopefully with better sound.
They played Museum of Idiots which is a great song to do with the full horn section (which they had btw). I was happy to hear it again since that was the song I spaced out on at The Stone Pony. And speaking of, they followed with Asbury Park. They seem to really enjoy doing that one. Then Meet the Elements.
Marty moved to the electric kit and gave a little sound demo. Flans said that while we were at the show there were guys at our house breaking into our bedroom windows and this was their soundtrack. Then he said the police were coming as Marty flashed the siren sound but he didn't leave it going and Flans was forced to retract his statement. Then Marty realized he had missed the cue and turned the siren back on for a second.
Flans had already mentioned their Grammy for 123s while Marty was setting up. Linnell announced that the next song was about polygons which meant they weren't saving Nonagon for the kids show. Loved it! Linnell drew the shapes of the polygons in the air as he sang them. He almost messed up a lyric near the beginning and made a cute little embarressed face. Oddly, this was the only song they used the electric drums for.
Back to familiar territory. Doctor Worm. Danny didn't do his leap. He seems to have injured himself as he was limping. At some point in the set he had Scott go on a beer run for him which amused me. The Guitar, which featured an awesome sax solo from Stan. So, so very good with the horns.
Then the Avatars. Green Avatar did some coughing. Blue Avatar asked him if he had just quite smoking. He said no, he was still on fire. Then there was the obligatory joke about menthol cigarettes. They flipped up the Meg Ryan cutout from the spring tour and announced she was in the house. Green Avatar moved around to the front of the camera to pose with her and asked someone to take his picture.
Blue Avatar was wearing a piece of black electrical tape as a soul patch which he pointed out to all of us. He told us the next song featured the disco ball of Lupo's. He then listed the things the ladies of Lupo's loved: soul patches, his right eye and the disco ball. Then they played Shooting Star with Danny sitting on the side of the drum platform while he played.
They left the camera on after the song while they went on to play Whistling in the Dark and the image on the screen shook with each bang Flans made on the bass drum. They had most of the lights turned off for the song and turned the lights on in Marty's drums for a flashy disco effect.
I don't know if it was right after that song or not but they did a little demo of the light show on the drums with multiple colored lights that was pretty cool.
They announced another never before played song that they were going to practice on us before the Town Hall shows on Sunday. They started How Many Planets? but Flans forgot to come in on Venus and he called a do over. I presume they have been rehearing it with Robin for Sunday and he forgot she wasn't there and he needed to do her part. The voices they used were awesome, especially when they were both imitating Robin's girl part. And most excellent Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.
Flans talked about the Cast Your Pod disc before they played We Live in a Dump. Then they did Au Contraire which I have never heard before and was very excited about. It was particularly funny as we had been talking about it in the car on the way down.
Then they announced another new song. Linnell told us to "Cool it with the YouTube shit. These songs are rough. I can't wait to watch myself saying cool it with the YouTube shit on YouTube tomorrow." They did Canajoharie which I only recognized because that was the chorus. I couldn't understand a single other lyric. But I liked the music. It has horns.
They followed with Memo to Human Resources. Then The Else section of the show with Withered Hope, Bee of the Bird of the Moth, and (hurrah!) With the Dark. Sweet!
Then Linnell said they were going to play a song from the Lincoln album. Flans said it was actually 1988 and told Linnell it was time to quit that job. Then we all just about DIED when they started playing Purple Toupee. One, because none of my group had ever heard it live before and two because it is the song our friend Stacy has been waiting for since she started following the band and she wasn't able to come to the show. I believe there was audible screaming from our side of the room. Now if I could just hear Man, It's So Loud in Here. Are you guys listening? Please?
I was still reeling all the way through Your Racist Friend. Then Flans asked Linnell to start playing Graveyard. Danny picked up his empty beer bottle and started using it as a slide on his bass. I hope someone somewhere has a picture of that.
Flans did band intros. We did the normal chant for Danny then Flans said "I say Weinkauf, you say Danny" and we did a little call and repeat bit. When it got to Marty's solo Flans went up and stopped him while he was wrecking his kit and told him to save some for later.
They finished with Birdhouse and a particularly good version at that.
When they came back there was obviously some confusion. Flans and Linnell went to do the puppets but everyone seemed to be expecting something else. Danny ended up having to walk over and ask what they were doing. Turned out they had flipped the order of the encores from the setlist. They did Stalk of Wheat with the puppets. After the segment Linnell made a comment about how one of the puppets never bathes and the other is a homosexual. I wonder which is which.
I was a little distracted for the encore because I got the sense that something had gone wrong on stage. I'm not sure if it was technical problems or what happened but the vibe definitely changed. Flans left the stage briefly at some point (possibly not even in the encore) telling Linnell to tell the crowd about their upcoming shows while he took care of some business backstage. Linnell told us they were playing at a casino the next day. Many people in the crowd made wolf howling noises. Linnell made some himself. Then he said they were playing at Town Hall but he couldn't remember when. I said Sunday but so did someone on stage so I don't know who he heard when he repeated it.
They did Istanbul with a nice horn introduction but without a second fake ending. There was one song where they did the confetti launch but Flans stopped it short, I can't remember if it was that one or not. There was a lot of confetti and people kept throwing it in the air.
They came back for the second encore and started Alphabet of Nations but Linnell didn't sing. He seemed to think his mic wasn't working even though he did sing the first Zimbabwe and it was working fine. He made Flans do all of the first two rounds then tried to steal Flans' mic for the bridge. Flans wouldn't let him have it and gestured for him to use his own. He did and proceeded to tip over with it standing on one leg. The whole thing was weird and funny and followed by an excellent Guatemala.
They did Twisting, a song that I am getting a little tired of thanks to all the Flood shows. Flans reminded us to come to the casino show the next day and said we could be there in a couple of hours if we drove very recklessly. They closed out the show with The Mesopotamians.
We weren't able to get a setlist after the show because, without Victor, we lost out hook up. David threw several of them out into the crowd and gave one more away to someone else. A couple of my friends managed to snag ones so I have pictures.
I only have a few pictures from the show. I had resolved not to use my camera at this show because I was tired of loosing whole songs to the camera lens. But there were a few shots I couldn't pass up. I'm not sure the no pictures thing was the best idea since it just meant I watched the whole show thinking "wow, that would make a great picture." I gave up during the encore and took a bunch. There are a couple of good ones.
This show is definitely going into my Top 5. It really was that good and the setlist was one of the best I have ever heard. It was a very successful start to the BEST WEEKEND EVER. Stay tuned for Awesome Weekend Part Two (which I have been standing in line for while I wrote this).
Edit: I added some pictures in and there are a few more on Flickr, almost all from the encore.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Stage Announcements - 9/24/10
Most of the news from this week came out early so I am sure you have already seen it, but I'll reiterate here anyway.
Linnell is the Geek of the Week over on Geek Girls on the Street. You can read their interview with him here. (I especially like the part about Hot Dog! for some reason.)
http://geekgirlonthestreet.com/2010/09/20/john-linnell-they-might-be-giants/
Linnell was also interviewed on the Lab Out Loud podcast this week. It's a great interview, very science heavy with some good insights into the creation of Here Comes Science.
http://laboutloud.com/2010/09/episode-49-science-we-can-listen-to/
DC Urban Dad interviewed Flansburgh and managed to get pretty much the best quote ever in answer to the question "If you had to sum up your life to date in three words what would they be?"
http://mattnando.typepad.com/dcurbandad/2010/09/im-still-kinda-in-shock.html
In a slightly odd tidbit, it seems that the Johns and Marty played a private event last weekend at party celebrating the opening of a bakery called The Cupcake Corral in Maplewood, NJ. I would have liked to have been there if free cupcakes were available. There is a picture from Twitter here: http://yfrog.com/n0bwykj.
This weekend is our big 4 TMBG show bash. Three new songs promised tonight and tomorrow and three never played before kid songs on Sunday plus an appearance by Robin whom I have never seen before. I am so excited I am almost vibrating. Stay tuned here throughout the weekend for write-ups, etc. I'll update the wiki too if someone else doesn't get there first.
In the words of John Flansburgh, "Rock, Rinse, Repeat."
Linnell is the Geek of the Week over on Geek Girls on the Street. You can read their interview with him here. (I especially like the part about Hot Dog! for some reason.)
http://geekgirlonthestreet.com/2010/09/20/john-linnell-they-might-be-giants/
Linnell was also interviewed on the Lab Out Loud podcast this week. It's a great interview, very science heavy with some good insights into the creation of Here Comes Science.
http://laboutloud.com/2010/09/episode-49-science-we-can-listen-to/
DC Urban Dad interviewed Flansburgh and managed to get pretty much the best quote ever in answer to the question "If you had to sum up your life to date in three words what would they be?"
http://mattnando.typepad.com/dcurbandad/2010/09/im-still-kinda-in-shock.html
In a slightly odd tidbit, it seems that the Johns and Marty played a private event last weekend at party celebrating the opening of a bakery called The Cupcake Corral in Maplewood, NJ. I would have liked to have been there if free cupcakes were available. There is a picture from Twitter here: http://yfrog.com/n0bwykj.
This weekend is our big 4 TMBG show bash. Three new songs promised tonight and tomorrow and three never played before kid songs on Sunday plus an appearance by Robin whom I have never seen before. I am so excited I am almost vibrating. Stay tuned here throughout the weekend for write-ups, etc. I'll update the wiki too if someone else doesn't get there first.
In the words of John Flansburgh, "Rock, Rinse, Repeat."
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
There's A Picture Opposite Me - 9/22/10
This one was Megan's idea which I did a somewhat somewhat shoddy job executing. I was in a hurry. Fault the execution not the idea.
"You might need to stare to see the mittens in our hair." Fibber Island - They Might Be Giants
Please send submissions to theroommustlistentome@gmail.com
"You might need to stare to see the mittens in our hair." Fibber Island - They Might Be Giants
Please send submissions to theroommustlistentome@gmail.com
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